Who are Bob Vylan, the punk duo who led a ‘death to the IDF’ chant at Glastonbury?

The performance will not be available to rewatch on BBC iPlayer.

Bobby, the lead singer and guitarist of the band, who made the chant, posted an Instagram story to his 115,000 followers following the drama, holding a cup of pink ice cream.

“While Zionists are crying on socials, I’ve just had late night (vegan) icecream,” he wrote. The singer has reportedly kept veganism for 10 years.

During his set, Bobby shared an anecdote about how he used to work for a record label under a boss “who would speak very strongly about his support for Israel”.

He went on: “We’ve done it all, from working in bars to working for f****ing Zionists, and if we can do this, I promise you lot, you can do absolutely anything that you put your mind to.”

A government spokesperson said: “We strongly condemn the threatening comments made by Bob Vylan at Glastonbury.”

But who are Bob Vylan and have they been outspoken about Israel before?

Both members use stage names to withhold their identity and collectively refer to themselves as "the Bobs”. However, the Telegraph has named the lead singer as Pascal Robinson-Foster. Their ages are also unknown, though Bobby is reportedly in his thirties and has a child.

The band was formed in 2017, with a musical style blending elements of grime, punk rock and hip hop. To date, they have three albums: We Live Here (2020), Bob Vylan Presents: The Price of Life (2022), which entered the UK Albums Chart at number 18, and Humble as the Sun (2024).

The lead singer went to his first pro-Palestine protest when he was 15 and has since taken part in many of the national demonstrations since the Israel-Gaza war began on October 7, 2023.

At that first protest, he remembered the “feeling of people coming together and using their voice to say that they don’t stand by the actions of this country,” he told Guardian journalist Jason Okundaye.

The singer has been publicly critical of musicians for not speaking up in support of Gaza, including Sleaford Mods and IDLES at a show in Dublin in November 2023. “How the f*** can you call yourself a political left-wing band if you are not f****ing speaking up for people that have no voice at the moment?” he said on stage during a performance.

Interestingly, it was during Bobby’s tirade against the “cowardly” musicians that he apparently invoked Bob Dylan, the Jewish singer-songwriter who seems to inspire the name of his own band.

“Bob Dylan – Bob Vylan - would rather f***ing fight, you f***ing cowardly bands,” he told the crowds. It is not clear whether the mention of Dylan was an accidental slip-up.

Growing up between Ipswich and Stepney Green, Bobby began making music as a child on the PlayStation game Music 2000. He told the Guardian that he developed a political consciousness at a young age thanks to meeting a woman who ran local African-Caribbean events, who opened his eyes to “the treatment of other people, no matter where they are in the world”. He met Bobbie at a London bar in 2017, and together they formed the band.

Much of the duo’s music is overtly political, including I Heard You Want Your Country Back, from their first album, which they performed as Glastonbury. The lyrics include: “I heard you want your country back / Shut the f*** up / I heard you want your country back / Uh-uh, you can't have that.”

During the duo’s performance of the song yesterday, the phrase “this country was built on the backs of immigrants” was projected in the background.

The song Reign, from the band’s most recent album, makes the case for slavery reparations: “Got a message for the thieves in palace / We want our jewels back / Bottle that burn, Britannia.”