Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis wants his fans to respect the mosh pit and respect other fans at live concerts. After seeing some distressing things on his band's current tour, the "What Went Down" singer pleaded for fans to be kind to each other on Twitter, and reiterated his passions in a lengthy interview.
In speaking to DIY, Philippakis elaborated on his reasoning for speaking out about out-of-contril mosh pits. "I used to love moshing, and there's an inherent aggression and violence to that type of thing that goes on at a show, particularly if it's like a circle-pit type thing. I think there's got to be some common sense," he said. "But I also have seen, not necessarily at our own shows but just over the years, people can get sucked into those things when they don't really want to be, and I think that just having an element of compassion for people that are in the set and you can see if someone's not enjoying it or feels threatened or feels like they're getting hurt, then I think it's a small thing to say, just to say 'look out for whoever's there'."
He also spoke about a girl he had heard about, as well as women in general, and how they have been treated badly in mosh pits. He explained how it has bothered him and how there's an "increasing awareness" and "shady" things that go on which he'd rather not even hear about.
Philippakis then clarified that he is not trying to say that he doesn't want any mosh pits, in fact, he encourages them, he just hopes that fans can find a healthy balance.
"I don't want shows to be that thing where they [fans] don't feel like they can go mental," he stated. "I think that the beauty of a live rock show is the crowd feeling like it can be ecstatic, and at times that's to do with moshing and that's to do with circle pits and that's to do with crowdsurfing."
Be good to each other in the pits. No place for shady macho behaviour towards the sisters!
— Yannis Philippakis (@YnnsPhilippakis) November 7, 2015
In addition to speaking out about mosh pits on social media, Philippakis was one of many musicians who spoke out and offered his condolences after the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, one of which struck the Bataclan concert hall where Eagles Of Death Metal were performing. Other musicians to have spoken out include Madonna, U2 and Coldplay, among many others.
