Controversy
Gillespie was criticised for defacing a Make Poverty History poster signed by all the acts at the festival. Gillespie scribbled over this and wrote "Make Israel History". Gillespie later said that he did this in support of Palestine, and when questioned on whether he was anti-Semitic, he responded "There's Israeli and Jewish people who support the Palestinian cause as well. We did a lot of work for the Hoping Foundation to raise money for children in the Palestinian refugee camps and the lady who got us involved is Bella Freud, Lucian Freud's daughter and Sigmund Freud's great granddaughter. They had to flee Austria to escape Nazi persecution, and she believes in the Palestinian cause. To say we're anti-Semitic is a smear, so you'd better watch what you're saying. Because you oppose one country's government's policies doesn't mean to say that you hate all the people from that country. I don't like Bush or Putin or Tony Blair, but I don't hate American, Russian or British people. Most people are just trying hard to get by."
Gillespie was involved in a campaign to prevent a local pub gaining extended hours saying, "I found the repetitiveness disturbing and I was unable to sleep because of it".
Steven Van Zandt, guitarist in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and The Sopranos cast member, described Gillespie as a "waste of space" after his attempts to organise a Primal Scream tour of the United States were stymied by Gillespie's drug problems.
Read more about this topic: Bobby Gillespie
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