Tom Morello and Nandi Bushell have covered John Lennon‘s ‘Power To The People’ at Download Festival – watch footage of the performance below.
This past weekend, while performing at Download 2024, the guitarist – who has also been a part of Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave, Prophets of Rage and more – brought out teenage drum prodigy Nandi Bushell as a special guest.
Bushell’s appearance came at the tail-end of Morello’s set, which had included songs like ‘Like A Stone’, a Rage Against The Machine medley and ‘Killing In The Name’. During the cover of ‘Power To The People’, the band stepped aside as they let Bushell go wild on the drums for a quick solo.
Watch footage of Tom Morello and Nandi Bushell covering John Lennon’s ‘Power To The People’ below.
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The choice to cover ‘Power To The People’ is especially poignant after it was revealed that Barclays Bank had officially withdrawn from sponsoring the festival (along with Latitude and Isle Of Wight) after several artists had dropped out of the showcase in protest.
After the news of Barclays’ withdrawal, Morello took to X (formerly Twitter) to reveal that he had been working behind the scenes to force the bank’s withdrawal: “A bank funding war crimes has no place at music festivals. The fact that Download has listened to its musicians and cut ties with Barclays Bank is a testament to the power of artists taking collective action for human rights. I’ve been pushing hard for this behind the scenes for some time and I salute all the artists who have taken a stand to help make this historic withdrawal happen.”
BREAKING: Barclays ends sponsorship of @DownloadFest @IsleOfWightFest & @LatitudeFest! A bank funding war crimes has no place at music festivals. The fact that Download has listened to its musicians and cut ties with Barclays Bank is a testament to the power of artists taking…
— Tom Morello (@tmorello) June 14, 2024
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The Download boycott followed a large number of acts, including Gruff Rhys, Kneecap, Sprints, Lambrini Girls, Gel, Rachel Chinouriri, Cardinals and NewDad, dropping out of SXSW earlier this year, due to that festival’s ties to the US Army and weapons companies amid the Israel-Gaza conflict.
More recently, some artists had withdrawn from playing this year’s Latitude Festival, also in connection to a sponsorship by Barclays. Among those to have made the decision include CMAT, Pillow Queens, Mui Zyu and Georgia Ruth.