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At the time of writing, the band’s appearances at Glastonbury, TRNSMT and other European festivals remain intact. Elsewhere earlier this week, their huge Belfast show with Fontaines D.C. sold out in just over half an hour, despite calls from the DUP to have it axed.
Tom Morello, Brian Eno, CMAT are among the over 100 artists who have newly pledged their support for the right to freedom of expression for musicians.
The letter is a direct response to the ongoing controversy around Kneecap – who are signed to Heavenly – and the efforts from politicians to have them removed from festival line-ups this summer, including Glastonbury and TRNSMT.
The letter was first unveiled earlier this week, with the likes of Pulp, IDLES, Fontaines D.C., Bicep, Enter Shikari, English Teacher, The Pogues and more having already signed it. Now, Heavenly and Kneecap’s manager Daniel Lambert have shared an updated list, which include over 100 new added signatures.
Lambert wrote on X alongside the updated list: “More and more every hour stand behind Kneecap”. Besides Morello, Eno and CMAT, the new signatories also include Yard Act, Mogwai, Benefits, Doves, For Those I Love, Nadine Shah, Orbital, Shame and more. Check out the current list below, with new signees marked in red.
More and more every hour stand behind Kneecap
pic.twitter.com/armFYCfpCl
— Daniel Lambert (@dlLambo) May 1, 2025
Tom Morello’s support for Kneecap is notable, seeing as he’s the musical director for Black Sabbath’s upcoming final gig in July. The final Sabbath gig is being overseen by Sharon Osbourne, who recently called for Kneecap’s working visas to be revoked after the trio at Coachella voiced their support for a free Palestine, and also led the crowd in a provocative anti-Margaret Thatcher chant.
Kneecap responded to Osbourne’s bid for their visas to be revoked by saying: “Her rant has so many holes in it that it hardly warrants a reply, but she should listen to ‘War Pigs’ that was written by Black Sabbath.”
Daniel Dempsey, who signed the first edition of the letter has also shared a new statement, writing on social media in support of Kneecap: “When the leaders of the world turn their heads away from the genocide of the most oppressed people on earth, and the strongest in my opinion, bearing the brunt of the trauma from a German genocide that they had nothing to do with, three young peaceful warrior poets from the occupied colonised six counties of the North of Ireland are putting everything they have on the line to call out the war criminal Netanyahu and his enablers Donald Trump and the Joe Biden.”
Read Dempsey’s full statement below.
Meanwhile, Kneecap’s manager Daniel Lambert has defended the trio against the backlash during an appearance on RTÉ’s Prime Time on Tuesday night (April 29), saying “children are starving to death, and we’re spending six or seven days talking about Kneecap,” adding: “We spent less than a day talking about fifteen executed medics.”
Speaking to Miriam O’Callaghan, Lambert said that “at every point, [the band] have the absolute conviction that they are doing the right thing and they stand on the right side of history.”
His comments come after Kneecap became the subject of attention from counter-terror police in the UK, who have said they are assessing two videos from the band’s gigs. In one, footage appears to show a band member shouting “Up Hamas, up Hezbollah”, while another purportedly shows the group calling for the death of Conservative MPs.
The band have since denied supporting either Hamas or Hezbollah and have denied promoting violence against MPs: “Let us be unequivocal: we do not, and have never, supported Hamas or Hezbollah. We condemn all attacks on civilians, always. It is never okay. We know this more than anyone, given our nation’s history”.
Earlier this week, Massive Attack, who themselves have been vocal in their support for Palestine for decades and have boycotted performing in Israel since 1999, issued a statement supporting Kneecap and urging the focus to remain on what they call a “genocide” against the Palestinian people.
In a statement titled “Kneecap are not the story”, Massive Attack wrote: “If senior politicians can find neither the time, nor the words to condemn, say, the murder of fifteen voluntary aid workers in Gaza, or the illegal starvation of a civilian population as a method of warfare, or the killing of thousands & thousands of children in the same territory, by a state in possession of the highest precision weapons on earth; how much notice should a music festival take of their moral advice on booking performing acts?”
Kneecap have faced several gig cancellations over the aforementioned criticisms, with the trio’s Eden Project gig in Cornwall being axed. In response, they swiftly announce a replacement gig, also on July 4, at Plymouth Pavillion.
It followed a similar chain of events where the band were dropped by German festivals Hurricane and Southside and went on to quickly book three headline shows in the country on the same dates.
The post Tom Morello, Brian Eno, CMAT, among 100 artist names to join Kneecap support letter for “freedom of expression” appeared first on NME.