Hey, a fight in the Tenderloin that doesn't involve Supervisor Chris Daly? Singer and Angry British Man Ian Brown, the former lead singer of the Stone Roses ("I Wanna Be Adored" -- yeah, we had to look it up too, we always got all those Manchester bands mixed up) was arrested after attacking two people at his show last night at the Great American Music Hall.
Brown, on a North American tour to promote his new album (hey, how come that's spelled with a z and not an s like the British usually do?), had just stopped playing "Made of Stone" for the third time to complain about the venue's sound quality, when, as our eyewitness sources report, "a Gary Busey Jr. lookalike security guard" someone jumped on stage and rugby-tackled Brown. The band rushed in for a fight, and a Gary Busey Jr. lookalike security guard then went up to try and break things up. Brown then took a swing at the guard, knocked him to the ground, hit him with the mike, and then that's when the band started "stomping on" Gary Busey's head. (Thanks for the clarification, Second Anonymous Source!)
Someone then broke up the fight, the band left the stage and Busey was helped down, with blood clearly visible in his hair. The band did come back about 15 minutes later and finish the show without further incident (if you don't count more complaining about the sound, that is), only to a much smaller audience, since a number of people walked out in protest.
SFPD came by after the show and arrested Brown at his hotel. Brown's management says today that no one's pressing charges (yet) -- but it seems like they must have issued that statement before the criminal courts actually opened today. (Pesky time difference!) Brown was previously arrested in 1998 for an air rage incident (where he threatened to chop a stewardess's hands off for gesturing at him) and served four months in prison.
Picture of fight from NME.com by Ben Taylor. And big ups to our confidential sources! Hey -- do you have any good gossip or further information to add? Tell us!
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