Foals have revealed they were involved in a fight with the Sex Pistols while playing at festivals this weekend (July 19-20).

 

The incident between the Oxford band's frontman Yannis Philippakis and veteran singer Johnny Lydon occurred at Spain's Summercase festival on Saturday (July 19) and almost stopped the younger group from appearing at the Latitude Festival the next day.

 

Speaking from the stage at the Suffolk event, Philippakis relayed the fight to the crowd.

 

"So we were in Spain yesterday and I got into a fight with Johhny Rotten," he explained. "I don't know why I'm telling you all this, but I was handcuffed and we nearly didn't make it."

 

Foals then dedicated their song 'Cassius' to the Sex Pistols' frontman.

Bloc Party's Kele Okereke was involved in a fight with The Sex Pistols' frontman John Lydon at the Summercase festival on Saturday (July 19).

 

Details of a disturbance at the Spanish event first emerged when Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis mentioned he had been involved in a fight with the veteran singer while onstage at the Latitude Festival.

 

However, speaking today (July 21), Okereke has explained that he was the target of the attack.

 

Branding the incident an "unprovoked racist attack", Okereke suffered severe facial bruising, cuts to his face and body and a split lip.

 

The incident began as Lydon socialised with a host of British acts backstage at the Spanish festival.

 

According to Bloc Party, their singer approached Lydon to ask if he would ever consider reforming one of Okereke's favourite 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.

 

The incident was broken up by festival security and was later reported to Spanish police. It was reported to police in the UK after Okereke returned.

 

"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."

 

 

I know we had the John Lydon arguement awhile ago but this ort of proves he is a right c**t.

I completely agree. What a c**t!

Well done to Yannis and Ricky for stepping in, but poor Kele :cry:

This is bullsh!t actually... It's all "he said, she said", Chinese whispers, second hand accounts, we dont know the actual facts here.... Did Lydon HIMSELF actually make the comment... Seems to me that neither of these reports clearly say if he did or not.. If it was one of Lydon's 'hangers on', well, he can hardly be held responsible himself for the comments of another person, you cant read another person's mind....

 

I find it highly unlikely that Lydon himself made this comment considering his involvment in bringing Black Culture to the fore in British music through Public Image Ltd.. Punk in a lot of ways was begat by Reggae, the likes of Lydon, Jah Wobble (PIL's bassist) and Joe Strummer embraced reggae and ska music, adding elements of it into their own material... Nah, I just don't believe that Lydon himself said these words and I reckon he has a right to reply to these accusations....

John Lydon has said his side of the story:

 

The Sex Pistols's John Lydon has hit back at claims he was involved in an "unprovoked racist attack" on Bloc Party's singer, Kele Okereke.

 

Kele Okereke claimed he was assaulted by Lydon and members of his entourage who had directed a "racist tirade" at him.

 

Members of Foals and Kaiser Chiefs were said to have stepped in to help the Bloc Party singer.

 

However, the Sex Pistols frontman has put the incident down to jealousy on Okereke's part.

 

"I feel very sorry for a man who needs to lie about what was a perfect evening," Lydon said in a statement. "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."

 

He added: "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 concluded by telling Okereke to "grow up and learn to be a true man.

 

"When you have achieved as much as I have, come back and talk to me," he added. "It's a shame that the wonderful world of the media is riddled with nonsense like this."

 

Okereke indicated that he has contacted the police both in Spain and in the UK in following the incident, though Lydon did not mention this in his statement. It is currently unclear whether any further action will be taken.

 

 

i dont know wether to belive him becuase i cant see why various others would lie about it, especially Kele who approached Lydon as a fan in the first place.

John Lydon has said his side of the story:

i dont know wether to belive him becuase i cant see why various others would lie about it, especially Kele who approached Lydon as a fan in the first place.

 

Well, I reckon that Lydon telling Kele to "grow up and be a man" is a far more likely thing for him to say than bringing race into it.... There has NEVER been anything remotely racialist or bigoted in anything that Lydon has said in his 30 years of being in the public eye.... Johnny Rotten being a racist is even less likely than Morrissey being racist, and I think we all know that accusing Moz or racism has been proven pretty ludicrous recently....

 

I reckon it's a case of certain young indie pop stars getting drunk, making t*ts of themselves (which wouldn't be the first time indie pop stars have done so let's face it...) and being escorted away from the venue, and this has damaged their fragile little egos....

 

Johnny has nothing to prove anymore, he's been there, done it all, several times over.... I just cannot see the guy making a remark like that, some tw@t of a Hanger-on, however.....

 

i reckon maybe one of Lydon's entourage said something racist, i dont reckon Kele did anything wrong though it sounded like he just approached Lydon as a fan.

i reckon maybe one of Lydon's entourage said something racist,

 

But it's being made out by the articles that it was John himself.... And you implied this also in your early posts....

 

This is how the media operates man... Look at what the NME did to Morrissey last year... Labelled him a racist on the front page and but then kind of forgot to mention the fact that the author of the actual article completely disowned how the NME used his piece.....

there was a bit about it in The Guardian this morning, and it sounds like it was someone with Lydon rather than Lydon itself it also sounds like Kele was on the floor bruised afterwards, may not have been Lydon himself but who ever brought violence into it went to far, especially when Kele approached Lydon as a fan.

may not have been Lydon himself but who ever brought violence into it went to far, especially when Kele approached Lydon as a fan.

 

Well, I dunno man.. This doesn't really scan with the fact that John was perfectly happy about being approached by fans and other bands for three or four hours after their set, so why no punch-ups then, if their security was as over-zealous as you say...? I think there's something a bit dishonest about Kele's account of events tbh..... I just cant help but feel that alcohol or drugs was a factor in events....

Well, I dunno man.. This doesn't really scan with the fact that John was perfectly happy about being approached by fans and other bands for three or four hours after their set, so why no punch-ups then, if their security was as over-zealous as you say...? I think there's something a bit dishonest about Kele's account of events tbh..... I just cant help but feel that alcohol or drugs was a factor in events....

 

Unfortunately Kele has previous.

 

He was probably the most vocal supporter of the NME's (now discredited) stance against Morrissey earlier this year.

 

Kele's band were also due to play the NME sponsored Rock Against Racism gigs at that weekend in London. But when the NME pulled out odf sponsoring it throwing the event in to doubt. But when Stephen Patrick Morrissey shelled out the £70-75,000 to keep the event going, Bloc Party then pulled out of playing (albeit they gave a health related reason).

 

In contrast John Lydon has had a history of over 30 years supporting the outsider & the underdog. Back in 1978 he was the most vocal supporter of young British teenager singer/songwriter Kate Bush, at the time she was getting slaughtered by the indie media (NME, Melody Maker, etc) for being a hippy and therefore the very opposite of Malcolm McLaren's punk anarchistic ethos.

 

He has also had a long history of supporting music of black origin, long being a fan of Dub music from the caribbean which heavily influenced the sound of PIL and over two years (in 1984) before Run DMC & Aerosmith collaborated on the so called "groundbreaking" Walk This Way, he collaborated with Rap pioneer Afrika Bambaataa as Timezone on the seminal "rapcore" track World Destruction.

 

He also released the hugely entertaining autobiography "No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs" which made it very clear in no uncertain terms his views on the right-wing & the BNP who started to spoil & invade the punk scene in 1978.

 

In short I believe calling a John Lydon a racist is like calling Esther Rantzen a child molestor.

 

Also what probably has not endeared John Lydon to the "new young generation" of indie/alternative types is that he recently criticised the current indie movement for lacking ideas, with most of the main acts more interested in getting rich & famous and taking drugs than making great challenging music. He pointedly singled out Alex Turner and the Arctic Monkeys to be excluded from that criticism. Whilst saying Amy Winehouse is more authentic an artist than the remainder of the current indie movement & all the other Amy wannabes, including at the event being rude to Duffy when she asked for her photo to be taken with him.

 

In short I will be very surprised if the NME don't give John Lydon a kicking tomorrow.

Gruff Rhys has backed up Kele's story - 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.”

 

There's barely anyone in the world I trust more than Gruff Rhys and I'm honestly beginning to wonder what's happened to John Lydon...I'm a Celebrity was a bizarre move for someone so "anti-system", now there's Sex Pistols reunion after reunion...ever had the feeling you're being cheated again?

There's barely anyone in the world I trust more than Gruff Rhys and I'm honestly beginning to wonder what's happened to John Lydon...I'm a Celebrity was a bizarre move for someone so "anti-system", now there's Sex Pistols reunion after reunion...ever had the feeling you're being cheated again?

 

But does Gruff know how events actually started...? You see, this is the question... I just cannot see Johnny acting up for no reason, especially if the bloke is there for hours after a gig being perfectly happy to talk to people including other bands.. And I certainly dont think he made that comment himself... John may have just thought that Kele was coming over to use him to grab some cred for his band, not something that John would exactly be tolerant of given his (entirely correct) comments on the current UK "indie" scene... I can certainly see John telling Kele to "fukk off" just like he did with Duffy, but racist comments...? Nah, dont see it... Perhaps one of his "hangers on" made the comment, but it sure wouldn't be John...

 

I have to stress that I'm not too keen on all these Pistols reunions though, this is the one area where I would criticise Lydon.. Mind you, if some great new Pistols album were to come out of things somewhere down the line, like with Killing Joke, then that would be a different story... As for "I'm A Celeb...", well, come on, that was so obviously a wind-up.... And he walked off that anyway.... I dont think John embarrassed himself with that as much as George Galloway did with Celeb BB.... :lol:

Dunno mate, I think you're defending Johnny to a fault here. I mean, the reason there's been no new Sex Pistols album is surely cos Glen Matlock isn't up to writing another one or there's no more Stooges riffs left to plunder. Killing Joke had more talent and, thus, are able to conceive again years later.

 

But unless somebody there actually filmed the entire incident I don't think we can really point the finger.

Dunno mate, I think you're defending Johnny to a fault here.

 

Kele is near-as-dammit explicitly accusing John of RACISM here mate.... It's a pretty big (and totally unfounded if you actually KNOW anything at all about the guy..) accusation to make, it's not "defending to a fault" at all.... Kele's got a big mouth if you ask me... Pulling out of the "Rock Against Racism" gig purely because Morrissey put his own cash up for it, kind of proves his petulance....

 

And why would Glen Matlock have to be involved in the writing...? I'm sure Johnny and Steve could write it themselves..... A new Sex Pistols album could really be anything John wanted it to be, personally, I'd love it if it sounded a bit more like Public Image Ltd...

This is bullsh!t actually... It's all "he said, she said", Chinese whispers, second hand accounts, we dont know the actual facts here.... Did Lydon HIMSELF actually make the comment... Seems to me that neither of these reports clearly say if he did or not.. If it was one of Lydon's 'hangers on', well, he can hardly be held responsible himself for the comments of another person, you cant read another person's mind....

 

well from the report i read it did also seem like it was one of the hangers on that said that Kele had 'some black attitude' or 'black attitude problem' - which maybe less to do with out and out racism/hatrid and more getting towards a valid point that should have been put across differently and that came out 'wrong and misguided' in the heat of the momentary lapse of judgement and tempor after troubles with Kele that we dont know about...

 

but as for Lydon - take the same view as scott on this point...

BBC6 MUSIC NEWS

Lydon hits back

The Sex Pistols frontman vents anger over the recent racist allegations

 

29 July 2008 - John Lydon insists he is not racist - despite allegations that members of his entourage carried out a racially motivated attack backstage at Summercase festival.

 

Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke reported the incident at the Spanish festival to police and according to him, Lydon was "intimidating and aggressive" when he approached him - and then one of Lydon's associates said his problem was his "black attitude."

 

But Lydon says that's not true - and talking to the BBC's The One Show last night, Lydon said the media's reporting of the story has made him angry.

 

“There has been a hell of a lot of ‘freedom of the press’ shall we say, where they’ve run wild with it,” he ranted. “It’s absolutely atrocious, really really hurtful. My grandchildren are Jamaican and this is an absolute offence to them and me when they read stories like that.”

 

He was keen to make it clear that he is not racist, saying: “I’m absolutely not, and any b****r that says so is gonna have their day in court with me.”

 

Lydon was angry at the press that; “had the liberty to take liberties with a man like me and call me racist, when my entire life has proved exactly the opposite.”

 

He also said how it is his joy to play to crowds with an array of cultural heritage: “It’s the most wonderful thing playing to our multi-racial audiences, which they always have been.”

 

Georgie Rogers

He was keen to make it clear that he is not racist, saying: “I’m absolutely not, and any b****r that says so is gonna have their day in court with me.”

 

Kele had better have a good lawyer..... :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

Ooh litigation! How punk!

 

:P

Ooh litigation! How punk!

 

That's a very silly comment for someone who's intelligent Richie... So, should John somehow just put up with people making entirely false accusations against him or print lies....? Yes, I suppose it would be a bit more "Punk" for him to take his accusers out into the street and kick their heads in with Doc Martens, but it wouldn't exactly endear him to many people.....

I'm still sitting on the fence though, eh? Just because Lydon has said "I'll see you in court" on a TV show it doesn't mean it didn't happen. I like all parties involved and wish the whole thing hadn't got out, but clearly something did happen. I think it was the Public Image Ltd comment that got to him...I guess a lot of people have asked him why he doesn't reform them and he's getting defensive as if to vindicate the constant Sex Pistols reunions instead of one which arguably has much more in common with today's music (PiL being a huge influence on Bloc Party for one).

 

Plus the sticky out tongue smiley was supposed to make some light of that comment anyway - I'm simply baiting ;)