Anti-terrorist Irish rap group Kneecap took the stage at Liverpool’s Content to promote their newest album, the absolutely-not-intended-to-annoy-anyone ‘FENIAN’ with a matinee and evening show. As you can imagine, we began the evening with a cup of tea and a hip-hip-hooray for Charlie’s safe passage back from across the Atlantic.
Sorry- I think I had too many stouts. I’ve got issues, mate. That’s right- Mo Chara, Moglai Bap and DJ Provai take to the stage looking exactly the same way they always have and had a crowd of all ages jumping around like it was the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee all over again.
The new tracks could easily have been old ones. Don’t take that the wrong way, though; it’s not that the music follows in the footsteps of tracks gone before. New, darker ground is tread and with a few more topics to address this time around. The terrorist charges are an inevitable talking point. Mo Chara at one point says, ‘if anyone throws a flag on stage, it’s HIS turn to pick it up!’ gesturing towards comrade Moglai Bap. We all chortle, clink our teacups and chant ‘Free, Mo Chara, Free Free Mo Chara!’.
There’s a reason they chose Liverpool and Glasgow for these promotional shows. On stage, the group say that these cities have the best crowds and, given several hundred years of history, it’s easy to see why that might be. Glasgow, of course, has a sectarian element where Irishness plays a key part, and Liverpool is arguably (although I’m not sure I’d actually try to argue) the least English and most Irish city in England. With that being said, I left the gig all wound up and ready to headbutt a prince. I wanted to share some thoughts on the success of Kneecap within the context of today’s political and musical culture.
All I really want to say is this: after the Second World War, British patriotism was at an all-time high. We had defeated the Nazi’s ‘together’ and, despite many lost loved ones, that sense of togetherness lasted decades, forming the bedrock of the two-party political system as we know it today. Can you imagine thousands of people across England in the 1960s, or even the 1980s, chanting for a united Ireland and endorsing pro-IRA imagery? Even today, it was surely a home run for a government to consolidate a sense of pride around our collective experience of the pandemic- the closest thing we have had to a nationwide (that is, Britain) common experience since the Second World War? The AstraZeneca vaccine was among the first, and Britain was among the first countries to ease restrictions, followed by an inevitable and well-deserved pride in our doctors and nurses. This has translated into nothing in political terms but a vile hatred of immigrants and a youth keen to latch on to any part of their identity that isn’t English or British.
Kneecap tap into that disaffected youth. Even the Sex Pistols at their absolute peak wouldn’t have shied away from a Union Jack. In today’s music scene, across genres and across generations, there is no such thing as a national identity. People would rather be a Fenian than vote Labour.
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