LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 10: Thom Yorke of The Smile performs at Eventim Apollo on March 10, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by Matthew Baker/Getty Images)
On Oct. 30, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke walked off the stage during a solo performance in Melbourne, Australia, after an audience member yelled at him about “the Israeli genocide in Gaza.”
In response to the concert-goer’s remarks, Yorke asked him to “Come up here and say that. Right here, come on.”
“Hope up on the f–ing stage and say what you wanna say” Yorke continued. “Don’t stand there like a coward, come here and say it. You want to piss on everybody’s night?”
The audience member then yelled back, “How many dead children will it take for you to condemn the genocide in Gaza?” Frustrated, Yorke told him, “OK, you do it, see you later then,” before walking off the stage.
After a few minutes, Yorke returned to the stage to perform his version of Radiohead’s 1977 hit “Karma Police,” his final song of the night.
Yorke and Radiohead have been the subjects of controversy due to their support for Israel, whose military is currently fighting in the Gaza Strip after the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas. In 2017, Radiohead performed in Israel and received criticism from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which has been advocating for a cultural boycott of Israel for years.
“Playing in a country isn’t the same as endorsing the government,” Yorke wrote at the time. “We’ve played in Israel for over 20 years through a succession of governments, some more liberal than others. As we have in America. We don’t endorse [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu any more than [Donald] Trump, but we still play in America. Music, art and academia are about crossing borders not building them, about open minds and not closed ones, and about shared humanity, dialogue and freedom of expression.”
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