Openly gay Bloc Party singer Kele Okereke had a hell of a weekend.
The twenty-six year old and his band mates were in Spain for the Summercase festival.
Milling about backstage, Okereke saw former Sex Pistols vocalist John "Johnny Rotten" Lydon, one of his favorite artists. Eager to meet the legend, Okereke walked on over and began to chat him up. That's when the trouble began…
Branding the incident an "unprovoked racist attack", Okereke suffered severe facial bruising, cuts to his face and body and a split lip.
According to Bloc Party, their singer approached Lydon to ask if he would ever consider reforming one of Okereke's favorite bands, Public Image Ltd.
However, in a statement from the younger band they claimed that 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'."
Okereke was then involved in a fight with three of Lydon's associates, at which point Foals' Philippakis and Kaiser Chiefs' Ricky Wilson stepped in to help the Bloc Party man.
"It's not an issue of the physical assault, even though it was an unprovoked attack, it is the fact that race was brought into the matter so readily," Okereke explained today. "Someone as respected and as intelligent as Lydon should know better than to bring race into the equation, or socialise with and encourage those who hold such narrow-minded attitudes. I am disappointed that someone I held with such high regard turns out to be such a bigot."
Well, they don't call Lydon "Johnny Rotten" for nothing.
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BLOC PARTY RAWKS! the sex pistols are old….meh
Um, it's Johnny Rotten. If he's a "favorite artist" of yours, then you know that he's famous for being prone to violent outbursts.
Plus, from this article, it sounds like Lydon didn't say anything racist himself and was not personally involved in the physical altercation.
Sounds like a manufactured story designed to get Okereke some publicity.
well…
…actually,
it's John Lydon,
the meta meta persona,
and as such this is pretty shocking…
Even when he was "Rotten" his anger was never aimed at minorities through racism…
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Johnny Rotten is a joke, do we really care about a loser whose career died in the 70s ?
Adrien is correct. If it hadn't been for Sid Vicious dying, Lyden wouldn't be able to milk his death and the short lived success of the Sex Pistols to this day. Really, what has he accomplished besides not dying?
Johnny Rotten is a turd sandwich.
http://www.gigwise.com/news.asp?contentid=7663
A guy who's so full of himself that he believes he's the next Bono arrogantly approaches Sex pistols and demands to see Johnny,and when he's told that's not possible starts to stir some drama by verbally attacking inducing them to fight and then has the nerve to allege that it was because his black.
Sounds familiar. No no black attitude there.
This Nigerian has a history (view 2005 link ^) of trying to bring attention to his opaque career by criticizing and causing ruckus with other bands like Green Day.
Yet another fine example of the type of problems the UK has brought on itself by allowing over-immigration from the African and Muslim world.
What a shock that churchill-y blames everything on the black guy.
Well, I don't know much about this Okereke guy and it seems like Queerty should get some other accounts of the story before reporting his side as fact BUT "Churchill-Y" sounds like a fucking Klansman himself. Yes fool, one person's behavior is to represent all African and Muslims. And Jeffrey Dahmer represents the gays.
there seems to be a huge hole in both okereke and lydon's accounts (lydon's account can be seen here: http://music.guardian.co.uk/ne.....68,00.html
namely, how exactly did this thing escalate to a question about PiL to a race riot? neither one seems to have a real explanation of that. if only someone had a cell phone camera out!
CHURCHILL-Y
You should change your name. Since you seem to speak for all Brits.
Phil Lydon has always been like this. If I were a famous type or a flash in the pan, I'd stay clear of him. Didn't he make Duffy cry recently?
^^^ Agreed. You go up to someone famous for being ill behaved, you get what you asked for.
I'm surprised it wasn't another black who took him down. After all, blacks are the most racist, i.e., Jesse ("Barack's talking down to the niggers…) Jackson, and homophobic of ethnic groups……..
Racism and racial attacks against black people still occur? Who knew?…
My dilemma is that I love both of these artists … I can't help but feel that we're missing bits of info that would help contextualize this.
WOW…with the venom this idiot (RPCV) spews. How can we be more racist than anyone else? I guess when Whites attack each other R2D2 it's nothing more than being "All In The Family"
Right, idiot?…lol
It's terrifying to say I'm inspired by such a lowly mind in our society but everytime I come across someone like churchhill-billy the idea of a selected master race just seems so mouth watering.