Nigel Kennedy to David Garrett: ‘F… off’

As a general rule, we avoid publishing the regular proclamations of the ageing Bad Boy of British music – I’m giving up classical music, I’m leaving England, that sort of thing.

But Nigel Kennedy has just picked a fight with the Bad Boy of German music and we thought you ought to know about it as there may be consequences.

Nigel was asked by Die Welt what he thought of David. He replied: ‘David can play the violin. He finds the right notes.’

He went on: ‘I like to play new pieces. David plays last night’s stuff.’

And: ‘Käme David Garrett zu mir auf die Bühne, würde ich sagen: Runter hier!“’

Which, in the original English was probably ‘If David came up to me on stage I’d tell him to fuck off.’

The German tabloids are full of it today, just as Nigel intended.