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Kele Bloc Party speaks out after Sex Pistol attack
Posted:
Word has reached DiS that Bloc Party (pictured) vocalist Kele Okereke was subjected to a racist attack at the weekend, by former Sex Pistols screamer John 'Johnny Rotten' Lydon and members of the one-time punk hero's entourage.
Okereke was attacked at the Summercase Festival in Barcelona on Saturday night; he was left shaken and with bruising to his face, cuts on his face and body, and a burst lip.
The attack, according to reports, was unprovoked. A witness commented that Lydon and company were at the festival "acting like a gang of racist thugs".
Trouble flared when Okereke asked Lydon backstage at the festival if he'd ever consider reforming Public Image Ltd, as the Bloc Party singer is a big fan of the seminal post-punk outfit fronted by Lydon. The former I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here contestant grew aggressive, with his party suggesting that Okereke had a "black attitude", and that was a problem in some way.
The story goes that then Okereke was punched and kicked by Lydon's crew, albeit not Lydon himself, while Ricky Wilson of Kaiser Chiefs and Yannis Philippakis of Foals attempted to fend off the attackers. Security broke up the fight and Spanish police were duly informed. Okereke made a statement to UK police once home.
Over 50 people witnessed the Barcelona attack - alongside members of Foals and Kaiser Chiefs were Mystery Jets, Neon Neon and Har Mar Superstar, all of whom saw what unfolded. Of the attack, Okereke has stated:
"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. 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."
DrownedinSound can not convey accurately just how disgusted we are by this unbelievable incident in words without completely destroying our swear filter. Suffice to say that if you see John Lydon and 'crew' any time soon, give him a piece of your mind on our behalf. We wish Kele a speedy recovery from his injuries.
A review of Summercase will appear on DiS soon
From the archive
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You guys have a swear filter?
Fuck me, that's shit.
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Not here, clearly.
So stop it, you.
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Part of me wishes Mystery Jets suddenly turned into ninjas
and there was a massive indie 'big-budget hollywood epic style' fight.
That would be AWESOME.
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...
John Lydon? Intelligent? When did that happen?
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Bloody hell.
That's unbelievable!
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Lydon's got shit for brains
Don't bother volleying words at the prick, throw a shit pie at him instead. What a wanker....
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:(
I was so sad and cross to read this. Lydon and co. are such a bunch of twats. What a horrible thing to read, I can't convey how angry this has made me!
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just spoken to John Lydon/PIL's former manager
and he was saying that there is some guy who now works for Lydon who is a complete thug. I'd imagine this guy is likely to have employed a rabble of idiots who, as you can imagine, are glorified builders who misunderstood the tabloid-version of the 'punk ideal'. I got the impression, from his former manager, that he's stunned that Lydon himself would ever act like this.
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It's
an indie-rock lumberjack match.
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Well
Glad people are waking up to this, after there was relatively little fuss when he called other bands "homos" during their Isle of Wight set.
What an idiot.
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The only good thing to come out of this
is hopefully a Capcom released "Indie-Fighter".
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Aye.
It's worth noting that despite connotations of the press release this story is based on, at no point is it implicitly implied that Lydon himself physically assaulted Okereke. What's clear is that he didn't take kindly to the Bloc Party man's line of questioning, and obviously did not prevent the incident from happening. Which is, given his position, just as bad as getting involved himself.
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and
what's wrong with builders?? Buildist!
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Sad old man...
Lydon's clearly way out his depth nowadays. The, uneasy, posturing and pouting he does now is pure pantomine.
He's so far away from what made him do it in the first place (geographically and emotionally) that it's just acting.
I can believe that he said this with zero understanding or appreciation of how idiotic and arrogant it shows him to be and sadly he'll prob stand up to accusations of racism with some typically aggressive bullshit about how he's incapable of it or something similar.
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doesn't really surprise me
john lydon has always been a complete piece of shit from day one. he's pathetic.
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wow
thats messed up.
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Blimey!
I guess Lydon must have heard 'Mercury'.
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^^^Genius
Imagine 'lil Yanis trying to stop the fight. Bless him.
Ricky wilson obvioulsy spotted the Riot!
Which famous indie star would be the best in the game? Frank from Gallows. That Tiny guy from Unbelievable Truth?
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He hasn't though -
watch The Filth And The Fury - his abhorrence at racism is strongly evident - and weep at how far the mighty can fall.
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Ah that's great of you, guys.
"DrownedinSound can not convey accurately just how disgusted we are by this unbelievable incident in words without completely destroying our swear filter. Suffice to say that if you see John Lydon and 'crew' any time soon, give him a piece of your mind on our behalf. We wish Kele a speedy recovery from his injuries."
Its very reassuring to know that if anyone ever gets in a fight in which one of the combatant's race is mentioned by the other party, DrownedinSound will be generous in dealing out their disgust.
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Stop
being a dreadful loser.
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The 'black attitude' comment
Is also a brush to tar him with.
Also, 50 witnesses and only 2 jumped in to help? I hope thats been inncaurately reported...
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I like How Yannis and Ricky got involved
most rubbish indie tag team ever? But good stuff lads anyway.
Lydon is an idiot. i'm sure he'll say 'i was the first person to play reggae at the roxy' or something in his defense.
having seen quite a few old punk bands-the pistols, the damned, the undertones, i'm not one bit suprised by the idea that pistols have an entourage of idiots. i can see them now. middle aged. bald. fat. leather jackets. cockney. Oh dear.
I hope kele sues the shit out of him.
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You took your time getting here
They weren't THERE, were they? They're reporting on it afterwards.
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Don't tell me.....
"It's political correctness gone mad!"
End of the day, regardless of the race issue (which very obviously was an issue), Old Turnip Lydon and/or his pathetic gang of monkeys injured Kele through violence, which makes them cunts.
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Not sure about this
I'd be very wary of believing a story from the NME who aren't much different from the Sun these days.
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Shh.
It gives us an opportunity to prove our anti-racism credentials! Stories like this are gold-dust!
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Don't worry, Wrighty
There's a new Oasis album along soon for you to get excited about.
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Yeah.
What about Jay Z's homophobia and sexism? That didn't seem to bother you.
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Racism is very bad.
But i've got to admit the thought of all these bands involved in a mass skuffle(even though thats not what happened)feels me with joy!..If only Henry Rollins was there.
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It's not a story FROM NME...
...they have the same source as us.
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more than 2 people stepped in
about 30 people stepped in. it was total chaos. no-one knew what had happened besides kele, ricky, and the sex pistols. but it got out of hand so fast that it didn't even matter. the spanish security guards were total thugs. yannis actually got knocked out for a few seconds after he got strong-armed to the floor and handcuffed. our tour manager was put in a headlock after asking the security to let us go as we had a flight to catch to england. jimmy went beetroot at one point lying in the dust. walter has a swollen eye. i managed to sustain a knee injury at some point which was remarkable given that i barely got involved.
anyway, yeah, security's method of dealing with it was to drag everyone to the floor, keep them there, then kick us all out of the festival as fast as possible. good times. what a great day we all had.
anyway, this is the first i've heard about what was said between the sex pistols and kele. i'm pretty surprised. i know john lydon is a dick, but i've always considered him to be intentionally theatrical and pretty decent/intelligent underneath all of that. i guess the sex pistols' company brings it out of him.
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Yawn
There's a big difference between being the "scourge of the lefty-liberal-hand-wringing tendency" that you so desperately want to be, and just being plain objectionable. Life's too short for me to care though. You'll get all that misdirected anger out of your system eventually.
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Cease your senile babble
and scroll up, to see my conquest over your pathetic existence.
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The source does seem to be incredibly vague.
I mean obviously there was a pretty major incident and Lydon does look like desrving a lot of criticism but it doesn't seem incredibly clear exactly what he said or did (or didn't do, in terms of not intervening) and it does largley seem to depend on a lot conjecture.
Certainly Lydon doesn't come out of this looking very good at all but, in the absence of more information, it's hard to know to what extent he should be condemned for his actions.
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That was his entourage and not Lydon either
although obviously totally out of order. Sounds like he's surrounded by a bunch of cunts.
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not again
change the fucking record
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...
thats rubbish :(
i dont know what else to say -
Nice to see everyone's mind has been made up on this already
I mean why wait for the other side of the story, fuck impartiality right?
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yep
fuck it
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am i the only person wondering why Kele was there?
as Bloc Party weren't playing Summercase
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hmmm
shame the kaiser chiefs twat didnt cop an elbow to the larynx in the melee, rendering him unable to sing ever again
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you're right
it is truly a shame that no-one got horribly injured to the extent that their lives were ruined.
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he was just partying
matt was there too.
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What?
Oh God, that. Nice to see you've formed an opinion only on the bits you can remember. I'm not starting that up again.
Oh yeah, and you lose all the "pathetic Earthling"-type cartoon talk when you grow up as well.
I'm done. Carry on.
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Yeah!
I reckon it's going to turn out that Bloc Party, Foals, Kaisers and all the rest of them MADE THIS WHOLE THING UP for a bit of publicity. They've all got albums or singles or tours on the way, right? Good job there weren't any witnesses.
Still, I'm sure everyone IS interested to hear what he has to say. I'm sure nobody will air their comments on here once he has, right? We're all shy and retiring types. :)
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well...
If he is just saying that the comment snever happened, then its his word against kele and whoever else was there.
If its just a sarky 'these things happen' like i suspect it may be, then well, people can make their own inference from it.
does not surprise me too much if the Spanish police were too rough. Judging b their attitude to football chants, doubt they wouldv'e helped Kele at all. -
This is disgusting
Lydon should be severely punished for this.
What a monster.
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Kele
Not that i'm taking sides here, but Kele seems to be a bit of an aggresive guy.
Saw him start a fight with security at V festival because they asked him to leave the front of the stage during Radiohead.
Saw him tell a couple of people to 'fuck off' who sang hunting for witches as him at glasto.
But rotten stuff if its true like.
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thats well out of order
plus I would be well gutted if the only people that rushed to my defence was Yannis and a Kiser Cheif :( Man Har Mar where you at? You have some waight behind ya...
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I think he's saying
is all we've got to go from so far is
*a witness report from someone who witnessed it and weren't sure what was said
*Kele's comments that race was brought into it but with no clarification of what happened
*a witness report from someone else who says it was a racist incident but isn't entirely clear on what happened.
I think the point is that we actually don't have a full picture of what happened and, whilst judging from what we've heard it may be appropriate to criticise Lydon as a racist and a thug, we're actually only doing so on partial accounts of the story and haven't actually heard what happened from his perspective.
And, in the interests of fairness, it's probably necessary to get more information from someone who had a clearer view of what happened, and to know both Kele and Lydon's accounts of the incident, before we could fairly draw a conclusion.
I don't think anyone's trying to say nothing happened, or condoing racist behaviour but it's not unreasonable to suggest people don't make snap judgements without a clearer picture of the facts (which we may never get of course, but hopefully the police will and take whatever action is appropriate)
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haha
ha
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Apparently..
..punched Eddie Argos in the face, because he didn't like his song or something.
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the sex pistols are
headlining the electric picnic in august. i hope they get booed off the stage, or better yet nobody turn up, it'd make my year. everything lydon has done since pil imploded has been a complete embarrassment, from appearing on i'm a celebrity get me out of here to this sordid incident. why can't he just fuck off?
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Racism
From reading his autobiog, JL had an awful lot of time for Jamaican music and the black Londoners around at the time, and it's hard to imagine him suddenly becoming racist. It's very easy to imagine him trying to say some smart arsed putdown that actually wasn't funny at all, or indeed intelligible to anyone other than himself...think about it...if the words 'such a black attitude' were indeed said then what the f**k does it mean??? It's hardly racism to say that only a black person would want PiL to reform...it is basically saying nothing at all. Obviously having the word 'black' flying out of Johnny's spiteful old gob toward Kele is going to immediately give the worst possible impression, but Lydon makes a policy of trying to piss off and get under the skin of anybody he meets and it's only those who respond in kind who seem to get on with him. As for the people who actually assaulted Kele...press charges.. send to prison. I hate the fact that entourages get away with this kind of shit, or the fact that the W'houses of the world can get away with repeated assaults when a hoodie in a fist fight is banged up without a moments thought.
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you are a dick
People being injured is never a good thing.
Have some sense of common decency.
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kele is a complete knob
goin by his interviews, where he pretentiously criticizes everything under the sun or moans about how miserable it is living in london (try burma or somewhere, yeah?). and before anyone thinks i'm takin sides, i point you to the post below
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yeah
remember hearing about that actually.
i wouldn't be too quick to take sides here.
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mr diver
the word 'news' has a certain degree of impartiality attached to it, something that sadly lacking in this article. i do hope you are aware that sentences like 'The former I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here contestant grew aggressive, suggesting that Okereke had a "black attitude", and that was a problem in some way.' can be seen as libelous when not containing words like 'allegedly'. you have a responsibility to only report fact, when dealing with news of this nature. unless you have recorded proof that lydon was racially abusive, then dont print it. this 'no smoke without fire' attitude is fucking disgusting. you should be ashamed of yourself.
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...
He WAS on I'm A Celebrity. No allegedly about it. I saw him.
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...
touché
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The Guardian report on this
Seems to state it was his crew who threw the punches and racism, so maybe Lydon just hangs around with some nasty types.
Having met and interviewed Kele, he is a very nice chap, if not a bit sulky.
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Sounds like
...A perfectly reasonable thing to do if you ask me!
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someone who was there
txtd me last night:
"Just got back from Barcelona. Dude we were involved in the fucking indie brawl of the century. Will from mystery jets pissed off john lydon. His bodyguard hit kele from bloc party. Ricky Kaisers hit the dude back. yannis from foals got handcuffed and all the meanwhile har mar superstar was bouncing around shouting abuse at johnny rotten. Intense"
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i was at a party
were Kele attacked Simon out of Klaxons for asking him if 'two more years' was the direction they were going in and singing the song in a funny voice.
kele was literally trying to stamp on his face at one point.
this was just before kalxons got signed.
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"glorified builders"
shut the fuck up. theyre thugs, stop drawing your own connections.
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The start of your post
comes across as an 'I'm not racist, some of my friends are black!' sentiment.
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'allegedly'
It's still libelous, regardless of that word.
Even those omitted name stories are potentially libelous if the subject can be identified as less then one of twelve people.
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it's funny
but it's not reasonable.
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..
I've read quotes in the past from Lydon stating his dislike of racism, and am sure in the past he has put his money where his mouth is. Obviously it is disgusting if he did make a racist mark and not defensable at all.
It just seems odd that he would say something like that. From the little I have read about him he seems to be fairly articulate and liberal minded.
As for his entourage.....I'd wager they are a bunch of twats sadly in thrall to dated ideas of what 'punk' is about, and probably are a bunch of racist bigots. If Lydon chooses these people to be around then that makes him as bad. I wouldn't associate with racist bigots- there is no reason to ever tolerate it.
I hope these people get what they deserve, and I hope this incident is widely publicised and condemned. -
or...
One of less then twelve people.
Although there have been lots of cases where the person identified could qualify as less then one person.
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It would seem you also lose the 'earthling' look
when you grow up, adopting a more 'Middle-Earthling' chic.
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It Seems
more like Lydon's associates were the violent and racist ones, whilst he was just aggressive and didn't do anything to stop it.
Which isn't much better, mind.
I hope some of this ends up on YouTube - that guy from Foals is like two inches tall and Ricky Wilson carries a cowbell with him everywhere.
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impartial news is shit anyway
as if journalists don't have opinions! people (most) can think for themselves enough to separate opinion from fact
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SHIT
clearly.
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You are annoying.
Congratulations. Please respond to this with some more words.
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there are two kinds of journalists
one writes news columns, in which they report the news. the other writes opinion colunms, in which they present their opinions on a subject. this was presented as a news column, opinions dont have any place there. thats why there is loads of space underneath the article for nice people like us to give ours. as for the notion that impartial news is shit, what the world needs is news divorced completely from opinion. because, as it is, people are being told what to believe by news corporations presenting one sided views of world affairs, generally the side that favours most the corporations backing them.
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...
People who make good records in 'being massive twat' shock.
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...
That could be directed at either Lydon or Okereke, depending how you feel.
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And anyway
Opinions aren't relevant when reporting the facts of an incident. You can't have an "opinion" on whether Lydon racially abused anyone. Either he did or he didn't.
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a voice of
reason
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So no-one punched John Lydon?
:(
After so long being a symbol of idiotic immature behaviour from 40-somethings, not to mention being homophobic and (possibly) racist, he deserves a good smack. -
...
Nick in not reading all replies shock.
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Lydon =
SCUM
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Steven Wells on Lydongate:
Thought you all might like a read:
http://www.thequietus.com/articles/lydongatetQ.
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Fuck.
No need.
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I met Kele once...
I'm not a particularly big fan of bloc party, but I did meet him once after a gig in Reading, and he was one of the politest, meekest and non threatening people I've met, at one point I heard him discussing with his group about going on to the club next door and her said 'is t ok there? not rough or dangerous or anything?'. The idea that this chap could start trouble, or come it with 'black attitude' is laughable...
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i would give anything
to have seen this
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Read
the book. I think the problem maybe is that he's become so immersed in his 'must at all times be controversial and as un-PC as possible' persona that it's easy to lose the plot. Lately they've gone all flag waving, and though I can see a valid intellectual point that it should be just as acceptable to be proud to be English as it is to be proud to be Scottish or Welsh, in England such behaviour just rallies the narrow minded minority. John Lydon may have come from a white working class background, but the 'working class' that he seems to be drawn to in his old age has been all but destroyed by Thatcher and Blatcher...there ARE no people these days working 9 to 5s in manufacturing...it's either service industries and a concept called middle class that Johnny clearly hasn't grasped, the far-too-rich who were always there, and a ghettoed underclass who don't give two fucks for punk rock because it doesn't speak to them like Grime and HipHop do. The blind alley that he's been walking down of late just shows him up for for the out-of-touch Los Angeles based anachronism that he is.
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Lydon
cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt
swear filter that. -
Lydon hits back...
http://www.nme.com/news/sex-pistols/38319
I can't help but feel that Lydon probably feels a bit aggrieved by all the attention poor Heath ledger's getting.
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Your excellency!
With all this anecdotal evidence you are really spoiling us!
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Two points about this.
1.) What was Kele Okereke supposed to be jealous of?
2.) "Grow up and learn to be a true man."
What the fuck does that even mean? -
me too
Bloc Party/Foals/KChiefs vs Sex Pistols = priceless
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Lol @ "glorified builders"
The upper-middle class Daily Mail reader has spoken!
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"It's a shame that the wonderful world of the media is riddled with nonsense like this."
what does that mean? why does he have to spin stupid phrases like that? what a dick.
kele is too intelligent to start a fight, it's probably safe to assume lydon's entourage are thugs. -
Blimey
the font size NME use says a lot about its readership
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It was in an objective news perspective,
with DiS stating their opinion on the event just at the very end. The actual article was very factual.
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Even if that was all true,
Kele still got beated up for no good reason.
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*beaten
(im not 4 years old, really)
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*oh
but you get the message
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I AGREE!
Nobody should ever be injured ever again, and nobody should ever be allowed to make a hypothetical joke about somebody sustaining an injury, even if said joke consists only of words alluding to an imaginary incident which never occurred, and even if said somebody is the singer/jester in one of the worst bands of the decade! Three cheers for "common decency"!
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it could never in any way
be directed at Okereke...
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I think
Okereke is supposed to be jealous of Lydon preferring to talk to the Spanish bands than to him.
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I imagine all this
happening in a big marquee.
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When it all comes out this'll probably boil down to pure "gangsmanship"
I think there is an old school notion in the UK: Band=Gang. This was probably some Johnny Rotten underling trying to make his "bones" in the gang by busting up a pop star and I am sure that the racial element just helped the guy justify it in his feeble mind. If there are as many whitnesses as reported I'm sure John Lydon will throw this guy under the bus, make apologies and try to get on with it.
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I don't want to pass judgement on Lyndon or Kele
As I know neither, I couldn't say how they act, but this sounds like an appauling thing to happen.
But the idea of the indie community stepping up to defend one of their own like sown sort of pack of zebras is so adoreable it makes me squee. Yannis seems a bit mental, I imagine he'd be good at defence. And Ricky's from Leeds, so you know he can kick ass. I wish Harmar got involved, you know he could pull out some moves. And the mystery jets could probably confuse the opponents to thinking they've travelled back into the 80s.
I see new reality TV show "IndieWars" - indie superstars battle it out to win the ultimate prize. Hosted by Simon Amstell and Alexa Chung
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A white guy spoke back to a black guy evryone!
Outrageous! The ignorant and/or morally bereft white guy always started it in these situations and he will make a grovelling apology about how he isn't racist and could never make a black person feel uncomfortable intentionally.
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Grow a backbone
The Sex Pistols singer blames Kele Okereke for causing the fight, telling him to 'grow up and be a true man'
John Lydon has responded to allegations of his involvement in a racist assault by saying his accuser is a liar and in need of the publicity.
http://music.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2291968,00.html
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Kele appeared
on stage with the Kaiser Chiefs for one of their new songs - he was playing tambourine (along with the Kaiser Chiefs tour manager). I guess he is friends with them from their time spent together on the NME tour.
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Excellent
"Hey why don't you reform Public Image because this lot are shite" It wasn't because he was black it was because he thought he was clever enough to get away with making a smart arse insult to someone who's boots he isn't good enough to lick and he got a well deserved caning. It isn't the first time the bloc party singer's blackitude made the news.
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YOU. FUCKING. PRICK.
'Blackitude'? Did you make that up? How very clever of you. Not really a surprise that your supporting this demented old twat.
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SERIOUSLY.
I'd shut up if I was you. Haven't you got a UKIP party broadcast to wank over?
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i must admit i laughed
at the bit that he had a Kaiser Chief, a Foal, the Mystery Jets and Har Mar as back up
what a gang of hard bastards!!
but yeah, echo the thoughts of others about Lydon being a tool here, and moreso his hangers-on
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Too Right
Well spotted slur there.
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yeah, well done
but in case you hadn't noticed, anecdotal evidence is what the thread is based on.
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COCK
ALERT.
A "well deserved caning"?
You idiot.
Go to your room. -
I saw Foals at Latitude...
... and Yannis mentioned this. It's disgusting.
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i would thump that Bloc Party cunt
and i'm black.
i'm not really.
or am I?
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@pancakes
You definitely are a cunt :)
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Lydon
sucks donkey balls.
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^^
fact.
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yes
it is funny cos it is true
LOL
LMAO -
i used to like the Pistols and am lukewarm about Bloc Party's music
but I can say John Lydon is a massive dickhead who needs castrating for being such vermin. What a fucking penis.
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The mere fact that he has a racist crew
is indictment enough for me, Lydon you are a washed up cunt.
"If you have a racist friend, then that friendship must end" -
Jesus.
Jesus Christ, you guys!
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