Acts Ruled out of Glastonbury 2020

[zahidf]

5 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

Who wants to bet slowthai will be dropped from the lineup?

Pretty sharpish I'd have thought.

[zeppelin]

8 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

Who wants to bet slowthai will be dropped from the lineup?

Maybe no one from Glastonbury saw it... 

[Matt42]

Just now, zeppelin said:

Maybe no one from Glastonbury saw it... 

Another joke? Two pretty erm... senior glasto staff are in the audience 

[Andy0808 v5]

What did Slowthai do? He's one of those people I hate for seemingly no reason without having heard any of his music.

I saw an interview Annie Mac did with him, and his entire persona reminded me of a scene from Peep Show where Mark embraces a 'sweaty moron'.

 

edit: Seen both his 'fight' and the comments to Katherine Ryan. What a cock.

Edited February 12, 2020 by Andy0808 v5

[zeppelin]

45 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

Another joke? Two pretty erm... senior glasto staff are in the audience 

Haha yeah I'm aware. The only reason any of us were following it, right? 

[sirjonnyp]

NME's gold standard for journalism continues as their article on the slowthai incident doesn't mention the sexual harassment. At all. Just that he 'directly engaged' with the crowd. With all their journos in one room together, you would think that they could write a containing article better than that, no matter how much sauce has been involved. Even better, why not get ahead of the curve now and put out a release saying that they don't stand for this sort of behaviour, etc. Pretty disappointing from a publication I read religiously 15-20 years ago. 

https://www.nme.com/news/music/slowthai-leaves-nme-awards-after-altercation-with-crowd-2608418

[mcshed]

8 hours ago, Matt42 said:

Who wants to bet slowthai will be dropped from the lineup?

I honestly don't think this will have a big effect. It's just standard "rock star" obnoxious behaviour.

[Matt42]

1 minute ago, mcshed said:

I honestly don't think this will have a big effect. It's just standard "rock star" obnoxious behaviour.

Erm no

[mcshed]

2 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

Erm no

Maybe I'm out of touch, and I haven't seen the comments with Katherine Ryan that started it but she seems comfortable with that part. So all I saw was him calling out a heckler, said heckler throwing stuff, him throwing his drink into the crowd, and him jumping into the crowd and being restrained by security before anything much happens. I've seen Matt Healy off of the 1975 behave in a similar manner, minus the misogyny admittedly.

[zahidf]

20 minutes ago, mcshed said:

Maybe I'm out of touch, and I haven't seen the comments with Katherine Ryan that started it but she seems comfortable with that part. So all I saw was him calling out a heckler, said heckler throwing stuff, him throwing his drink into the crowd, and him jumping into the crowd and being restrained by security before anything much happens. I've seen Matt Healy off of the 1975 behave in a similar manner, minus the misogyny admittedly.

It's the stuff with the women beforehand which is career ending. The stuff with the crowd brawl is standard rock and roll Gubbins, but his sexual harassment is the disgusting stuff.  

[CaledonianGonzo]

39 minutes ago, mcshed said:

Maybe I'm out of touch, and I haven't seen the comments with Katherine Ryan that started it but she seems comfortable with that part. 

Cos she's a professional? Either way she shouldn't have to deal with being sexually harassed on stage i.e. at her work.

[zahidf]

3 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

Cos she's a professional? Either way she shouldn't have to deal with being sexually harassed on stage i.e. at her work.

Yeah. It's fairly clear from the crowd reaction to what he was doing that it was completely unacceptable.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Not to mention that 'appearing to be fine' with things can often be more about self preservation and de-escalating potentially dangerous situations.

[Hugh Jass]

I’m not making light of what happened nor am I condoning slowthai’s behaviour, which is utterly abhorrent, but I don’t see this as career ending. There will be an initial backlash but after a couple of months it’ll pretty much be forgotten.

I’m not saying that’s right or that I agree with it, but that’s how the world works.

[zahidf]

6 minutes ago, Hugh Jass said:

I’m not making light of what happened nor am I condoning slowthai’s behaviour, which is utterly abhorrent, but I don’t see this as career ending. There will be an initial backlash but after a couple of months it’ll pretty much be forgotten.

I’m not saying that’s right or that I agree with it, but that’s how the world works.

Let's see. Stuff like that in the UK isn't really tolerated anymore.  I'd be interested if damon or idles chuck him off their records.

[mcshed]

39 minutes ago, zahidf said:

It's the stuff with the women beforehand which is career ending. The stuff with the crowd brawl is standard rock and roll Gubbins, but his sexual harassment is the disgusting stuff.  

Yeah have now seen some very distant footage of that part and he is almost mounting her which is certainly not on. I still don't think it'll end his career but it's not quite the storm in a teacup that you'd get the impression it was from reading some of the coverage, which mostly focus on the fracas. 

[zeppelin]

I think this raises an interesting question (although probably not one for this thread) but is there / should there be any coming back from this kind of thing? 

If he were to release a statement with genuine remorse and make commitments (e.g. Cutting back, rehab, etc.) then is there a route back in people's minds or is he done? 

Like Jass, I'm not condoning the behaviour at all but we (the public) seem to make pretty arbitrary lines around where people deserve second chances and don't. 

Now I guess a key argument in this kind of thing is his position (role model) and the effect on (primarily) younger people. But what he knows and loves is making music and gigging - should he be allowed to continue?

I kinda think back to Jackmaster although that was more pronounced and followed up with some terrible public statements so differs in many ways. But just curious to hear people's thoughts. 

[zahidf]

1 minute ago, zeppelin said:

I think this raises an interesting question (although probably not one for this thread) but is there / should there be any coming back from this kind of thing? 

If he were to release a statement with genuine remorse and make commitments (e.g. Cutting back, rehab, etc.) then is there a route back in people's minds or is he done? 

Like Jass, I'm not condoning the behaviour at all but we (the public) seem to make pretty arbitrary lines around where people deserve second chances and don't. 

Now I guess a key argument in this kind of thing is his position (role model) and the effect on (primarily) younger people. But what he knows and loves is making music and gigging - should he be allowed to continue?

I kinda think back to Jackmaster although that was more pronounced and followed up with some terrible public statements so differs in many ways. But just curious to hear people's thoughts. 

If someone cleans up and expresses genuine sympathy, then yeah maybe 

In this particular case, hes done in the indie scene, but may be able to pivot to the Chris brown style crowd

[Quark]

It is a really interesting question, and one that applies across the board.  I think there are two questions:

1. Do we want to punish people or rehab them?

2. Is what has been done bad enough to warrant someone effectively being stripped of their livelihood?

I've not watched the Slowthai vid yet as I can't be cringing myself inside out this early in the day, but from the commentary it sounds like his behaviour was completely unacceptable for the situation and should absolutely have some form of consequence and follow up.

BUT

Was it bad enough to take his career path, future, whatever you want to call it, and say "Nope. That's done. Go and do something else. You're fucked"? 

Personally, and this may not be a popular opinion, it doesn't sound like it was.  What does need to happen is that it needs to be called out in the light of day after the dust has settled, he needs to face up and recognise that behaviour has no place. Damon, IDLES et al should absolutely call him out on it as well, but I don't know that everyone that's ever dealt with him dropping him like a shitty hot potato is the way to do it.

EDIT: obviously music fans can choose whether or not to buy his stuff and go see him or not. Some will, some won't.

Edited February 13, 2020 by Quark

[the wonderwhy]

2 minutes ago, Quark said:

1. Do we want to punish people or rehab them?

The two aren't mutually exclusive though are they? 

The dude has no divine right to work in the music industry all his life. Not particularly arsed about what happens to the fella and his music, and if he's got a drinking problem then fine yeah be great to get him some help, but I do wish people would stop jumping to defend the rights of folks being able to have careers in high profile, lucrative industries when they acts like w*nkers. 

Tell you what though. Its not a good look to have your lineup ripped to pieces (rightly or wrongly) for having next to no women on it, and then have one of your star bookings go and sexually assault a woman in the music industry live in front of thousands of people 24 hours later. Especially when said woman is highly likely to be on your comedy bill... 

[Quark]

1 minute ago, the wonderwhy said:

The two aren't mutually exclusive though are they? 

The dude has no divine right to work in the music industry all his life. Not particularly arsed about what happens to the fella and his music, and if he's got a drinking problem then fine yeah be great to get him some help, but I do wish people would stop jumping to defend the rights of folks being able to have careers in high profile, lucrative industries when they acts like w*nkers. 

Tell you what though. Its not a good look to have your lineup ripped to pieces (rightly or wrongly) for having next to no women on it, and then have one of your star bookings go and sexually assault a woman in the music industry live in front of thousands of people 24 hours later. Especially when said woman is highly likely to be on your comedy bill... 

Poor wording. Should have been "Do we JUST want to punish people, or rehab them as well". My bad.

And agree there's no divine right. Just to be clear I'm not jumping to defend his rights or anyone else's, they're just questions at the moment. And there definitely need to be some consequences, as there should be for anyone.  But everything needs to be proportionate.

Sexual abuse, assault, behaviour and all the rest of it is a very high profile topic at the moment, and rightly so. Shit has to change, and that only happens through identification and consequences.  But that profile does mean that there is a risk that all incidents are dealt with at the same level, which means that those consequences may not be proportionate to the, for want of a better word, crimes.

Very good point about R&L though. They've already got a shitstorm to deal with; how do they want to be seen now?

[ghostdancer1]

seems there was a lot more to the Slowthai incident than just what was on those videos, apparently there was back and forth with him and Ryan earlier, jokey stuff, and other interaction with the audience member, which put both in a different light:

https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/dygd9a/slowthai-nme-awards-2020-katherine-ryan

Quote

An earlier part of Ryan's act was a joke that she's attracted to the younger Slowthai; she'd walked down into the crowd and encouraged him to go up on stage with her, all in good fun. When it came to the time for Slowthai to receive the award for Best Collaboration – for "Deal Wiv It", with Mura Masa – the banter took an ugly turn.

Ryan pretended to be jealous of the attention Slowthai was giving her co-host, and asked for a "heart" – a heart-shape made with his hands. In response, Slowthai said, "You're jealous! She got jealous, everybody." He then leaned into Ryan, asking her to smell his cologne, and she put her arm around him. Ryan changed tact and started asking Slowthai about his feelings for her co-host.

The interaction went on for a few minutes. Slowthai turned his attention back to Ryan, pretending they were having a sexualised "moment", making comments like, "Baby girl, I don't want to have to do this to you right now, but everybody – she needs to understand the levels right now." He also hugged her for what felt like far too long – an interaction recognisable to any woman's who's been chatted up in a bar when you're absolutely not interested.

"You are adorable," said Ryan, having defused the situation continually by giving back as much as she got. "Thank you for participating in the awards show."

"Thank you for the attention," she added, as he left the stage. "You are younger than my babysitter."

Slowthai eventually headed back to his table, before getting caught in an interaction en route and turning back around towards the stage. The crowd was tangibly uncomfortable at this point. "Oh please," said Ryan, walking towards him. "I'm a balls girl – get your balls out." "Is that how you want it, yeah?" he said. "That's how I want it," she answered, adding, "I would love you to trim my bush." With his head close to Ryan's, Slowthai then turned to the crowd and said, "She wants me to tend to her flowers."

She proceeded to put him down yet again, painting him as a horny teen and calling him "needle dick". As the interaction finally ended, she walked back to a bemused Adenuga and said, sarcastically, "I'm so wet, I'm going to slip off of these stairs."

 

Quote

Later, Slowthai came up to collect his second prize of the evening: the Hero Award. He seemed in high spirits still, but more subdued. Ryan continued their initial joke, before Slowthai said, "Nah, I'm not falling for that again," and some of the crowd laughed. Katherine then walked backstage as Slowthai began to give his acceptance speech.

At this point, a member of the crowd in front of Slowthai shouted what sounded to the room like, "Misogynist." Ruffled, Slowthai stood forward and said into the mic, "I'm misogynistic? I'm misogynistic? Fuck off. I stand for equality. I stand for equality. If you can't take a joke, sit down. If you can't take a joke, sit down." He then shhh-ed the audience member, who appeared to call on Slowthai to apologise to Ryan.

As the crowd began to boo, the rapper began to get more ruffled. "Why you gotta say something ridiculous?" he said. "You need to relax."

Frustrated, Slowthai said, "NME, thank you," then pointed down to the heckler and added, "Thank you for ruining my speech," before dropping his microphone into the crowd.

This was the point of no return. A man in the crowd picked up the mic, shouted, "Slowthai's a wasteman," and threw the mic and a drink back at the rapper. Slowthai then threw his own drink into the crowd. Ryan came out from backstage, clearly concerned by the night's events, and approached Slowthai, saying, "Babe, babe," as if intending to diffuse the situation. But by this point he'd already jumped off the podium to shout at the crowd. Security came and held him back, and then escorted him out.

 

Quote

What was lost via the videos being posted to social media was that the whole thing had unfolded over two different occasions Slowthai was onstage. The main video being shared, which was a ripped series of Instagram stories, showed a select few moments from the entire first interaction between Ryan and Slowthai. In this video, Ryan's jokes and responses to Slowthai aren't presented, leaving Slowthai's lewd comments hanging.

 

 

Edited February 13, 2020 by ghostdancer1

[JSmurphy]

Primus noooo

[mcshed]

2 minutes ago, JSmurphy said:

Primus noooo

But on the up side Battles aren't taking over as support until July presumably because they are definitely playing Glastonbury.

[The Spandex Warrior]

It would always have been a longshot, but I've always wanted to see Wolfmother at Glasto