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The Murder Capital are currently in the middle of her “blindness” tour. However, due to their wish to place a Palestine flag on stage, the two Germany concerts in Berlin and Cologne were canceled.
National flag ban throughout the club
At first the Gretchen Club in Berlin did not agree that the band will present flags on stage as with their previous gigs. On Instagram, the venue said: “We very much regret that the show with The Murder Capital did not take place. We as an event location have been pursuing a ‘no national flags’ rule for many years. That means we do not tolerate any national flags in our event location. This is also held in our event specifications so that the artists also find out. It turned out that the band had a Palestinian flag on stage.
Among other things, this regulation is justified by the fact that the club wants to be “a safe place for many different communities”. “We are deeply honored to be able to work with so many different communities and artists from all over the world. We have done this in the past, do it now and will continue to do so in the future. In the Middle East we will support the Palestinian community as well as the Jewish and/or Israeli population. We also present artists from all over the region,” says the announcement.
The band and organizers could not find a compromise in both cities
The Murder Capital himself commented on the topic as follows via Instagram: “We arrived in Berlin this morning. We had no idea that we were not allowed to hoist this flag here today. We only found out in the early afternoon. We discussed what we should do for an hour. Consequences.”
Front singer James McGovern continued an additional aspect in the statement that the organizer did not mention: “Afterwards we discussed. Would we replace the flag with a banner with the inscription ‘Free Palestine’? So you wouldn’t allow us to do that either. It is not just about national flags. And for us this is not just a political statement, but a political statement, but a political statement Humanitarian. “
In contrast to Kneecap, The Murder Capital canceled her appearances herself
So the group decided to cancel the concert in the Gretchen Club. As a replacement, they played a short outdoor gig. Her show announced for May 11th in Cologne was also canceled and replaced with an acoustic open-air show.
According to The Murder Capital, they could not find a club throughout the city that allowed their pro-Palestinian statements on stage. The Irish band’s concert was originally supposed to take place in building 9. There is still no public statement from the event house in this regard.
The current incident can remember similar headlines from April: After Kneecap at the Coachella Festival commented on Pro-Palestinian, German festivals threw them out of the line-up and their American booking agency ended the collaboration with them. In response to the controversy, a supporter was launched, which has already signed over 100 artists: on the inside.