Bloc Party’s Okereke: Our Security Put Madonna In A Headlock At Live Earth

Bloc Party singer Kele Okereke spoke with Matt Pais of the Chicago Tribune in a Q&A, asking the artist what surprised him most about playing at Live Earth 2007. “Madonna coming into our dressing room because she’s a super-huge fan,” Okereke responded. “Our tour manager is this guy from Scotland that doesn’t know much about popular culture and popular music. So when she came in, he alerted security and security dragged her out. They had her head in a headlock, and they were putting her out of the dressing room. It was really surreal, and everyone stopped speaking. And the only thing we could hear is Madonna cursing and saying she’s gonna kill these guys.” Pais, clearly stunned, asked if he really said Madonna was in a headlock. “Yeah. She’s really tough because of all that pilates that she does,” Okereke explained. “She [got out] of the headlock quite easily. And some of her people came along and told the security guards off, but she was so pissed off at that point that [when] I went to tell her that I was a huge fan of hers she completely freaked out and told me to get the hell away from her. And that was all in the space of like 10 minutes backstage at Live Earth.” Read more.