Sleaford Mods have recently experienced a disagreement with their Spanish audience, who attended their concert at La Riviera in Madrid. One of its members, Jason Williamson, reported that a person in the audience had been repeatedly throwing a kufiya (the Palestinian scarf) onto the stage. Sleaford Mods decided to cut their set early.
Hours later, Williamson asked his audience to “don’t make me choose a side for something I have no idea about” and noted that “my job is to sing; “The only thing I know about war is that I’m tired of people dying prematurely.”
Days after the controversy, Williamson has decided to clarify his words. «We have to put a little context to what happened in Madrid. I am horrified by the atrocities that are being committed in Gaza and in Israel and I am horrified by the atrocities that are being committed in other parts of the world that are not currently in the news. “It angers me that politicians, the media, mass agitators and social media platforms manipulate human grief and anger to foster separation, dehumanization, division and hatred.”
Next, Williams explains his version of the events that occurred in Madrid. «At the concert in Madrid, a person constantly interrupted me by shouting and throwing a handkerchief at me on stage. I stopped the show to make a comment, condemning the civilian deaths and asking for no more deaths. This was not enough, and the person continued to interrupt me. “So after 80 minutes of the concert, I decided to leave the stage because I was just feeling distracted and frustrated.”
Williamson clarifies that the tweet he initially posted “was an attempt to apologize to those who were at the concert, not to generally comment on what is happening.” Furthermore, he points out that he is “as overwhelmed by what is happening as you are” and that “I don’t have all the answers; The only thing I know is that we are all human and there must be a ceasefire, and the killing must stop.
