Comedian Lee Nelson invades Kanye West's Glastonbury headline slot 'for Taylor Swift'

West was forced to restart the track after Brodkin was apprehended by a security guard

Roisin O'Connor
Monday 29 June 2015 12:00 BST
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Lee Nelson invades the stage during Kanye West's headline slot at Glastonbury 2015
Lee Nelson invades the stage during Kanye West's headline slot at Glastonbury 2015 (Getty Images/Oli Scarff)

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The comedian who invaded the stage during Kanye West’s headline slot at Glastonbury has said he wanted to "give him a hand".

Simon Brodkin, 38, who is best known for his antisocial character Lee Nelson, ran onstage wearing a "Lee-zus" T-shirt and carrying a mic during "Black Skinhead", the fourth song of West’s set.

His actions disrupted the song and West was forced to restart the track after Brodkin was apprehended by a security guard.

Comedian Lee Nelson is ushered off the stage by a security guard after interrupting Kanye West's performance
Comedian Lee Nelson is ushered off the stage by a security guard after interrupting Kanye West's performance (Getty Images/Oli Scarff)

Tweeting from his Lee Nelson account, he wrote: "Some people were saying Kanye shouldn’t headline Glasto so I thought I’d give him a hand."

Brodkin has stormed stages before, including an appearance in the last season of X Factor where he pretended to be one of the Stereo Kicks.

He also ran onto the pitch at Goodison Park and tried to warm up with the Manchester City team.

An additional tweet claimed that he'd "Kanye'd Kanye" and referred to the time West interrupted Taylor Swift while she was making an acceptance speech at the VMAs.

Fellow comedian John Bishop tweeted about the incident, writing: "Somehow [@RealLeeNelson] managed to be on my show and get on the stage with Kanye West at Glastonbury all in the same night… busy man."

Kanye West’s headline slot polarised the live audience and viewers from home, following a petition to stop him from performing at the festival which gained over 100,000 signatures.

The rapper, who proclaimed himself the "greatest living rockstar" during his set, was the subject of much attention on Twitter – so much so that both the correct and incorrect spellings of his name were trending topics at the same time.

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