Bloc Party's Okereke says Johnny Rotten takes part in racist attack against him

That's some shîtty, disappointing, news right there.

This is terrible.

It was also reported that Ricky Wilson of Kaiser Chiefs and Yannis Philippakis of Foals came to the aid of Kele.

i would have loved to have seen a ricky wilson roundhouse kick

Not to condemn any form of racist abuse in the slightest, I wouldn't take everything Kele Okereke says as being gospel. He is a self-impportant little dipsh*t who tends to hide behind other issues in order to mask the fact that his band are unoriginal and over-hyped. Johnny Rotten is a bloated old fart, but I find it difficult to believe he would have condoned something this mindless.

Lydon's denying everything. I'm going to go with the image of Lydon that he's built up over the last 20 or so years -- rude, devisive, outspoken and arrogant. Despite Lydon's well-written, thought out statement, I'm going to have to go with Kele and Ricky's version of what happened.

Why is anyone still paying money to see the Sex Pistols, anywhoo?

I'm not sure about this. Lydon has worked with Afrika Baambaata, has always been very vocal about his love of reggae, and there's clearly a huge dub influence on the early PiL albums. It would be a strange turn of events if he suddenly turned into a racist. He's denied it all here:

http://music.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2291968,00.html

Bloc Party can suck a fart. I'm not saying this is false or otherwise, but I would like to inject that I hate that band. That's all. Kthxbye.

30 years ago, The Sex Pistols did a half-decent imitation of Dead Boys sound and Richard Hell's style. Now the band seems to be John Lydon's last attempt to stay in some form of spotlight. Given the cretinous and at times, unintentionally ironic behavior of Lydon in recent times, I doubt he's totally innocent. Although I don't think it was racially motivated, I wouldn't be surprised if it was.

Rotten wouldn't be racist. It don't fit! He was probably trying to say something to Okereke that either came out wrong or went over his head.

Okereke obviously survived the bash. Not condoning violence at all, but people DO have punch ups. And since when are you responsible for something your boofhead mates do?

Lydon is now advertizing butter. That's all I've got to say about whatever credibility he might have once had. I wouldn't believe what he said if my own mum backed him up.

when ever i see that idiots face on that butter advert I just want to punch the tele. complain to Dairy Crest - I have.

I absolutely adore Public Image during the years they were trying to contribute something new to music. It has already been said that dub reggae was a significant ingredient in those records, as well as his open appreciation for the source and groundbreaking collaboration with Bambaata. There are many things to point out before declaring Lydon a racist. However, I've never had any illusions about his unpredictable and frequently unpleasant personality. He's no hero, just an artist who made some important contributions to modern music for awhile.
I've watched his public behavior since I was a kid (around 1981), and have the recordings prior. I'm prone to believe he acted the prick and it got out of hand, but I find it hard to believe the matter was as simple as it's being made out to be. Sounds like a good & nasty headline splash with a kernel of truth to me.

I'm all late to this story. Sorry. But had I been in the know a couple years ago I'd have said,

"I can totally believe this happened, but the story as reported is missing some important information like... the bridge between, 'Hi. I'm Kele and I love PiL. Any chance of you guys gettin' back t'gether?'

...and...

"Your problem is your black attitude...!"

There's a huge arse piece missing from that puzzle. The language doesn't even work. So I'm wondering what else was said.