A couple of weeks after British musicians called Brexit “a very serious mistake” for UK music, Primal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie appeared on the BBC’s This Week last night to talk about how a ‘Hard Brexit’ could damage the UK more generally. However, in a subsequent post on the band’s official Instagram, Gillespie has revealed that he was dissatisfied with his treatment on the show (as well as addressing his brilliant refusal to dance during the end credits).
Gillespie was asked to discuss the topic of “Progress”, he reveals in the post, saying: “My line of reasoning was that here in the U.K. we are not progressing but regressing back to the social inequalities of the 1930’s due to the failure of 40 years of Free Market Capitalism, and tying that in with the rise of Fascism in Europe & all over the world.”
But apparently This Week’s host, Andrew Neil, closed the musician down after disapproving of his opinion. “I was immediately cut off by Andrew Neil,” Gillespie says, and the question was handed over to British Eurosceptic journalist (and former MP and Cabinet Minister of the Conservative Party) Michael Portillo.
Gillespie also explains in the post that the show’s producers asked him to take part in a dance – an iteration of the “Skibidi dance challenge” – and says that, when he declined, “their attitude towards me changed”. It’s a good thing he did decline, though, as it led to the pretty brilliant image of him sitting and staring solemnly on as his host and fellow guests (Portillo and Labour MP Caroline Flint) made fools of themselves to the music, providing a pretty uncomfortable counterpoint to the serious subject matter of their discussion.
To conclude the post, Gillespie describes the “sickening sight” of Neil, Portillo, Flint, and the producer and crew toasting each other with wine or champagne. Reposting a video edit of the dancing/not-dancing scene, he adds: “This film sums up the attitude of the political class of our country, and the media who support/serve/enable them.”