Thursday 13 June 2024

Punk And Metal Unite

Following on from over 100 bands pulling out of the Great Escape festival in protest at Barclay's Bank sponsorship, more are now pulling out of the Download Festival in protest at Barclays links to Israel whom it provides financial services to.
Download is the the UK’s biggest rock, metal and punk festival and the Metal Band, Pest Control, put out a statement signed by other bands which stated that: 'We cannot sacrifice the principles held by this band and by the scene we come from and represent, just for personal gain.'
Other music festivals sponsored by Barclays this summer include Latitude and Isle of Wight and no news yet on bands removing themselves from the playlist but they are more pop Festivals whereas Download is pretty much punk and metal which isn't surprising.
Despite the angry sounding music, Punk has always had a left wing ideological slant to it but i wasn't aware Metal had any particular ideology behind it and according to Metal heads i spoke to, it doesn't so all i can assume is that protesting against a bank funding a genocide cuts across all musical genres, well most of them.
The only type of music i know of that has a right wing or right-leaning artists is Country and Western music but if you walk around in Snakeskin boots and wearing a Stetson hat and a massive belt buckle then you obviously don't care too much about what people think of your musical taste or fashion sense.
So well done to all you guitar thrashing guys with a conscience about what Israel is doing in Palestine, i salute you (a metal style horn salute obviously)

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