Uncle Acid And The Deadbeats have publicly accused Gorillaz mastermind Damon Albarn of being responsible for their set being cut short during Roskilde Festival on Thursday night (July 2).
The British psych rock outfit had been scheduled to perform on the festival’s Lagune stage beginning at 10:15 p.m., while Gorillaz were headlining the nearby Orange Scene starting at 10:00 p.m.
In a statement shared on social media following the incident, Uncle Acid claimed Albarn complained that their performance could be heard during Gorillaz’s set and ultimately pressured festival organizers into ending their show early.
“Apologies to everyone who came to Roskilde Festival hoping to see us play a full set last night. Pop diva Damon Albarn of the novelty cartoon act Gorillaz threw a hissy fit while we played, threatened to storm off stage before finally getting our set shut down because we were ‘too loud’. They were the only headliner of the whole weekend who couldn’t cope with playing at the same time as other artists.”
The band added that they were only able to perform roughly 25 minutes before organizers pulled the plug despite, according to them, remaining below the festival’s decibel limit.
“Unfortunately we only managed 25 minutes of assaulting his precious ears from our stage half a mile away before his goons came over and pulled the plug. Despite us being below the festival dB limit and offering to turn down FOH to continue the show, they wanted us off.”
The statement concluded by thanking the festival crew while suggesting the final decision came from higher up.
Festival organizers, however, offered a different explanation.
In a statement released Friday, Roskilde Festival said the interruption was caused by a combination of strong winds and technical issues affecting the sound production, rather than complaints from another artist.
“The interruption was caused by a combination of wind conditions and technical factors that affected the sound production. When hosting a large outdoor live event, changing weather conditions can sometimes create operational challenges.”
Uncle Acid drummer Jon Rice also addressed the situation, echoing the band’s claims that Gorillaz were behind the decision to halt the performance.
According to Rice, Gorillaz complained they could hear Uncle Acid’s set between songs and allegedly threatened to stop performing unless the neighboring stage was silenced.
He also argued that The Cure, who headlined the festival earlier in the event while Monolord performed on the same nearby stage, continued without issue despite similar circumstances.
Rice further claimed the band’s front-of-house engineer kept their performance approximately two decibels below the festival’s permitted sound limit, disputing any suggestion that excessive volume was responsible for the shutdown.
At the time of publication, neither Damon Albarn nor Gorillaz have publicly responded to Uncle Acid And The Deadbeats’ allegations.
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