The Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon has been branded a bigot after his entourage allegedly assaulted Bloc Party's Kele Okereke, in an "unprovoked and racist" attack at a music festival in Barcelona on Saturday.
According to Okereke and a number of witnesses world Health Organization were deliver at the time, including members of Kaiser Chiefs and Foals, the lacing was so severe that it left the Bloc Party singer with facial bruising, cuts to the face and body and a split lip.
The fight occurred on Saturday night, backstage at the Summercase festival, and was only broken up by security after the Kaiser Chiefs and Foals members intervened.
Okereke, a fan of Lydon since his teenage days, said he went to speak to the Sex Pistols vocalist, formerly known as Johnny Rotten, to ask if he would ever consider reforming Public Image Ltd, the post-punk outfit created after his first loss from the Sex Pistols in 1978.
Lydon quickly became "intimidating and aggressive", according to a statement released by Okereke yesterday, which added that Lydon's cortege responded with a broadside of racist abuse including the statement: "Your problem is your black attitude."
Okereke was then allegedly set upon by three members of Lydon's crew wHO reportedly punched and kicked him in the head before starting on the Kaiser Chiefs frontman, Ricky Wilson, and Yannis Philippakis, from Foals, when they tried to mediate.
Okereke, whose parents emigrated from Nigeria to Liverpool in the 1970s, is notoriously media shy only he broke his secretiveness on the incident yesterday and criticised Lydon for failing to halt what he believed was a racist attack.
"It's not an outcome of the physical assault, even though it was an wanton attack," he said. "It is the fact that race was brought into the matter so readily. Someone as respected and as well-informed as Lydon should cognize better than to take race into the equation, or socialise with and encourage those who hold such narrow attitudes. I am defeated that mortal I held with such high regard turns extinct to be a bigot."
The Foals frontman, Philippakis, said members of his band were handcuffed by constabulary after the fracas and nearly missed a gig in Britain the next day.
Speaking to fans at the Latitude Festival in Suffolk on Sunday, he aforementioned: "We were in Spain yesterday and I got into a fight with Johnny Rotten. I don't know why I'm tattle you all this, but I was handcuffed and we nearly didn't make it." He went on to dedicate the next song to "Johnny Rotten and his meathead friends".
The Kaiser Chiefs were non willing to comment publicly on the attack yesterday but sources close to the band said Wilson and his bandmates had witnessed the alleged assault and time-tested to stop it. "Ricky and the others saw what was going on and stepped in to help them," the origin said. "I don't think they'll be saying anything publicly though because of the racism element which makes it a difficult situation."
Bloc Party informed police in Barcelona of the attack and have granted a instruction to British police.
After ab initio refusing to comment, Lydon said last night that he was, after 30 years, drawing multi-racial audiences. He dismissed the other bands at the festival in Barcelona as "covetous fools", adding that "lies and confusion usually come". He claimed he had stayed behind after playacting to augury autographs for four hours and that "this seems to take sparked jealousy in sure bands".
Addressing the allegations of racist taunts and violence from Okereke, Lydon replied: "Grow up and read to be a true man. When you have achieved as much as I have, come back and lecture to me."
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