Radiohead‘s Thom Yorke clashes with pro-Palestine protestor at Melbourne solo show
Yorke encouraged the protestor to "hop up on stage".
By Nick Reilly
Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke briefly left the stage after being heckled by a pro-Palestine protester during a solo show in Melbourne.
Footage from the gig shows a crowd member yelling at Yorke about the “Israeli genocide of Gaza” and the “children” killed in the ongoing conflict.
Yorke is seen listening to the heckler’s comments before telling him to “hop up on stage” and make his remarks.
“Don’t stand there like a coward, come here and say it,” Yorke said. “You want to piss on everybody’s night? OK, you do it, see you later.”
Yorke is then seen to remove his guitar and briefly walked off stage. In the interim, crowd members at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl were seen to shout “shut the f**k up, man”.
The singer is yet to comment individually on the ongoing conflict, but Radiohead previously faced backlash for playing a show in Israel in 2017. The show went ahead at Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park, but faced criticism from Artists For Palestine UK – which issued an open letter signed by the likes of Roger Waters, Young Fathers and Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore.
Yorke later responded: ““Playing in a country isn’t the same as endorsing its government. We don’t endorse [Israeli prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu any more than Trump.”
His bandmate Jonny Greenwood also divided some fans this year when he played a gig in Tel Aviv, shortly after he took part in protests calling for hostages held in Gaza to be released and new elections in Israel.
Yorke’s solo tour will conclude in Tokyo in late November.