Royal Blood Responds To Critics
Royal Blood is speaking out after a video of frontman Mike Kerr becoming frustrated with the crowd at a show went viral.
The duo performed in Camperdown Park in Dundee and sparked debate online when Kerr became annoyed with a lack of crowd participation.
Kerr said to the crowd, “I guess I should actually introduce ourselves seeing as no-one actually knows who we are. We’re called Royal Blood and this is rock music. Who likes rock music? Nine people. Brilliant. We’re having to clap ourselves because that was so pathetic.”
He then turned to the camera and said, “Will you clap for us? Will you clap? You’re busy. Can you clap? Yes, even he’s clapping. What does that say about you?”
At the end of their set, Kerr threw his guitar to the floor and left the stage sticking both middle fingers up at the crowd.
Royal Blood making their feelings known about the crowd at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend yesterday 😂
— The Rock Revival (@TheRockRevival_) May 29, 2023
In a new interview, Kerr says the situation “escalated,” explaining, “Walking off from that show, I felt that I was being entertaining in a way of trying to make light of the situation. I was doing a performance where perhaps I felt a bit out of place. I expected to sort of be a little bit bemused and confuse a few people but not to that kind of scale. Pretty wild.”
Drummer Ben Thatcher added, “It was a moment of madness that has gotten out of control, I think. We actually love the gig. We love playing music and we love doing what we do, so it’s a bit of a mad week to come out of this.”
Kerr said it was, “somewhat of a blip on my part” and explained, “I actually really enjoyed playing, I thought I had a great time and the ending to me, I sort of felt like a pro wrestler. Walking off, I felt like a sort of pantomime villain; I didn’t feel like I’d done anything morally wrong. It felt like a bit of a wind-up honestly, that’s kind of how I felt. I don’t mean any offence. My intention is never to alienate anyone or push anyone away.”
What do you think about Kerr’s behavior at the gig?
