PoliticsHome first revealed that the disco band was set to play at Reform UK conference (Alamy)
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Exclusive: Boney M’s original lead singer has criticised “fake reckless” band members for performing at Reform UK’s conference last week, saying that Nigel Farage’s party “has not embraced people who are in need”.
In a statement shared with PoliticsHome, Liz Mitchell, the disco act’s original singer, said it is “important that the UK continues to be a welcoming place for immigrants and those seeking asylum“, after her father came to the United Kingdom as part of the Windrush generation.
PoliticsHome revealed in the days leading up to last week’s Reform conference in Birmingham that Boney M was expected to perform at the afterparty.
However, there were question marks over which version of Boney M was booked to entertain conference attendees, with original lead singer Mitchell and dancer Maizie Williams having both recently performed under the name of Boney M.
In the end, it was Williams’ Boney M that performed on Friday night, with the conference agenda promising “a burst of disco” at Birmingham’s NEC arena.
On Monday, Mitchell told PoliticsHome she was “saddened” that “reckless fake people who have no idea how these songs were sung and the powerful meaning behind them could dare to pretend to be who they are not”.
Mitchell accused those performing on Friday of “selling their souls” and “their race”, “for money” at an event “that has not embraced people who are in need”.
She added that the songs that made Boney M famous decades ago, including Daddy Cool and Rasputin, “carried an energy of love and peace”.
“My father came to the UK as part of the Windrush generation, building a life here where he was very happy. I too came here from Jamaica and was awarded an MBE for my services to Music and Charity. It’s important that the UK continues to be a welcoming place for immigrants and those seeking asylum.”
Williams’ manager, Donavon Nelson, has denied any political affiliation with Reform since the Friday night performance, according to German media.
Nelson told the publication Stern that Williams and the other performers who appeared at the conference afterparty neither support a political party nor interfere in politics. He added that when they were first approached about performing, it wasn’t clear that it was a Reform event.
The Boney M saga is not the only music-related controversy to emerge from Reform conference. Kevin Rowland, lead singer of Birmingham band Dexys Midnight Runners, said he was “disgusted” to hear Come On Eileen used by Farage before his speech.