Patrick Wolf: Gay Bashed?

01/06/09 5:29pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

A Madonna concert is probably one of the least likely places to get gay-bashed, but not if you're Patrick Wolf.

Wolf (real name Patrick Apps), who's openly bisexual, says he was assaulted by security at a Madonna concert in September. He claims bouncers at the show handcuffed him and beat him up before throwing him out of London's Wembley Arena because "conservative straight couples" didn't like seeing him kiss his boyfriend.

"Three songs in, me and my man were kissing and there were loads of conservative straight couples around us that complained," Wolf told music blog EQ. "And then the bouncers came up to me and said, 'Can you stop that? This is a family venue.' No joke.

"The bouncer said, 'You know we can do this the easy way or the violent way,' and I said, 'I'm staying, so you can do whatever you want.' And then they just grabbed both of us. We were beaten up outside Wembley, handcuffed. These guys were like football bouncers.

"The police came and it just went on and on and on. My man's face covered in blood. I couldn't move for like a month. I had to lie in bed on painkillers for ages. They totally twisted my arm and my legs — it was just mad.

"They are currently researching the CCTV — it's really nuts. We basically got beaten up by the police."

Hold on a second here. What the hell are conservative couples doing at a Madonna concert? And let me get this straight (no pun intended): These people were allegedly offended by a gay couple showing affection to each other, but a woman who's drawn fire from the Catholic church, who wears skimpy outfits on stage and has sexual themes galore in her lyrics is somehow not offensive to conservative people in any way? Wow, homophobia sucks.

The incident has prompted Wolf to vow he'll never listen to Madge again. It's not known whether he's taken any legal action over the alleged incident.

"You get into scraps with bouncers the whole time, but that was one step up because there were like seven of them and they just wanted to have a go because they were bored," Wolf said. "There was quite a lot of homophobic shit going down which I was really pissed about seeing — it's a Madonna concert, y'know!"

Wolf is working on the follow-up to 2007's The Magic Position. The double album is tentatively called Battle and will be released sometime this year.

Wolf will play MIDEM in Cannes, France on Jan. 19.