Kneecap announce ‘biggest headline show outside of Ireland’ at London arena

3 June 2025, 14:05

Irish rap trio Kneecap have announced their “biggest headline show outside of Ireland” at London’s OVO Arena Wembley.

The concert comes after the group remained on the line-up for Glastonbury Festival, when it was confirmed on Tuesday, despite calls from Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch and a number of other politicians to remove them.

Kneecap were taken out of the line-up at Scotland’s TRNSMT festival last week after safety concerns were raised by police, while last month the group played to thousands at London’s Wide Awake festival in Brockwell Park.

The Belfast trio have scheduled a replacement gig for the cancelled festival show at Glasgow’s O2 Academy in July.

The group’s London concert will take place on September 18, with tickets going on pre-sale on the group’s WhatsApp channel at 10am, before a general sale on Friday.

In a post announcing the gig, Kneecap said: “The belly of the beast – let’s go.”

It comes after Kneecap member Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was charged under the name Liam O’Hanna by the Metropolitan Police with a terror offence last month over the alleged display of a Hezbollah flag at a gig in November last year.

Counter-terrorism police previously investigated Kneecap after videos emerged allegedly showing the band calling for the deaths of MPs and shouting “up Hamas, up Hezbollah”.

The group apologised to the families of murdered MPs but said footage of the incident had been “exploited and weaponised”, and also said they have “never supported” Hamas or Hezbollah, which are banned in the UK.

In response to the charge, the group said in a social media statement: “14,000 babies are about to die of starvation in Gaza, with food sent by the world sitting on the other side of a wall, and once again the British establishment is focused on us.

“We deny this ‘offence’ and will vehemently defend ourselves, this is political policing, this is a carnival of distraction.

“We are not the story, genocide is, as they profit from genocide, they use an ‘anti-terror law’ against us for displaying a flag thrown on stage. A charge not serious enough to even warrant their crown court, instead a court that doesn’t have a jury. What’s the objective?

“To restrict our ability to travel. To prevent us speaking to young people across the world. To silence voices of compassion. To prosecute artists who dare speak out.

“Instead of defending innocent people, or the principles of international law they claim to uphold, the powerful in Britain have abetted slaughter and famine in Gaza, just as they did in Ireland for centuries. Then, like now, they claim justification.

“The IDF units they arm and fly spy plane missions for are the real terrorists, the whole world can see it.”

Ahead of their Wide Awake set, Kneecap released their latest song The Recap, which opens with a sample of a news report about the counter-terrorism police investigation into the group, and mocks Ms Badenoch’s attempts to block arts funding they were awarded, and the Conservative Party’s election loss.

In 2024, the band released an eponymous film starring Oscar-nominated actor Michael Fassbender which is a fictionalised retelling of how the band came together and follows the Belfast group on their mission to save their mother tongue through music.

Formed in 2017, the group, made up of O hAnnaidh, Naoise O Caireallain and JJ O Dochartaigh, are known for their provocative lyrics and merchandise as well as their championing of the Irish language, and their best-known tracks include Get Your Brits Out, Better Way To Live and 3Cag.