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For most of my life, it seemed like the Left had all the entertainers. We pretended not to care or we coped with shrugged shoulders, “What do they know about politics? They’re just entertainers!” Or we had to pretended to be thrilled with having Charlton Heston and Tony Danza on our side.
However, more entertainers have been saying stuff we agree with, and I must say it is kind of nice. It is fun to see the shoe on the other foot and watch the other side get their feathers ruffled. It’s even better when it is an entertainer whose work I actually like. Morrissey becoming openly nativist was like all my childish fantasies coming true at once. Then Noel Gallagher of Oasis became anti-woke, and Ian Brown of The Stone Roses became of prominent Covid skeptic. At this point, I’m thinking this feels pretty good.
Which brings us to Primal Scream. Primal Scream is one of those bands like Manic Street Preachers or Pulp who are outrageously popular in Britain but relatively unknown in America outside of dedicated Anglophiles like myself. However, among fans of British indie music, Primal Scream are a band that commands a great deal of respect. They are a notoriously difficult band to describe due to their tendency to switch genres unexpectedly from album to album. One minute they are electro-dance, the next minute they are stripped-down blues rock. As a consequence, Primal Scream and singer Bobby Gillespie made substantial contributions to various British indie subgenres.
Primal Scream started as a side project of Gillespie’s previous band The Jesus and Mary Chain, which along with Cocteau Twins, are considered one of the two essential proto-shoegaze bands. Despite hailing from Scotland, Primal Scream’s third album, 1991’s Screamadelica (arguably their masterpiece) managed to out-Madchester the Happy Mondays or any of the baggy bands south of Hadrian’s Wall. That album put Creation Records on the map in a big way and helped keep the fledgling label afloat long enough for them to sign Oasis, the most commercially successful British band of the 1990s. British music would sound very different today had Mr. Gillespie never existed.
If I were to sum up Primal Scream’s primary contribution to popular music, I would cite their fusion of techno and traditional guitar music. A sort of remixed rock and roll, it set a template for groups like The Prodigy.
Primal Scream is one of the “survivors” on British indie. Thirty-eight years after their debut, they are still going strong. While their days of musical zeitgeist may behind them, enough people keep buying their records for them to keep making them. They just released their 12th last year.
Primal Scream splashed into the headlines this last week for not for musical reasons but for political ones. At a recent London concert at a venue called Roadhouse, the band were playing signature song “Swastika Eyes” while on the projector behind them showed pictures of Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Javier Milei, Benjamin Netanyahu and others with symbols in their eyes which are a combination of a swastika and a Star of David. Then at the end of the song, a message comes on the backdrop stating “Our government is complicit in genocide”.
This led to the usual chorus of oy vey from the usual suspects, with many demanding that law enforcement step in to deal with these indie rock legends.
The Community Security Trust, a group that provides security training for Jewish groups, reported the band to the police: “Entwining a Star of David with a swastika implies that Jews are Nazis and risks encouraging hatred of Jews.” Said one CST spokesperson. “There needs to be an urgent investigation by the venue and the promoter about how this happened, and we have reported this to the police.”
Zionist entertainment watchdog The Creative Community for Peace described Primal Scream’s backdrop as
[A]n act of profound malice, desecration, and cruelty. The Star of David is a sacred symbol of Jewish identity; the swastika is the emblem of a genocidal regime responsible for the murder of 6 million Jews. To merge these two symbols is an act of profound malice, desecration, and cruelty. It is antisemitism in its starkest form.
Predictably, The Roundhouse folded under public pressure. “We are appalled that antisemitic imagery was displayed during a Primal Scream gig on Monday December 8 at the Roundhouse,” groveled the Roadhouse spokesman.
We deeply regret that these highly offensive images were presented on our stage and unequivocally apologise to anyone who attended the gig, and to the wider Jewish community. The content, which was used entirely without our knowledge, stands against all of our values. Our organisation absolutely condemns antisemitism in every form.
They added:
Acts of hatred, discrimination or prejudice of any kind are entirely unacceptable and have no place in our community or spaces. The safety of our staff and gig-going audiences remains of paramount importance to us. We stand in solidarity with the Jewish community and remain committed to ensuring that our spaces are places where everyone feels secure, respected and valued.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism said:
The Nazi swastika represents the ideology that inspired people to industrially slaughter six million innocent Jewish men, women and children by bullet, gas and any other means available. To visually combine that with the Star of David — the pre-eminent symbol of Judaism — is absolutely sickening and totally inexcusable.
The spokesman followed this up with a series of incorrect statements:
This isn’t art. This isn’t edgy. This isn’t political statement. It is unadulterated hatred, and a clear breach of the international definition of antisemitism. We will be writing to the Camden Roundhouse and our legal team is examining the footage to consider further steps. Racism should have no place in the arts, but depressingly it is finding a very welcoming home there.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed that they are looking into the matter:
On Wednesday, December 10, we received a report in relation to a video shown on stage during a concert at the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm Road, Camden, on Monday, December 8. It is being assessed by officers.
The group are not without their defenders, especially online. British journalist Jonathan Cook took objection to the notion that Primal Scream’s performance “encouraged antisemitism.” As he wrote in his blog “No, it encourages hatred of genocide, which is a good thing. It encourages opposition to a depraved ethno-nationalist state that, according to a ruling last year from the International Court of Justice, has been carrying out a decades-long, illegal military occupation of Palestinian territory; denied the Palestinian people a state; ethnically cleansed Palestinians from their homeland while illegally transferring Jewish militias on to their lands; and is operating a system of apartheid rule.”
For clarity, Primal Scream singer Bobby Gillespie is a long-time Israel critic, way before it was cool to hate Israel. However, he comes to it from a Marxist perspective and has adamantly denied being an antisemite. As he told an interviewer in 2006, “To say we’re anti-Semitic is a smear, so you’d better watch what you’re saying. [Just] because you oppose one country’s government’s policies doesn’t mean to say that you hate all the people from that country.”
lead singer of the band Primal Scream Bobby Gillespie is confronted by a BBC “reporter” on his pro-Palestine activism and support for BDS, and refuses to back down as he calls out artists who gleefully legitimize the genocidal Israeli death-cult.
“It’s stolen land.” pic.twitter.com/jc7xEt2PPh
— ☀️👀 (@zei_squirrel) June 7, 2025
It should also be noted that Celts have a long tradition of being staunch anti-imperialists and thus fervent anti-Zionists.
At the time of writing, the band are sticking to their guns.
The film is a piece of art. It clearly draws from history to question where the actions of current world governments sit in that context. It is meant to provoke debate, not hate. In a free pluralistic and liberal society freedom of expression is a right which we choose to exercise.
Of course, many on the right cringe when Israel is compared to the Nazis, but Jews don’t really make much distinction between that and Kevin McDonald-style JQ-ism.
I would like to wish the members of Primal Scream godspeed as they face the coming Zionist backlash. Unlike Bob Vylan, the black hard rock band who chanted “Death to the IDF” at Glastonbury, Primal Scream are a bunch of white guys. Nor do they balance out their anti-Zionism with anti-white anthems like Bob Vylan does. The Primals will not be able to rely on any PC protection and will be relying heavily on their classical Marxist and indie street cred to endure the backlash.
10 comments
I love Primal Scream, especially Screamadelica. I also find it interesting that they featured a photograph of a neon-sign Confederate flag as the cover of their album “Give Out But Don’t Give Up”. Their song “Kill All Hippies” off their album XTRMNTR is funny.
https://www.amazon.com/Give-Out-But-Dont-Up/dp/B000002MPB
Never heard of Primal Scream before, but it’s clear that we need more of their kind of music: indisputably White and no history of black contributions to its roots.
If only there was some way to get the Raelians to chime in on that symbol though. That could really muddy the waters of the rhetoric from from the Judeopress (Ziopress?).
Indisputably White and no history of black contributions to its roots.
They began as a Paisley, C86, shambling band–very “white” in sound–but there’s plenty of “black” influence on their peak 90s sounds, even if final product reads as white, Screamadelica through Vanishing Point.
Ah that’s too bad
A really small number of people might be affected by this in any way. Criticism of Jews or Israel only matters when it comes from someone who’s relevant.
Swastika Eyes??? Really??? That is a stupid name for a so-called “song”. Not “edgy”, just stupid.
I had never heard of this UK band, Primal Scream, before. And now I wish still I hadn’t. Their so-called “music” sounds like shit. They don’t sing, they scream. And their “music” is just over-amplified noise from electric guitars. Boring!
They should be censored for that, and for their degenerate influence on British culture. Not for their criticism of Israel. They are anti-White, not anti-Jew. The entire UK scene of pop “culture” reeks of degeneracy. It is one reason for Britain’s steep decline, as intended by its Jewish promoters.
This guy, Bobby Gillespie, sounds like a druggie. He’s right to oppose genocide. Good for him! But it’s only because he’s anti-White. The UK authorities would never censor his “music”. They like that shit. And they don’t censor his Marxism, wokeism, and his hatred of the White race. They like that too. The only things they censor are his timid and futile opposition to genocide and to the UK regime’s subservience to the Jews.
Indeed. I was wondering whether Mr Gillespie had similar concerns for his own people in their (and his) own lands; as well as their kin in the former colonies. I’d say not.
I love the Jesus And May Chain song Head On, preferable even to the Pixie’s seminal cover
I have two comments on this.
One, yes it’s great to see a popular, high profile band openly criticize Jewish Zionist power. However, it’s important to always realize that entertainers, musicians, and other celebrities score political points for laying criticisms of brown racial oppression by (seemingly) white or western oppressors. Jews are white when it is convenient and not white when it’s an alternative convenience. In this context, they’re being presented as a white, western, colonizer country occupying brown people land. (And this may or may not be a fair assessment).
My second comment is that Primal Scream and other entertainers will impress me more if they start showing pictures of dead or injured white women and girls who have been raped and groomed by Pakistani gangs. When they bring that little Scottish girl with the knife onto their stage to present her as a hero for their fans. That will impress me more than the Zionism stuff. Because it REALLY takes some political fortitude to risk jail time for “racial incitement” to tell the truth about these atrocities.
When they bring that little Scottish girl with the knife onto their stage to present her as a hero for their fans. That will impress me more than the Zionism stuff. They wouldn’t dare.
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