“He came backstage for a wee kiss and a cuddle.” Kneecap share their memories of meeting “massive fan” Noel Gallagher at this summer's Glastonbury festival

Dj Provai and Noel Gallagher — (Image credit: Luke Brennan/Redferns | Kneecap Instagram)

West Belfast hip-hop trio Kneecap are having a 2024 to remember, with rave reviews for their debut album Fine Art, film festival awards being bestowed upon their upcoming 'heightened reality' biopic Kneecap, and the likes of Elton John and former Oasis bandleader Noel Gallagher declaring themselves fans of their work.

In a new interview conducted with NME, the trio - or more specifically DJ Próvaí (JJ Ó Dochartaigh) - talked about their encounter with Noel Gallagher at Glastonbury festival, joking, “I've been a massive fan of Blur my whole life, so growing up I was like, I want to meet this fella.”

The band posted a photo of the encounter on Instagram, with a caption referencing The Wolfe Tones' classic 'rebel' song On The One Road, and acknowledging Gallagher's County Mayo roots.

“Mayo people are generally decent spuds, as we would say in Ireland,” Próvaí tells NME. “It was lovely to get chatting to him. He said he’s a massive fan. He came backstage for a wee kiss and a cuddle. It was good to meet him.”

“Now we're all best friends,” jokes rapper Móglaí Bap (Naoise Ó Cairealláin).

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Gallagher caught the band's post-midnight set on the Shangri-La stage at Glastonbury, and declared the trio “really, really good.”

“We went to see this Northern Irish street kids called Kneecap… they’re kind of pro Republican rappers,” he told his friend Matt Morgan's podcast. “We get there and the tent is absolutely fucking smashed packed – you couldn’t get in. These three lads walk out, one of them is in a balaclava and they rap in Gaelic [sic]. They’ve got a song called Get Your Brits Out. There’s a lot of humour to it… I couldn’t believe how enjoyable it was. Being of Irish heritage I found that quite funny and they were really, really good.”

Earlier this month, Kneecap, the film, won the Best Irish Film Award, the Audience Award and the Irish Language Feature Film Award, at the Galway Film Fleadh. The film will be released in Ireland on August 8, and in the UK on August 23. Dates for screenings worldwide will be announced soon, though the film will not be shown in Israel, in light of the on-going genocide in Palestine.

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A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.