Sleaford Mods have issued a statement following a controversy that was caused by a video showing frontman Jason Williamson walking off stage at a recent show in Madrid after a Palestinian flag was thrown at his feet.
A video shared on social media shows the flag being thrown at the musician, at which point Williamson says “fuck off” and leaves the stage. However, in a statement, he says that this does not give the full picture of what happened.
“Some context is needed about Madrid”, he wrote. “I'm horrified by the atrocities committed in Gaza and Israel and I'm horrified by the atrocities committed elsewhere in the world that are not in the current news cycle. I'm angry about the manipulation of human grief and rage by politicians, the media, agitators and social media platforms to stoke the fire of separation, dehumanisation, division and hate”.
Turning to the show itself, he went on: “In Madrid, the show was repeatedly interrupted by someone in the audience shouting and throwing a flag/scarf on stage. I stopped the show to make comment, condemned civilian deaths and called for no more killing. This wasn't enough and the interruptions continued. I walked off stage after 80 minutes as the cumulative effect was distracting and upsetting”.
Referencing a tweet posted after the gig, in which he said that he was annoyed at being asked “to pick sides for something I ain’t got any real idea about”, he added: “The tweet in the aftermath was an attempt to apologise to those at the show, not comment widely on the ongoing atrocities. I'm as overwhelmed as you are and I don't have the answers, all I know is we are all human and there needs to be a meaningful ceasefire”.
“The slaughter needs to stop”, he concluded. “No more. No more killing. NO MORE”.