Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke walks off stage after being heckled by pro-Palestine protester in audience

31 October 2024, 09:07 | Updated: 31 October 2024, 09:10

Lead singer of Radiohead, Thom Yorke, briefly walked off the stage during his solo tour in Australia after an audience member heckled him with a protest about the ongoing conflict and deaths in Gaza.

Videos from concert-goers at the show in Melbourne on Wednesday night captured a man in the crowd shouting at Yorke, urging him to "condemn the Israeli genocide of Gaza."

Though not all his words are clear, Yorke responded by inviting the heckler to "come up on stage" to voice his statement.

"Don't stand there like a coward. Come here and say it. You want to ruin everyone’s night? Fine, go ahead," Yorke said, removing his guitar and stopping the performance.

His exit followed repeated calls from the heckler, who added, "how many dead children will it take?"

Some in the crowd reacted with boos to the interruption, while Yorke returned shortly after to cheers, resuming the show.

Radiohead has previously faced calls to cancel performances in Israel as part of a cultural boycott against the country due to its policies toward Palestinians.

However, Thom Yorke resisted these calls, stating, “Playing in a country isn’t the same as endorsing its government.”

In a 2017 statement defending a scheduled concert in Tel Aviv, Yorke explained, “We’ve been performing in Israel for over 20 years, through various governments, some more liberal than others.”

He clarified that the band doesn’t endorse Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu any more than they do Donald Trump, yet they continue to perform in the United States.

He added: “Music, art, and academia are about crossing borders, not building them."

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Israel launched a campaign to wipe out the terrorist group Hamas in response to the group's attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 others taken hostage.

More than 43,160 people have been killed in Gaza since then - including thousands of women and children - according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.