General Interest

The hype surrounding Black Sabbath’s final show – Back to the Beginning – is unprecedented – but wholly justified.

The event, which takes place 5 July at Birmingham’s Villa Park, will see the final-ever performance from Sabbath’s original lineup (Ozzy Obsourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward), as well as support slots from heavyweights from the heavy metal pantheon, including Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Gojira, Mastodon, Lamb of God and many more.

• READ MORE: “Clone me, you bastards!”: Iced tea with Ozzy Osbourne’s actual DNA now for sale at $450 a pop

Naturally, a show of this magnitude must have been in the works for some time: “nearly two years,” according to Ozzy’s wife and manager, Sharon Osbourne.

Besides the logistics of putting together a lineup filled to the brim with metal A-listers, Sharon says much of the preparation has come in the form of physical training by Ozzy.

“He’s working with his team of people that are getting him up and moving around, working on his breathing, doing weights to build muscle,” she tells MOJO in its new print issue.

“Ozzy’s had five back surgeries in six years, it’s hugely debilitating. So this is not something he undertook lightly. But he kept saying, ‘My one regret is I can’t say goodbye and thank you for the life I’ve been given.’ And I thought, well why don’t we just do one big show and you can thank everybody?

“So we’ve been working on it for nearly two years. You know, Birmingham has given Ozzy so much, he’s so proud of where he was born. He’s working his little old arse off to get there.”

Sharon’s comments echo those made by Andrew Watt – producer of Ozzy’s albums Ordinary Man (2020) and Patient Number 9 (2022) in February – when he revealed the Prince of Darkness has been hitting the gym in preparation for the final show dubbing him the “real-life Iron Man”

Due to Ozzy Obsourne’s series of health problems – which include Parkinson’s disease and spinal issues – it’s been revealed that he’s “not planning on doing a set” at the Back to the Beginning show, but will rather do “little bits and pieces”.

As you might expect, tickets for the show sold out very quickly – some reports claim in as little as 16 minutes – but the Sabbath camp recently announced the event will be livestreamed via pay-per-view, priced at £24.99. Fans who purchase will be able to rewatch the entire event for 48 hours after it finishes.

Learn more at backtothebeginning.com.

The post “My one regret is I can’t say goodbye and thank you for the life I’ve been given”: What Ozzy Osbourne told Sharon which led to Black Sabbath’s final show becoming a reality appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

2025’s Download Festival lineup boasted a trio of new headliners: iconic punk rockers Green Day, legendary nu-metallers Korn and alt-metal’s latest buzz band, Sleep Token. With their divisive pop-heavy sound and relative newcomer status, Sleep Token’s inclusion was met with criticism – but Korn’s Brian “Head” Welch and James “Munky” Shaffer are firmly in Sleep Token’s corner.

Speaking on BBC Radio 1’s Rock Show With Daniel P Carter, Welch and Shaffer reflect on the mysterious band’s Download set. “I love it because all these people – I don’t know how many – [were like] ‘Sleep Token… headlining?’ Some people were saying they’re to young to be able to headline so quick,” Welch says. “And they came with that stage? Shut everybody up. They went bigger than a Slipknot stage, man.”

• READ MORE: The five guitar albums that could save the world, as chosen by Propagandhi

Host Carter is also in agreement with the sentiment, recalling a time he watched Sleep Token back in 2023 at Aftershock festival alongside Shaffer. During the set, Carter recalls Shaffer even commenting: “These guys are gonna be headlining this thing in two years time.”

“I did say that,” Shaffer boasts. “I called it!”

Korn have grinded their way up Download line-ups for 30 years to earn their headline spot, while Sleep Token only formed in 2016. The comparison has been a major point of critique, so Welch and Shaffer’s eager support of Sleep Token is sure to shut down that argument.

Sleep Token’s set has also been praised by the likes of Metal Hammer and Kerrang!, with the masked unit transforming the stage into an intricate cliff face set. Some attendees have commented on them having the smallest crowd of the three headliners, but take that with a pinch of salt – Korn and Green Day have been around for decades, after all.

During the interview, Shaffer even voices his love of Sleep Token’s music. He notes the gang’s 2025 release, Even In Arcadia. “The new record is incredible,” he insists. “So it’s not only the stage – you can do that all day long – but they got the songs to back it up.”

Last month, Even In Arcadia was released to a full spectrum of reviews. While NME awarded it a dazzling five stars, Pitchfork gave it a cold 2.3, coining the term ‘djentrification’ due to the record’s watered down and marketable use of djent textures.

Andy Copping, the founder of Download Festival and Director of Sleep Token’s management company, Future History Management, defended the decision to have Sleep Token headline earlier this year. “When Wembley went on sale and sold out in 10 minutes I was like, ‘This is beyond anything that anyone could have thought in terms of their popularity explosion,’” he told Kerrang!

“This is their moment, this is their time,” he continued. “We, as a festival, have to be bringing bands through and believe in what we’re doing, but we don’t do it in a haphazard way… I think that any detractors, when they see it, will get it. They’ll understand what it’s all about. It’s a lightning-in-a-bottle moment for our scene where a band has come in and done that.”

“I think they’ll win over non-fans at Download with how dynamic the show is. Out of curiosity people will watch, and mark my words, they’ll say after they play, ‘I was not familiar, but they’re now my new favourite band.’ They have something about them that’s going to win people over. People will become part of the gathering, part of the Worship.”

He goes on to note that, despite it being early on in Sleep Token’s career, lots of bands gained traction after one or two records. He points to Guns N’ Roses “exploding on album number one” and Nirvana “exploding on album number two”.

The post Korn think Sleep Token “shut everybody up” at Download with a set that “went bigger than a Slipknot stage” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

In the wake of a lawsuit filed earlier this month – which saw Klon Centaur creator Bill Finnegan accusing Behringer of “blatant counterfeiting” over its $69 Centaur Overdrive – owners of the Behringer clone are listing it for as high as $2,000, as it faces risk of discontinuation.

Original Klon Centaur units regularly command four-figure prices online, so now Behringer’s clone may soon be off the market, those who have bought are attempting to capitalise.

• READ MORE: The five guitar albums that could save the world, as chosen by Propagandhi

So far, we’ve seen some eBay listings going for as high as £1,500 (approx. $2,014). On another listing – priced lower at $500, but still nearly 10 times the price of a new Centaur Overdrive – the seller notes: “Listings are getting taken down everywhere, so grab it before it disappears.”

The wave of Centaur Drive listings has no doubt been triggered by Finnegan sharing news of the lawsuit on his Instagram. “I have filed a federal lawsuit against a well-known pedal manufacturer that is currently marketing and mass-producing a pedal that we believe blatantly infringes upon specific intellectual property owned by my company Klon LLC,” he wrote.

“For the record, I have never been consulted in any way about this pedal, it has never been authorized by me, and I have never had any involvement whatsoever in its design, production, or marketing. You may have questions about this pedal, so I encourage you to read the filed Complaint, which you can access via the hyperlink that has now been added to the bio of this Klon LLC Instagram.”

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A post shared by Bill Finnegan (@klonllc)

In the lawsuit court documents, it reads: “consumers expressed extensive actual confusion (that went deliberately unabated by Defendants), with many rushing to purchase Defendants’ counterfeit pedal believing Defendants are delivering on a mass scale a discounted product licensed or endorsed by Plaintiffs”.

In the comments, one user points out one reason why people might have flocked to the Behringer clone; the original Klon Centaur was discontinued, with only a limited run available. “Why don’t you produce enough pedals so that the average consumer can afford it?” the commenter suggested.

The post The inventor of the Klon Centaur is suing Behringer over its $69 clone – now owners are listing them for up to $2,000 appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

“I’ll be back” said the Terminator once, before embarking on a dervish of violence. Mclusky made no such promise when they broke up in their pomp two decades ago, but the lacerating evisceration of Mclusky’s return still comfortably lays waste to 20 years of distance between their third and fourth albums.

• READ MORE: The five guitar albums that could save the world, as chosen by Propagandhi

Since the Cardiff-borne band called it a day back in 2005, their legend as one of THE great lost bands of the first wave of post-hardcore has only grown, even as frontman and guitarist Andrew Falkous took his gleeful menace and knack for obliterating dickheads with coal-black humour into other projects.

For a decade now, Falco has also performed various benefit and festival gigs as ‘Mclusky’ or Mclusky* in the UK – with the added punctuation a reference to the fact that original bassist John Chapple was not involved, as he’d emigrated to Australia. Beyond that, it seemed that Falco was minded to leave things be. That was, until 2020 when he officially announced that himself, drummer Jack Egglestone (a member since 2003) and bassist Damien Sayell would be making a new album as Mclusky – no punctuation required.

Short Sharp Shock

Now, five years later we finally have the fruits of that promise: the typically pithily titled The World Is Still Here And So Are We. It’s very fitting that a band who made their name with ferocious, intelligent skewerings of the ridiculousness of early 2000s society on their Steve Albini-produced masterpiece Mclusky Do Dallas to return at the exact moment that it feels like the world is once again circling the drain.

The World Is Still Here… injects an acerbic dose of grim laughs and cathartic squalls of distorted electric guitar into your veins and doesn’t hang around doing so. The album’s 13 tracks are blitzed through in just 33 minutes – a record even for a band that has never once made an album longer than 45 minutes.

“In terms of the kind of basic rock music that we play, there was an ideal length that comes between 28 and 36 minutes,” Falco explains of the brevity of their songs. “That gives you enough time to kind of exist in this very real, visceral thing, but it also leaves you wanting more. There’s this finality to it but your first instinct should be to play it again immediately.”

In this era of bloated albums calibrated to maximise streaming success, then, who better to choose the antidote to that – the best punk albums that get in, get out, and don’t hang around for you to ask questions. To hear Falco tell it, pretty much anyone but him.

“I find it really tough to choose albums because I’ve spent so long in my own musical mania,” Falkous admits. “I’m not good with lists generally. I feel as if it’s all about making a statement of personality, rather than of intent, then getting the fuck out of there before everybody realises you’ve done the same three things over and over again.”

Politely, we disagree that he’s not good with lists, and we’re here now so we’re going to make him do it anyway…

The Jesus Lizard – Goat (30 mins, 24 seconds)

“Goat is the ultimate example of four ridiculous men in a room for a bit. I love Mouth Breather, but that album is all about Nub. That song has the confidence to do one of the best bits of music in the history of rock music, the first slide guitar bit with the bass pounding away… it even has the fucking cheek to do that once. In terms of songwriting, that’s just rude. It’s like showing you the greatest shoes you’ve ever seen on a first date, then you never see them again. It’s beyond cheeky, it’s war. The war is going on around you, humanity is happening, I think. When I really like an album, it washes over me in one go, so I don’t really pay attention to song titles. That album is so complete in around 30 minutes.”

Devo – Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (34 minutes, 24 seconds)

“I only really got into Devo only five years ago. It’s one of those bands where I didn’t get into it because people tell you how much you should like them, and there’s nothing more tedious than people telling you that you should like something. I’ll decide for myself, thank you very much! If you’re lucky enough to get into Devo later in life, you can draw a line through every band you’ve ever liked all the way back to them. That’s true of Jesus Lizard, XTC and Gang of Four. You can hear Gang of Four in Big Black and Shellac, the clank and the slide of the guitars.”

“The best way to describe Devo is like a club for very odd people, but they’re not ashamed of being odd. By odd, I don’t mean peculiar. You don’t need to get a criminal record check to work with young children, just a bit odd. This gang of people making this crazy pop music, but it’s music you can run off singing into the night, and all the instruments are doing mad things but it’s still pop music.”

Gang of Four – Entertainment (39 minutes, 53 seconds)

“That’s singularly the greatest album ever made by people. Mostly because it is incredibly singular. It doesn’t sound like anything else. If you broke it down, it would sound like the rhythm section are playing a completely different set of songs from what the guitarist is playing or the singer is singing, but… there’s this moment where everything seems to happen, and everything goes in the same direction. Everything hitting in the same moment. The rhythm, the drums, and the guitar playing is like nothing that ever came before.”

“I don’t know anybody’s name. I’m not a historian of rock music, but I know who Andy Gill was. The guitar playing on that album is so nasty, but it’s got so much soul as well. It’s quite an incredible achievement, so many great songs on that album, and it’s way, way ahead of its time. This is a record that shows you can approach an instrument as an extension of personality.”

USA Nails – Life Cinema (12 minutes)

“They’re definitely one of the best British bands. They’ve been playing with us for years, and supported Future of the Left [Falco’s post-Mclusky band] at Heaven nightclub in 2012… They’ve done a few records, and every one of them is great, but my favourite is Life Cinema.”

“If we ever have the option, and sales, they’re a band we always look to take on tour with us. USA Nails are incredibly talented guys, a little bit contrary – they’d hate to be seen as ambitious in any way – but they’re great.”

Editor’s note: As we end our call Falco also says that he wants to shout out Leeds rockers and fellow touring mates, Thank – whose 2024 album I Have A Physical Body That Can Be Harmed comfortably fits under the 45-minute limit.

Mission of Burma – Vs (41 mins, 30 seconds)

“In 2001, we were completing the mixing of Mclusky Do Dallas. Bob Weston, bassist of Shellac [along with Steve Albini], came in and played us some of what he’d just recorded with Mission of Burma.

“You can tell that it’s made by a band in a silo. Mclusky was like that in the beginning. DIY scenes can be supportive in your day-to-day life, but in my experience, I’m yet to see a situation where it happens in music. The best music is made in a vacuum, happening out of nowhere.

“As I’m a bit of a pop song guy, myself, That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate is the perfect pop song with a rawness to it that, so that when it finishes, you go, ‘What the fuck was that’? On the whole, ‘vs’ is a bit more off-beat, post-punk I suppose. I don’t like busy music, and this is a bit busy at times, but it’s more primal.”

The post Mclusky’s Andrew Falkous picks the best sub-45-minute punk albums of all time appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Gretsch is launching the Broadkaster LX Center Block with String-Thru Bigsby and gold hardware and Broadkaster Jr. LX Center Block with String-Thru Bigsby and gold hardware providing modern tone with exceptional performance.

With features including Pro Twin Six humbucking pickups, String-thru Bigsby B7GP vibrato tailpiece, and Adjusto-Matic bridge. The Broadkaster LX Center Block with String-Thru Bigsby and Gold Hardware (24.6” scale length) is available in Cadillac Green and Black. Additionally, the Broadkaster Jr. LX Center Block with String-Thru Bigsby and Gold Hardware (25.5” scale length) is available in midnight sapphire and blackberry.

Professional Collection Broadkaster® LX Center Block guitars provide modern Gretsch tone with exceptional performance. Featuring the powerful Pro Twin Six™ humbucking pickups, a redesigned Channel Core™ center block, and deeper cutaways for improved upper fret access, the Broadkaster® LX guitars are designed for full-spectrum sound at high volume, providing the flexibility and control you need to explore new sonic territories.FEATURES:

• Refined body design with deeper cutaways for improved access to the upper frets
• Redesigned Channel Core™ center block features a combination of maple and spruce for faster attack and enhanced midrange punch
• Standard "U"-shaped maple neck with 24.6" scale length
• 12"-radius ebony fingerboard with rolled edges, 22 medium jumbo frets, pearloid Neo-Classic™ thumbnail inlays and Luminlay® side dots
• Pro Twin Six™ humbucking pickups
• Three-position pickup toggle switch, individual volume controls for neck and bridge pickups, master volume control with treble bleed circuit and master no-load tone control with "Squeezebox" capacitor
• String-thru Bigsby® B7GP vibrato tailpiece
• Adjusto-Matic™ bridge
• Graph Tech® TUSQ® XL nut
• Gotoh® locking tuners
• Grover® strap locks
• Gold hardware
• G6267 Gretsch® deluxe hardshell case included
• Available in Cadillac Green and Black

Redesigned Channel Core™ Center Block

Combining a maple top layer and spruce bottom layer with a more focused chambering design, the redesigned Channel Core™ center block provides faster note attack and enhanced midrange punch that takes the Broadkaster LX guitars to a whole new level.

Refined Body Design with Deeper Cutaways

The Broadkaster LX features a refined body design with deeper cutaways that greatly improves access to the upper frets resulting in better playability and a more effortless experience.

Pro Twin Six™ Pickups

The Pro Twin Six™ pickups are some of our most modern and powerful pickups to date. The Neck pickup features an Alnico 5 magnet with a DCR rating around 5.5k and provides a tone that is warm, clear, and throaty without being muddy or overly compressed. The Bridge pickup features an Alnico 4 magnet with a DCR rating around 12k and provides a tone that is bright and clear, with enhanced midrange punch, tight focused lows, and sparkling highs that never get spiky or shrill.

Together these pickups provide exceptional power, fidelity, and versatility that allows you to explore new sonic territories.

Maple Neck with Rolled Fingerboard

A 12"-radius ebony fingerboard with rolled edges and 22 medium jumbo frets tops a 24.6"-scale maple neck with a comfortably familiar standard "U"-shaped profile for smooth playability, while the glow in the dark Luminlay® side dots offer precision fretting in low-light settings.

Gretsch Guitars Broadkaster LX Center Block With String-Thru Bigsby and Gold Hardware Electric Guitar Black

Jackson is launching the X Series Surfcaster SC HT6 and SC HT7, and the JS Series Surfcaster JS22 HT: blending vintage appeal with thoroughly modern appointments for the ultimate modern metal machines. Featuring an Offset poplar body, High-output Jackson humbucker, and Jackson’s robust hardtail bridge to keep tuning stable and setup perfect.

X Series Surfcaster SC HT6

JS Series Surfcaster JS22 HT is available in Gloss Black and Snow White.

X Series Surfcaster SC HT7 is a 7-string model available in Metallic Black while the SC HT6 is a 6 string model available in Satin Black.



Support our sponsors: Amplified Parts; Grez Guitars; Better Help, and Emerald City Guitars!

Acclaimed guitarist Jim Campilongo joins Skip and Jason to talk about his music and gear journey, vinyl treasures, George Barnes playing “Little Rock Getaway” (link), Vance Terry & Jimmy Rivers, Silverface Princeton Reverb love; Celestion G-10 speakers; Laika and the Cosmonauts; and so much more. Plus frozen meatballs!

Follow Jim Campilongo: https://www.jimcampilongo.com/

Jim’s Lessons: https://www.jimcampilongo.com/lessons.html

Above photo: Manish Gosalia

Want amp tech Skip Simmons’ advice on your DIY guitar amp projects? Join us by sending your voice memo or written questions to podcast@fretboardjournal.com! Include a photo, too.

Hosted by amp tech Skip Simmons and co-hosted/produced by Jason Verlinde of the Fretboard Journal.

Don’t forget, we have a Patreon page. Support the show, get behind-the-scenes updates and get to the front of the line with your questions.

The post The Truth About Vintage Amps, Ep. 149 first appeared on Fretboard Journal.

Billed as a practice amp, this 40-watt, solid-state combo with reverb and tremolo is clean, pedal- and stage-friendly, and affordable.

Orange O 40

I enjoy that back-of-the-throat, big cat growl that starts happening when you turn up the preamp of an Orange amplifier. But the company’s new O Tone 40 is a different breed of feline. With no gain control and a 1x12 made-in-Poland Voice of the World speaker that doesn’t break up until you start cranking it past noon, the O Tone 40 is designed to purr rather than snarl—unless lashed to an overdrive or fuzz pedal. It adds a different, more American-vintage flavor to the company’s lineup of versatile, low-priced new-generation amps and a voice shaped, in many respects,by the number and character of the stomps on your pedalboard.

Practice Schmactis

The solid-state O Tone 40 is billed as a practice amp, but I’d feel comfortable taking it onstage anywhere I’d use, say, a Deluxe Reverb or Blues Junior. It’s a 40-watt, class-AB build with 3-band EQ, digital reverb, and footswitchable JFET-driven tremolo. There’s an effects loop, too, and the combo clocks in at a light 26 pounds. In the modern practice-amp spirit, the O Tone has a 1/4'' headphone out and an unbalanced line-out to run into a DAW. There’s also an auxiliary input for, say, pumping in rhythm tracks or plugging in a metronome. The cabinet is medium-density fiberboard, versus the birch plywood of the 35-watt, 1x10 Orange Crush, which has no reverb or tremolo. And it’s tagged at a very reasonable $399, given its overall functionality.

With its classic control set—reverb, depth, speed, bass, midrange, treble, and volume, from left to right—the O Tone 40 is easy to use, and dialing up a host of good sounds with single-coil and humbucking pickups was a snap. The closed-back design and overall sonic profile tends to make the amp a bit bass heavy, especially with humbuckers, so it’s important to watch the EQ settings. I found a set-it-and-forget-it location with the bass at 9 o’clock, the mids floored, and the treble at 11 o’clock. This is a matter of taste, of course, and mine runs toward the mid-heavy with tempered treble. After all, Orange amps’ strength has always been the harmonic richness of their mids, and the O Tone 40 hits that mark. Plus, adding a little more treble pulled things toward Marshall territory, too.

Another aspect I loved was the breakup I started to hear working the volume up past noon. It’s more subtle than snarling, and reminded me of the organic dirty sounds that can be achieved by cranking up old Valco and Gibson amps from the ’50s and ’60s. So vintage tone hunters may find the O Tone 40 a great lower-priced alternative to an actual period piece. But the quiet effects loop also makes the amp ready for sonic futurism, if that’s one’s goal.

Finally, the reverb is deliciously spring-like, and the dial will travel from dry to surf to the supernatural. The tremolo has plenty of vintage character, too, although I would like to see a little more response in the lower range of the depth control, like that I’ve experienced with old Supros and Gibsons, which can get pretty radical right out of the box.

The Verdict

The super-affordable Orange O Tone 40 is versatile and pedal-friendly, with vibe-y reverb and tremolo as well as an effects loop, so stomp OD fans likely won’t miss the amp-maker’s usual appealing gain profile. There’s enough headroom for clean stage and rehearsal sounds at substantial volume, and pushing the volume past noon yields a very vintage-amp-like breakup profile, which make the O Tone a dependable work-pony with much more than a single trick.

Orange O Tone 40 Practice Amplifier - Orange

A group of musicians who were allegedly plagiarised by Giacomo Turra have teamed up on a new collaborative track.

The new song, called Slapocalypse Reborn, is led by bassist Charles Berthoud, who collaborated with Turra on an earlier, original version Slapocalypse. His collaboration with the guitarist was deleted from his channel following the scandal, which unfolded earlier this year.

• READ MORE: Rick Beato speaks on Giacomo Turra’s plagiarism controversy: “He couldn’t play well enough to be on my channel”

Turra, known for his popular Instagram guitar videos, was accused by multiple musicians of plagiarising their musical compositions and passing them off as his own. In a video put together by YouTuber Danny Sapko, he claimed that Turra would only occasionally claim to be ‘inspired’ by a particular artist within his content, rather than simply saying that he was covering their composition note for note.

Brands such as Andertons, Ernie Ball, and Fender also removed any videos featuring Turra from their YouTube channels following the backlash, and his presence was removed from the D’Angelico Guitars website, including his signature guitar and artist page.

Turra did respond to the allegations, and said he could have swore that the artists who came forward were credited in his videos, though he did note that his credits “must not have been evident enough”: “I really want to apologise to the guitar community for this behaviour,” he said.

Now, on Slapocalypse Reborn, Berthoud teams up with the musicians affected: Jack Gardiner, Alex Hutchings, Danny Sapko, Kahil Ferraris, Marco Baldi, Ben Romano, Tom Quayle, and Peter Luha. In another video, he has also summarised his own experience with Turra, sharing how their original collaboration did not quite go as planned. You can watch both videos below:

Slapocalypse Reborn is now available to stream via Spotify. Giacomo Turra has returned to Instagram but has kept comments turned off.

The post Slapocalypse Reborn: The musicians who had their compositions copied by Giacomo Turra have teamed up on a track appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Johnny Marr has announced both his support for Irish rappers Kneecap and Palestine, amid calls for the Irish rap group to be axed from this year’s Glastonbury lineup. They are currently set to play on 28 June.

The Irish trio are facing calls for their performance at this year’s Glastonbury festival to be axed, with the Board of Deputies of British Jews pointing to the group’s history of inflammatory comments, including the time, in 2023, they urged fans to “Kill your local MP” at a gig. They also point to the trio’s historical comments seemingly supporting Hamas and Hezbollah, two groups labelled terrorist organisations by the UK government.

• READ MORE: “F**k ICE” guitar pedal launched by Resistor Head to raise funds for immigrant legal aid
  

Meanwhile, others, including the band’s producer Toddla T say calls to remove them from the bill are about their open and staunch support of the citizens of Palestine, who are facing ongoing bombardment in Gaza by the Israeli military.

According to Toddla T, a “private and confidential” letter was sent to those in charge of booking for Glastonbury festival, asking them to remove Kneecap over their support for Palestine.

He says, “It was headed by a very systemically powerful music agent and signed by 30 individuals from within the music industry.” He goes on: “What we’re seeing is a coordinated attempt by 30 members of the musical elite, people with systemic influence, to silence the voices of three working-class artists from Belfast…

“…At the heart of this is not just a dispute over a festival slot… It’s about Palestine, and the ongoing genocide we are witnessing.”

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A post shared by TODDLA T (@toddlat)

Now, Johnny Marr says that removing Kneecap from the lineup for their support of Palestine goes against the ethos of the festival.

“Glastonbury has always had a political aspect. It was founded as a place of free expression and political activism,” he explains in an Instagram post. He also confirms that “it’s a fact that I agreed to play there with The Smiths in 1984 purely because to do so at the time was a political act.”

The former Smiths guitarist also says his political stance has not changed: “We are living through very troubling times, but for anyone who’s been interested in me or my music over the last 40 years, I feel like my political stance has been very clear.”

“Oppression fears artistic expression,” he goes on. “I respect all musicians who use their platform to speak out against injustice, who promote compassion and equality and give a voice to the voiceless.”

Marr stands by “fellow musicians who call for an immediate end to the atrocities and a free Palestine.”

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A post shared by Johnny Marr (@johnnymarrgram)

Kneecap member Mo Chara was recently granted unconditional bail after being charged with a terror offence following his display of the Hezbollah flag at a gig.

As it currently stands, Kneecap’s Glastonbury performance on 28 June will go ahead. You can also see the full Glastonbury lineup at glastonburyfestivals.co.uk.

Johnny Marr is no stranger to commenting on political issues. He previously slammed Donald Trump for using The Smiths’ Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want during his political rallies. “Consider this shit shut down right now”, he said.

The post “Oppression fears artistic expression”: Johnny Marr speaks out against calls to remove Kneecap from Glastonbury lineup appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.



For our long-awaited 7th episode, we speak with Andy Pitcher, a Brooklyn-based guitarist steeped in the world of improvisation and composition.

We discuss his early introductions to music and how the guitar found its way to him; growing up in the shadow of New York City; the guitar as an emotional support system; and much more.

To learn more about Andy and his music: https://www.andypitcher.com/

The Fretboard Journal did an earlier podcast with Andy here that is also worth checking out: https://www.fretboardjournal.com/podcasts/podcast-498-andy-pitcher/

Guitar for Introverts is hosted by Jamie Stillway for the Fretboard Journal network of guitar podcasts.

The post Guitar for Introverts: Andy Pitcher first appeared on Fretboard Journal.