BBC Forced To Apologise Over Racist Iggy Pop Comment

During Glastonbury interview...

June 26, 2007 by Daniel Melia

The BBC have apologised after Iggy Pop made a racist remark during a live interview at the Glastonbury festival.

The Stooges front man was talking about visiting shops in North London when he made the remark.

During the anecdote about Camden he said he visited “Paki shops” which resulted in several complaints from viewers.

At the time hosts Jo Whiley and Mark Radcliffe failed to make an on air apology about the comment.

Speaking about the incident a spokesman for the BBC said: "We would like to apologise if anyone was offended."

Gigwise was on site at Glastonbury all weekend, to read more about our experiences check out our blog.

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I watched this and was a bit of a shocked to hear it- Jo & Mark seemed a bit taken aback too & unsure of how to deal with it- ignoring it in the hope that no-one would notice. However I get the impression Iggy just thought it was a standard British colloquialism and didnt realise it might cause offence. It’s difficult for people coming from abroad to know what is and what isnt acceptable to say in here in Blightly. Plus Iggy generally seems a bit odd,making it ultra-hard for him.
~ by FaFaFa 6/26/2007 Report
He’s an idiot at the end of the day. Not a racist, just dumb
~ by Mark H 6/26/2007 Report
you’re crazy...it’s like I’d say that I’ve visited spanish or french shops, this is very far from racism.
~ by Sara 6/28/2007 Report
A ”packie” shop is Canadian and US slang for a cheap liquor store. Nothing to apologise for IMHO apart from not knowing the minutiae of racial etiquette in this country. see this Wikipedia link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquor_store
~ by Richard 6/29/2007 Report