Sticky Fingers Live @ Enmore Theatre, Sydney 2016 / Photo By Liam

Sticky Fingers Deny Making Racist Taunts Against Sydney Band

Sticky Fingers have responded to claims their singer racially taunted an Indigenous band at a Sydney gig last month.

The guitarist for local act DISPOSSESSED took to Facebook the night after the show at Marrickville’s Red Rattler to accuse StiFi frontman Dylan Frost of hurling racially-charged abuse at them during the show.

“I am not a monkey to play on command and we walked off stage when the lead singer of Sticky Fingers among many others began grossly shirt fronting us…” Birrugan Dunn-Velasco said.

However, speaking to The Music, fellow StiFi members Paddy Cornwall and Seamus Coyle claimed the whole thing was just a “massive misunderstanding”.

“Basically Dylan was at the show and there was a speech being made,” Cornwall explained. “There were a few words being thrown around the room. Dylan yelled out ‘Fuck Pauline Hanson’ and he’s admitted that, you know, it was like not really his place to, sort of, yell out something and he’s apologised for it.

“But I think he was mistaken to say something else about maybe being pro-Pauline Hanson or something of the like.”

He added: “And Dylan also isn’t white. He’s actually a Maori, so it kinda doesn’t really make any sense. We’re not racists, basically. Us being accused of being racists is ridiculous.”

Dunn-Velasco’s initial Facebook post triggered a social media uproar, but StiFi say they intentionally didn’t respond to comments on their own page to avoid stoking the fire.

“…We don’t wanna give the actual dickheads and racist idiots of this country a platform in which they don’t deserve to say and do horrible things,” Cornwall said.

“Once again, hate only breeds hate. And yeah, we actually stand with the DISPOSSESSED crew and what they’re about. I dunno, we didn’t really feel like them character assassinating not just Dylan, but the entire band, was really fair.”

The bassist added that Sticky Fingers are close with the family of famous Aboriginal activist Charlie Perkins, who advised them to not make a statement on the alleged incident and instead attempt to contact DISPOSSESSED privately, which they did, but have yet to receive a response.

“You’d have to ask Dylan about it, he wrote the apology letter to [guitarist] Serwah [Attafuah],” Cornwall says. “I’ve also reached out to Birrugan but haven’t heard back.”

“Since [DISPOSSESSED] haven’t really gotten back to us we’re still trying to arrange to meet up with them and, sort of, settle it peacefully, rather than just create some bullshit hype crap on the internet.”

Read Dunn-Velasco’s original post below.

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