The thriller of the decapitated head of a King George V statue has resurfaced after it surprisingly appeared throughout a Kneecap gig in Melbourne, Australia.
Kneecap, the outspoken and political hip-hop group from Belfast who gained rave critiques for his or her truth-adjacent biopic, are presently on tour in Australia, with the incident fittingly occurring over St Patrick’s Day weekend.
The band – which is made up of members Mo Chara, Moglai Bap and DJ Provai – shared a picture of the statue’s head on Instagram.
Within the caption, they wrote: “Properly nicely a chairde Gael! Some madman dropped by with an enormous King George’s head so he may hear just a few tunes for our final Melbourne present!
“Allegedly his head was minimize off final 12 months within the metropolis… in any case he was placed on stage for just a few tunes after which whisked away… keep in mind each colony can fall.”
The statue was decapitated and defaced in June 2024 amid a wave of anti-colonial vandalism in Australia. It briefly reappeared in an Instagram video posted in January 2025 the place the top had been set on fireplace on a barbecue, and has remained lacking since – till now.
A number of historic statues had been broken in Melbourne and Canberra forward of the Australia Day celebrations in January this 12 months, as protests across the nation confirmed assist for Indigenous individuals who don’t think about it a day to have fun.
In Melbourne, a statue of John Batman, founding father of the nation’s second-largest metropolis who was concerned within the killing of Aboriginal folks, was discovered sawed in half.
The phrases “Land again” had been spray-painted on a memorial for Australian troopers who died preventing in World Warfare I. In the meantime, in Canberra, the phrases “The colony is falling” had been graffitied on a statue of King George V.
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“Melbourne Crime Investigation Unit detectives proceed to research injury to a statue in Kings Area final 12 months,” learn a press release from Melbourne police regarding the Kneecap live performance.
“Investigators are additionally conscious that the top from what seems to be a statue appeared at a live performance in Melbourne on 14 March. Detectives will examine whether or not there’s any hyperlink between the 2 incidents.”
This information follows after Kneecap gained their authorized problem over a call by former enterprise secretary Kemi Badenoch to refuse them a £14,250 funding award.
The UK authorities was pressured to concede the choice was “illegal”.
The band had launched authorized motion claiming the choice to refuse the grant discriminated in opposition to them on the grounds of nationality and political opinion.
