An apparent physical altercation went down between members of Swervedriver and the Libertines last month in Hong Kong.
According to the NME, Adam Franklin of Swervedriver detailed events that led him to punch the Libertines’ Pete Doherty at a hotel afterparty. The incident apparently went down on November 28; both bands were in town to play the Clockenflap Music & Arts Festival.
After rumors about the incident started to spread online, the NME got Franklin on the horn for comment, and the musician admitted he “decked” Doherty, but only after the Libertines guitarist took a swing at him first. Franklin also labelled Doherty “astonishingly inept and pretentious.”
From the NME:
Speaking about the altercation, Franklin said: “The hotel bar at the W Hotel in Kowloon was finally closing on Saturday night and someone invited Doherty and a few others back to our hotel room where there was a little after-party going on.”
“He can’t have been in the room for more than a minute or two before some kerfuffle broke out across the room — you’d have to ask him what that was about, although good luck getting anything out of him as he surely won’t fucking remember — and he fell across to the side of the room where I was sat having a chat with Gary [Libertines drummer] and a couple of friends.”
Franklin alleges that Doherty “then suddenly took a swing at me and missed, I stood up and decked him and that was it. Gary, who I have to say is a lovely bloke, helped get him out of the room and [Doherty] was screaming “He hit me! He hit me!” while people were pointing out to him that he had in fact tried to hit me first.”
“Apparently I had said “so you’re the famous Pete Doherty?” as I stood over him before they dragged him out, which entertained everybody else in the room and probably annoyed him but what was I supposed to say? He hadn’t even introduced himself!”
Franklin continued to say that he is “not one to pre-judge people based on reputation but when you indiscriminately lash out at someone for no reason you’re gonna get laid out big time”.
“He’s apparently really great with his fans but I might have been his biggest fan for all he knew. I mean, I’m not – I think he’s astonishingly inept and pretentious – but I could have been. The bloke’s a fucking disgrace. I wish him all the best.”
A Libertines spokesperson admitted to the NME that an incident had occurred in Hong Kong, but it was blamed on “adrenaline running high after the show. “There was an unfortunate short altercation/misunderstanding of which no one was injured and apologies were made soon after,” the rep tells the UK publication.
Damn.
Watch performances by both bands at Cockenflap below…