2000's Alt-Rock Icon Labeled "Diva" For Forcing Another Band to End Set
Gorillaz' Damon Albarn is facing backlash after a Danish psych rock band accused him of forcing organizers to cut their set short during his own headlining show.
Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats were performing on Roskilde Festival's Lagune stage on July 2, at the same time Gorillaz headlined the festival's Orange stage. According to the band, their set was pulled after only 25 minutes because Albarn complained he could hear their music from across the grounds.
In a statement posted to Instagram, Uncle Acid wrote that "pop diva" Albarn "threw a hissy fit" and threatened to walk off stage before their performance was shut down for being "too loud." The band said their front of house engineer was operating below the festival's decibel limit and had offered to lower the volume to keep playing, but organizers "wanted us off" anyway.
Albarn appeared to reference the sound clash during Gorillaz's set, reportedly asking the crowd whether it was normal for him to hear the neighboring stage so clearly.
Roskilde organizers gave a different account. Strong winds were expected to continue through the festival, and the team said they had adjusted the day's schedule as a precaution following what they described as an unfortunate end to Uncle Acid's show. The festival attributed the cutoff to a mix of wind and technical factors affecting sound production.
That explanation didn't sit well with Uncle Acid drummer Jon Rice, who posted his own message calling Gorillaz "soft as baby sh-t" and disputing the festival's reasoning. Rice pointed out that a band called Monolord had played the same stage during a set by The Cure earlier in the festival without incident, despite similar sound bleed between stages. He added that Uncle Acid's engineer measured two decibels under the festival's limit for the entire set.
Gorillaz and Uncle Acid had overlapping start times, with Gorillaz beginning at 10 p.m. on the Orange stage and Uncle Acid following 15 minutes later on the Lagune stage roughly half a mile away.
This isn't the first time an Albarn appearance at Roskilde has ended in chaos. In 2015, the Blur and Gorillaz frontman was removed from the stage after refusing to end an Africa Express set on schedule, and a 2018 Gorillaz performance was interrupted when a guest performer fell off the stage.
Uncle Acid closed their statement by thanking Roskilde's crew and stage manager, saying the call to end the set was "out of their hands" and came from "orders from above." The band added a note to their Danish fans promising to return for a show in Copenhagen next year.
As of this week, neither Albarn nor Gorillaz has publicly responded to the accusations.
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This story was originally published July 7, 2026 at 4:42 AM.