Pitchfork

Kele Okereke photo by Kathryn Yu

Oh John Lydon, still stirring up trouble after all these years. The Sex Pistols frontman formerly known as Johnny Rotten seems to have gotten into a bit of an altercation Saturday night at the Summercase festival in Barcelona. Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke has accused Lydon and his entourage of "an uprovoked racist attack" that left him bruised and bloody. Lydon claims that it's a lie. Members of Foals and Kaiser Chiefs were also involved in the kerfuffle.

Let's recap.

According to a statement from Bloc Party's management (originally reported in the Guardian and later confirmed by a publicist), the Sex Pistols were hanging out backstage at Summercase with a bunch of other bands when Okereke decided to ask Lydon if Public Image Ltd., his influential post-Sex Pistols band, would ever reunite. Guess the answer is no. The statement continues, "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."

According to the Guardian, Philippakis was arrested by Spanish police.

Okereke's thoughts on the situation: "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."

However, Lydon claims that Okereke's interpretation of what went down is all wrong. In a statement quoted by the Guardian, he said, "I feel very sorry for a man that needs to lie about what was a perfect evening…trouble was brought us, resulting in those causing the trouble being physically removed by festival security…If they need publicity so badly this is the allegation universe they run into."

As for the accusations of racism, Lydon said, "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."

Further dissing Okereke, Lydon added, "Grow up and learn to be a true man. It's a shame that the wonderful world of the media is riddled with nonsense like this."

And we thought we had drama at the Pitchfork Festival when Cut Copy's flight was late!