Royal Blood’s set at a concert in Scotland turned into a royal mess as the band wowed the crowd and carried on, with frontman Mike Kerr raising his middle fingers as a departure gift.
The English rock duo performed at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend 2023 in Dundee on Sunday (28 May) late afternoon.
As the band neared the end of their performance, Kerr did the audience a disservice to their perceived lack of enthusiasm.
“Well I guess I should introduce myself because nobody really knows who we are,” the 32-year-old artist said in a video doing the rounds on social media. “We’re called Royal Blood and it’s rock music. Who likes rock music? Nine guys, great,” he remarked sarcastically.
Introducing drummer Ben Thatcher, he said, “We’ve got to clap ourselves because it was so pathetic. Well done, Ben.”
Kerr then looked to the camera at the side of the stage and asked the operator: “Will you clap for us? You clap? You’re busy. Can you clap? Yeah, he’s clapping too.” He turned to the audience, “What does that say about you?”
Then, Kerr rips along an off-color chord as he walks off stage, his middle fingers held high to the audience.
Some fans have pointed out that Royal Blood was caught in a difficult schedule between pop stars Niall Horan and Lewis Capaldi, whose second album broken by the desire to be sent to heaven currently number 1 in the UK
As other social media users have pointed out, yes, sometimes the crowd doesn’t walk, and artists should roll with it.
The band’s fourth studio album, back to the water belowis scheduled to be released on September 8 through Warner Records.
A busy tour schedule through the UK and Europe should set up the release, including performances at Glastonbury Festival on 21-25 June and a return to Scotland for TRNSMT Festival 2023, scheduled for 9 July in Glasgow.
All three of his previous albums have gone to No. 1 on the Official UK Chart: Royal blood (2014), How Did We Get So Dark (2017) and Typhoon (2021).
Watch Royal Blood’s unusual exit from the stage at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend.
