A war of words has broken out over an alleged racial incident involving Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon and Bloc Party singer Kele Okereke.
A story originally printed in
The Guardian alleges that Okereke approached Lydon backstage at the Summercase festival in Spain last weekend, to ask if his post-Sex Pistols band P.I.L might ever reform. A statement from the band alleges what happened next: "The Sex Pistols singer became intimidating and aggressive while his
entourage responded with a racist tirade including the statement, 'Your
problem is your black attitude'. Kele was then set upon by three members of Lydon's crew who punched
him in the face and head as well as attacking people who tried to
protect Kele from the assault including Yannis Philippakis from Foals
and Kaiser Chiefs' Ricky Wilson. The incident was broken up by festival
security and was later reported to Spanish police. Kele also reported
the incident to police in the UK after returning from Spain."
Soon after the story broke Lydon furiously denied the allegations, saying initially "I feel very sorry for a man who needs to lie about what was a perfect evening."
The Sex Pistols version of events is somewhat different: "After the show John Rotten and management remained behind to sign autographs, which we did for four solid hours without incident and had a great time talking to other Spanish bands. This seems to have sparked jealousy in certain bands. The trouble was brought to us, resulting in those causing the trouble being physically removed by festival security."
In the statement, issued to
NME.com, Lydon adds, "We are in the middle of a wonderful tour, after 30 years we are achieving a true unity in our audience. They are multi-varied, all ages, all races, creeds and colours. When you are at a festival with bands who are jealous fools, lies and confusion usually follow. If they need publicity so badly this is the allegation universe they run into. Lydon also tells Okereke to "grow up and learn to be a true man", adding: "When you have achieved as much as I have, come back and talk to me. It's a shame that the wonderful world of the media is riddled with nonsense like this."
Now today comes another affirmation of Bloc Party's version of events (having already been backed up by members of Foals and Kaiser Chiefs) from Welsh rocker Gruff Rhys, frontman of Super Furry Animals and Neon Neon, whom was also playing at the festival. He told
MTV News, "It was horrific. Kele is a very brave man and what he said is exactly what happened. The statements Kele has said are absolutely true. It did happen."
(Source: WENN)