Killdren are unlucky – 2019 just isn’t the year for songs about killing Tories | Dorian Lynskey

Anyone who writes incendiary lyrics risks notoriety, but in less febrile times, Glastonbury wouldn’t have disinvited the bandSince its inception, Glastonbury festival has been a safe haven for political dissent but it seems there are limits. Over the weekend, the Sunday Times reported that one of the bands booked to play the festival’s Shangri-La field, “two-bit rave-punk band” Killdren, had released a song called Kill Tory Scum (Before They Kill You). The paper also noted that the critically acclaimed London band Fat White Family had tweeted in 2015, in reference to a news story about the death toll of austerity: “If you voted Tory in the last election you have blood on your hands. Execute the fucking lot of them. SCUM.” Catherine Anderson, chief executive of the Jo Cox Foundation, told the BBC: “The direct incitement of violence and abuse, on any platform and in any sector, is wrong and something that we absolutely reject.” Within hours, Shangri-La had cancelled Killdren’s booking, although Fat White Family are still scheduled to play the Park stage.The outrage is excessive. It’s obvious from one listen to Kill Tory Scum (“Even if it’s your dad or your mum, kill Tory scum”) that the song is absurd, bratty hyperbole, not to be taken literally. Shangri-La’s hasty statement was rather sanctimonious, claiming that the field is “all about positivity and pacifism, unity and love”: criteria that it would be ridiculous to apply to every lyric by every artist. After they lost their slot, the band defended the “cartoonish and over-the-top nature of everything we do”. Won’t somebody think of the Killdren? The case against Fat White Family is even weaker, based on one four-year-old tweet, but the controversy says a great deal about Britain’s febrile political climate in 2019. Continue reading…
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