The lead singer of the British rock band The Editors, thanked Israel for a memorable night after performing in Tel Aviv Wednesday. Singer Tom Smith wrote on behalf of the band explaining why they decided to go ahead and perform in Israel at a time so many international artists are boycotting the country. “Playing a show in a country is not an endorsement of its government,” he said.
At a time international singers and bands are cancelling their performances and boycotting Israel, the British rock band the Editors played in Tel Aviv Wednesday night and sent out a message to Israeli fans the following day, thanking them for a memorable evening.
Tom Smith, the band’s lead singer wrote on the British rock band’s web site a letter explaining why the group refused to cancel their performance in Israel.
Titled “thank you Tel Aviv for a beautiful evening, one that will linger on in our memories for a very long time,” Smith said, “when Pixies cancelled their headlining performance at PicNic we talked long and hard about if it was the "right thing" for us to still go or not, as we did when we initially got the offer for the show all those months ago. But the simple fact is we do not believe that playing a show in a country is an endorsement of its government.”
Smith goes on to say that the band performed in North America even though it was not “comfortable with the invasion of Iraq.”
“Right now there is no global concerted effort to change the situation between the Israelis and the Palestinians as there was from the world's media, sports stars and musicians etc with apartheid era South Africa. Sure, given the recent events and the way Israel and the whole of the Middle East is discussed and viewed through the western media it would have been the easier thing to do for us to cancel, to forget about it and wait until Israel is out of the news again,” he wrote.
Smith went on to say that while terrible things happen all over the world, it is the governments and not the citizens who are to blame.
Referring to Wednesday night’s conference, he said “Tonight we played one of the most memorable shows of our career, 1004 people singing their hearts out, 1004 people who hope for peace and resolve wherever the troubles may be, be it on the door step or the other side of the world. “
“Thank you for tonight Tel Aviv, we hope to see you again soon. Peace. Tom (and the other Editors).”
The band was formed in Birmingham in 2002 and has so far released two platinum albums, selling over two million copies. |
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