Lead singer for the band Enter Shikari took to Twitter to clarify that their shortened set at Reading Festival on Saturday “wasn’t an act of censorship”.
Just to clarify everyone – it wasn’t an act of censorship, it was a power outage at front-of-house.
Immense bad luck, and of course bad timing. https://t.co/b9ayYgx57m
— ʀ⎊ᴜ ʀᴇʏɴ⎊ (@RouReynolds) August 28, 2022
Yesterday Enter Shikari were performing on the Main Stage East of the festival when a power failure forced them to cut their set short and leave the stage. The band were unable to return and finish their set because of the tight schedule of bands set to perform after them. The band was abruptly pulled off the stage following Reynolds’ passionate speech about polluting water firms like Thames Water, leading many fans on social media to speculate that this was done on purpose rather than due to a genuine power outage.
I find this quite hard to believe considering it was the only power outage of the whole day. And Thames Water being corporate partners of the festival…. pic.twitter.com/qjbSkl2RY3 — David Trenholm (@DJTrenholm) August 28, 2022
This morning the rumours swirling on social media that the power outage was an of censorship, one Twitter user saying, “I find this quite hard to believe considering it was the only power outage of the whole day. And Thames Water being corporate partners of the festival….”.
In his Twitter post this morning, Reynolds addressed the situation, saying, “Just to clarify everyone – it wasn’t an act of censorship, it was a power outage at front-of-house. Immense bad luck, and of course bad timing.” He went on, “We then had our set cut as the power cut pushed our set over our allotted time slot. Frustrating as hell but the festival has to keep to the timetable understandably, to stop stampedes in between stages. We had a fucking blast though. Big up everyone at [Reading]. Love only.”
We then had our set cut as the power cut pushed our set over our allotted time slot. Frustrating as hell but the festival has to keep to the timetable understandably, to stop stampedes in between stages.
We had a fucking blast though. Big up everyone at @OfficialRandL. Love only
— ʀ⎊ᴜ ʀᴇʏɴ⎊ (@RouReynolds) August 28, 2022
About ten minutes after his first tweet, the musician added in another tweet, “Regardless of the power cut pause, I still got to berate Thames Water & other polluting water companies in front of thousands of people, + thousands more watching back on BBC. So even if it had been an attempt at censorship it was a poor one as I still got to finish the speech.”
Regardless of the power cut pause, I still got to berate Thames Water & other polluting water companies in front of thousands of people, + thousands more watching back on BBC. So even if it had been an attempt at censorship it was a poor one as I still got to finish the speech. — ʀ⎊ᴜ ʀᴇʏɴ⎊ (@RouReynolds) August 28, 2022
Luckily for Enter Shikari fans, Reynolds joined Australian electronic, hard rock band Pendulum on the Dance Stage during their secret set to perform the Enter Shikari song ‘Sorry You’re Not A Winner’ (watch the performance above). The band had left clues to their secret set by posting flyers with their logo and a phone number printed on them. When dialled, you heard the following message: “Ladies and gentlemen, we understand that you have come tonight to bear witness to the sound of drum and bass. We regret to announce that this is not the case. As instead we come tonight to bring you the sonic recreation of the end of the world. Reading Festival prepare to hold your colour.”
Earlier this month, Enter Shikari teamed up with London electronic rock duo Wargasm to release the single “The Void Stares Back”, the band’s first since their 2020 single “The Great Unknown” from their UK number two album Nothing Is True & Everything Is Possible.
The Reading Festival closes today with performances from The 1975, Halsey and Charli XCX.
