Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats have slammed “pop diva” Damon Albarn for forcing them to pull the plug on their Roskilde appearance mid-set.
The British psychedelic metal outfit were playing the Lagune stage at the same time as Albarn’s all-star/cartoon collective Gorillaz were appearing on the festival’s main stage. But according to Uncle Acid, the Gorillaz camp were unhappy with the resulting soundclash, prompting the singer to allegedly send over “his goons” to shut down their show after just 25 minutes.
In a Instagram post, Uncle Acid wrote: “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.
“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.
“Thanks to the Roskilde crew and stage manager who tried their best to intervene but it was ultimately out of their hands. Orders from above.”
Albarn reportedly addressed the issue during Gorillaz’s set. “Is it supposed to be possible for me to hear the other music so clearly?” he said. “We can just stop playing and listen to the other thing instead, that’s fine with me.”
In a separate post, Uncle Acid drummer Jon Rice expanded on the spat: “Apologies to everyone who attended Roskilde Festival with the intentions of watching the full Uncle Acid set last night. We were forced to cut our set short by Gorillaz due to what they called ‘technical difficulties’, when in reality they could faintly hear the sound coming from our stage in between their songs and decided to throw a bitch fit, threatening to pull their gig entirely if we didn’t stop playing. We can’t apologize enough for the premature end of our set but it wasn’t our call to make.
Rice also referenced a similar soundclash the previous day involving The Cure and Monolord. “Funnily enough, The Cure (who headlined the festival on a previous day) played at the same time as Monolord and could faintly hear the sound from the same stage we played on, but powered through like professionals,” said Rice. “Our Front of House sound engineer was 2db below the festival mandated decibel limit for the entirety of our gig as well, so the ‘we were playing too loud’ excuse doesn’t hold water.”
Rice added: “‘Cartoon band’ indeed. All in all, @damonalbarn and @gorillaz are soft as baby shit. FUCK’ EM.”
Roskilde organisers addressed the issue, blaming dubious wind conditions: “We know this was disappointing for everyone involved, and we’re sorry that both festivalgoers and the artists missed out on the experience they had been looking forward to.
“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.”
Damon Albarn and Gorillaz haven’t yet responded to the situation.
