Rammstein have issued a statement following the accusations raised against frontman Till Lindemann, who was dropped from his book publisher after being accused of drink spiking and sexual misconduct.
The allegations against the German singer-songwriter first arose last month, when a fan took to social media claiming to have been spiked at a pre-show party.
As reported by Loudwire, the accusations came from a Reddit user going by the name of Shelby69666, who uploaded a now-deleted post titled “Fuck Rammstein” that showed a photo of a large bruise with the caption “Spiked, no idea when this happened.”
According to the report, she had attended the band’s concert in Vilnius the day before and was invited to a pre-party by a crew member. After numerous threads related to the initial update were deleted from Reddit due to them being considered hearsay, an account with a Shelby69666 username appeared on Twitter, elaborating on the allegations.
Here the user explained that she had contacted a crew member who allegedly recruits women to stand in the front row at Rammstein concerts, and was later escorted with a group of women to “Row 0” — a pre-party where she was allegedly spiked and shouted at by the frontman when she said she didn’t want to have sex with him.
Rammstein performs live on stage at Olympia Stadion on May 28, 2023 in Helsinki, Finland. Credit: Venla Shalin/GETTY
After returning to “Row 0”, she claimed to have vague memories of attending an afterparty, vomiting in a bathroom and returning to her hotel room. She has made it clear in her posts that she is not accusing Lindemann of rape, stating: “Till did NOT touch me. He accepted I did not want to have sex with him”. Following the accusations, the band denied any wrongdoing.
Elsewhere, last Friday (June 2) German Publication Tagesschau published a report that contained new charges from other women, all of which accused the frontman of sexual assault.
Now, Lindemann has been dropped by his book publisher, Kiepenheuer & Witsch following the allegations, and the band have issued a second statement online.
Announcing the news on Twitter, the publishing house — which also goes by the acronym KiWi — wrote (translated from German): “It is with shock that we have followed public allegations against Till Lindemann in the last few days. Our sympathy and respect goes to the women affected.”
It also proceeded to reference a recently-earthed “porn video in which Till Lindemann celebrates sexual violence against women” as contributing to the decision to part ways with the singer, as well as citing Lindemann’s book of poetry On Quiet Nights, which was published by the company and contained sections of erotica. The latter, it described as a “gross breach of trust” and “a ruthless act in relation to the values we represent as a publisher.”
“From our point of view, Till Lindemann exceeds immovable limits in dealing with women,” it read. “We have therefore decided to end our collaboration with Till Lindemann with immediate effect, as our relationship of trust with the author has been irretrievably broken.”
Responding to both the comments from the publishing house and the accusations raised by Tagesschau, the band have once again denied all allegations on social media, and urged fans to withhold from joining in the “public prejudice” against the members and those coming forward with accusations.
“The publications of the last few days have caused irritation and questions among the public and especially among our fans. The allegations hit us all very hard, and we take them extremely seriously,” the statement wrote. “We say to our fans: It is important to us that you feel comfortable and safe at our shows – in front of and behind the stage.”
“We condemn any kind of transgression and ask you: Do not engage in public prejudice of any kind against those who have made allegations,” it continued. “You have a right to your point of view. But we, the band, also have a right – namely not to be prejudiced either.”
At time of writing, Lindemann’s upcoming shows — which include a solo show at London’s Wembley Arena — are still set to take place as scheduled.
NME has reached out to a spokesperson for Lindemann and Rammstein for further comment.
For help, advice or more information regarding sexual harassment, assault and rape in the UK, visit the Rape Crisis charity website. In the US, visit RAINN.
Meta revealed a set of themed AI chatbots in a conference held in California this week, and a standout was the Dungeon Master portrayed by Snoop Dogg.
Mark Zuckerberg directed this particular part of the Meta Connect showcase on September 27 and said that users will be able to “invoke Meta AI” anywhere in their conversations on their phone.
“This isn’t just gonna be about answering queries – this is about entertainment… we did something a little different for us, we partnered with a bunch of pretty awesome people to basically embody these and play them,” he continued, showing off the Victor, who is portrayed by former Miami Heat basketball player Dwyane Wade.
There is also Bru portrayed by former football quarterback Tom Brady, Max portrayed by chef Roy Choi, the Manger Master portrayed by tennis player Naomi Osaka, Amber portrayed by media personality Paris Hilton and the Funny Man portrayed by YouTuber Jimmy “Mr Beast” Donaldson.
Meta Connect
Apologies for the delayed start. We will be getting started shortly. Thanks for being here with us.Join Mark Zuckerberg and special guests as they unveil the new Meta Quest 3 and reveal how Meta is bringing mixed reality to life. You’ll hear how AI can help people connect and express themselves in new ways and get a first look at the latest products and updates that will help developers build the future of social technology. Interested in watching this in another language? Watch here https://bit.ly/3LEnpF3
Posted by Meta on Wednesday, September 27, 2023
All of these chatbots were created for a range of conversations – Max will assist with any culinary questions whereas Amber specialises in true crime.
As the Dungeon Master, Snoop Dogg wore a red leather collared cape, a set of armour and a gold chain with a sword. “Now you can just drop the Dungeon Master into one of your chats,” said Zuckerberg in the presentation and demoed a short adventure described by the rapper.
In an interview with The Verge, Zuckerberg argued that AI personas ensure that it’s a more attractive concept for potential consumers.
“I think that all this stuff makes it more compelling,” he said. “It was only over the course of developing [Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses] that we realised that, ‘Hey, we could actually put this whole generative AI assistant into it, and you could have these glasses that are kind of stylish Ray-Ban glasses, and you could be talking to AI all throughout the day about different questions you have.’”
In other gaming news, Cities: Skylines 2 has been delayed for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S because the development team requires more time to ensure the quality of the release.
U2 have today (September 28) shared a teaser of their upcoming new single ‘Atomic City’ – check it out below.
READ MORE: ‘Kiss The Future’ review: U2’s historic gig in war-torn Sarajevo
The song has previously been heard briefly when U2 played a surprise show in front of the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas earlier this month (September 16). The band were filming the music video for the song.
The song is a nod to Las Vegas, where the band are due to take up their forthcoming residency at the new MSG Sphere in the city. The run of shows, which are the first to be played at the new venue, will kick off on September 29 and will see them play their 1991 album ‘Achtung Baby’ in full.
‘Atomic City’ was a nickname for Vegas in the 1950s due to its proximity to the Nevada Test Site at a time when nuclear fascination swept America.
Those who heard the song in September said it contained the lyrics “I’m free, so unexpectedly/I’m free from what’s in front of me!” and “I’ve got the key to the cages, waiting for my dice/I came here for the fight/I’m front row in Las Vegas. And there’s a big one on tonight”.
Produced by Jacknife Lee and Steve Lillywhite, the new song was recorded at Sound City in LA. A statement about the song describes it as a “homage to the magnetic spirit of ’70’s post punk with a nod to Blondie, whose pioneering work with Giorgio Moroder inspired and influenced the band.”
Bono said of the song: “It’s a love song to our audience …’where you are is where I’ll be’.”
You can see the video teaser of the song, along with the single artwork below:
‘Atomic City’ artwork – CREDIT: Press/U2
The video is directed by Ben Kutchins, with creative direction by Tarik Mikou with Moment Factory Music, and features U2’s late night surprise performance in Vegas last week. The video was filmed in the same Fremont Street location where the band filmed their video for ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’ 36 years ago.
U2 will be playing the first few shows of their ‘Achtung Baby’ residency without drummer Larry Mullen Jr while he recovers from surgery. Despite this, he was present at the music video shoot.
“He doesn’t follow doctor’s orders,” Bono remarked during the video shoot, to which the audience cheered.
In an interview with the Daily Star newspaper’s Wired column (via Irish Mirror), bassist Adam Clayton said: “The whole band and I’m sure the audience are going to be very sad and miss Larry. He wants to come back, he wants to be able to have a long career and continue his drumming so he’s taking care of those injuries.”
He also explained that, while Mullen continues to recover, Krezip drummer Bram van den Berg will be taking his place and performing at the first run of Nevada shows. This, Clayton continued, was a choice which the band decided on after they were given their bandmate’s blessing.
In other U2 news, last week the band announced ‘Zoo Station’ – an immersive experience for fans, designed ahead of their upcoming shows.
Opening on September 28, the immersive fan portal, called ‘Zoo Station: A U2:UV Experience’ is designed to help fans gather a deeper understanding of the band’s acclaimed album ‘Achtung Baby’.
Jason Blum, the producer behind The Exorcist: Believer, has revealed that he was scared “to death” of Taylor Swift’s ‘The Eras Tour’ film box office face-off.
Swift had decided to release her ‘Eras Tour’ concert film in mid-October, prompting Blum to change the release date of his upcoming film, the sequel to the 1973 hit horror film The Exorcist.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Blum joked: “The one thing that scares me to death is Taylor Swift!”
He added: “Obviously, we moved off that [date] and we bowed our head to Taylor Swift. It was too risky to see if ‘Exorswift’ was going to take or not. People will still have the Exorswift opportunity, so maybe we got to have our cake and eat it too.”
The horror film was set to release on Friday, October 13. But Swift surprised everyone with the announcement of an ‘Eras Tour’ concert movie on the same date. Blum took to X/Twitter to share a tweet that read “#Exorswift”.
“We had this amazing Friday the 13th in October, which is the single best day to release a scary movie,” explained Blum, who is working on a trilogy of Exorcist films in partnership with the franchise’s rights-holders Morgan Creek.
The same day he tweeted “#Exorswift”, Blum went on to share a new tweet announcing that The Exorcist: Believer had been moved up a week. “Look what you made me do,” read the tweet. “The Exorcist: Believer moves to 10/6/23 #TaylorWins.”
Directed by David Gordon Green, who helmed the recent Halloween reboot trilogy, The Exorcist: Believer similarly serves as a direct sequel to William Friedkin’s 1973 original.
The film is the first entry in a planned trilogy, with a follow-up titled The Exorcist: Deceiver scheduled to be released on April 18, 2025.
In 2016, The Exorcist was adapted into a TV series which was designed as a continuation of the original film. The series was cancelled in 2018 after two seasons.
The Exorcist: Believer is released in cinemas on October 13, 2023.
