Uncle Acid Accuse Damon Albarn of Cutting Their Roskilde Set Short Over Sound Bleed

Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats have publicly blamed Damon Albarn for the premature end of their Roskilde Festival set, alleging the Gorillaz frontman had their power pulled after complaining their music was too loud. The British band was playing the Lagune stage on Thursday, July 2, half a mile from Gorillaz’s headlining slot on the Orange stage, when the plug was pulled 25 minutes into their performance.

In an Instagram post, the band labeled Albarn a “pop diva” who “threw a hissy fit while we played, threatened to storm off stage before finally getting our set shut down because we were ‘too loud.’” They claimed they were operating below the festival’s dB limit and had offered to turn down their front-of-house mix, but “his goons came over and pulled the plug.”

Video from the Gorillaz set supports the dispute: Albarn is captured asking the crowd, “Is it supposed to be possible for me to hear the other music so clearly?” then adding they could “just stop playing and listen to the other thing instead.” The festival’s organizers later attributed the cut to “a combination of wind conditions and technical factors,” noting similar disruptions had occurred throughout the day.

Uncle Acid drummer Jon Rice rejected that explanation. In a separate Instagram Story, he pointed out that The Cure headlined on a previous day alongside Monolord on the exact same stage and could faintly hear the sound bleed but “powered through like professionals.” Rice added that the band’s engineer had been running 2dB below the mandated limit, undermining the “too loud” defense. His post, which ended mid-sentence while piling further criticism on Gorillaz, made clear the band sees the incident as a failure of main-stage entitlement rather than a technicality.