Foals explain run-in with The Strokes’ “rude & disrespectful” tour managers
Frontman Yannis Philippakis told the New York band's team to “eat my ass” at TRNSMT in Glasgow last weekend
By Tom Skinner
Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis has explained his recent run-in with The Strokes’ tour managers at TRNSMT festival in Glasgow.
The Oxford trio took to the stage in the slot immediately before The Strokes‘ headline set at the Scottish festival on Saturday evening (July 9).
Later that night, Philippakis took to Twitter to air his grievances with members of the New Yorkers’ touring team. “Hey one of the 5 unnecessary tour managers of @thestrokes come meet me in catering & eat my ass,” he wrote.
Fans soon began speculating over what had happened between the two acts. One Twitter user replied to Philippakis’ post by sharing a Reddit thread, in which the singer was accused of being “egotistical” and refusing to show his artist pass to get on to the side of the stage.
In response, the frontman said this was “total crap” before offering more details on the dispute: “They had a closed stage: invited us up, handed out stage passes. Asked me to show mine, no problem showed it to get on stage to security & tm he then came over & was berating me for not having stuck it on within the minute.”
The next morning (July 10), Philippakis wrote: “Cannot convey how rude & unprofessional the tm was. Absolute ass hat. Deliberately rude & disrespectful.”
Elsewhere, another fan asked: “Did any @thestrokes TM’s go and give @YnnsPhilippakis’s scrum the business?” Philippakis replied: “Sadly not. I waited by the salad bar.”
The frontman also responded to a claim that Foals’ set had been cut short ahead of The Strokes’ bill-topping performance. “We were given an hour, would have liked to play longer but that was the slot,” he said. “All good, we loved the show.”
One of The Strokes’ tour managers, Rylee Elizabeth, jokingly hit back at Philippakis’s original “eat my ass” comment, writing on Instagram Stories (via Reddit): “You need to at least buy me dinner first.”
The Strokes have not commented on the dispute.
Meanwhile, some TRNSMT attendees have expressed their concerns over Julian Casablancas’ well-being due to his “worrying” behaviour during The Strokes’ headline show. Last week, the singer responded to similar feedback following a recent appearance at Roskilde.
“I’m fine… far as I know … people been asking me weiiird questionnns,” he wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post.
Foals are scheduled to headline Latitude Festival later this month alongside Lewis Capaldi and Snow Patrol. Their seventh studio album, ‘Life Is Yours’, came out on June 17 – read Rolling Stone UK‘s four-star review here.