Twittergem: Foals

Band dedicate show to audience stood in front of them RT @NME: Foals dedicate Valentine's Day set to London crowd http://t.co/VnvI05DTth

— Paul Benney (@paulbenney) February 15, 2014

"Hey, you guys... in a very real sense, if it wasn't for you lot out there right now in this hall, we wouldn't even be playing this gig."

Lydon: this charming man

We expect it's only a matter of time before we get the 'plausible explanation' for this, but for now we've only got Kele Okereke's side of what happened at Summercase Festival in Barcelona.

Okereke asked Lydon about the chances of a PIL reunion, which Lydon described as showing a "black attitude" (no, us neither) before standing back to allow his entourage to beat Okereke up. Lydon hurt more than the bruises, says Okereke:

"It's not an issue of the physical assault, even though it was an unprovoked attack. It is the fact that race was brought into the matter so readily. Someone as respected and as intelligent as Lydon should know better than to bring race into the equation, or socialise with and encourage those who hold such narrow-minded attitudes. I am disappointed that someone I held with such high regard turns out to be such a bigot."

Although we've not got a very high opinion of Lydon, we had always assumed that beneath the self-importance and desire to make a myth of himself, his heart was at least in the right place. Even that seems over-hopeful today.

The one amusing aspect of a sordid evening is that the attack took place in front of fifty or so members of indie royalty:

Mystery Jets, Neon Neon and Har Mar Superstar, all of whom saw what unfolded

And Ricky Wilson and Foals' Yannis Philippakis were the heroes of the hour, wading in to try and pull Lydon's thugs off Kele. Ricky Wilson a hero of the hour. Who ever would have thought?

Foals unimpressed with Boris

Edwin Congreave of Foals isn't happy with the people of London:

"We're flying back to London from New York," he they wrote. "The jet lag is one thing, but the fear that we'll be flying into a city that isn't so much a newly fascist city-state than one big gilded joke of a newspaper column made rotten flesh [is another].

"Boris 'Picaninny' Johnson, we salute you – sort of like we'd salute any smug, self-satisfied old Etonian holding a statute-book to our heads. Congratulations and good luck with the Olympics.

"At least when California elected a clown as governor they elected one who'd made his name as a muscle-man [Arnold Schwarzenegger]. Boris appears to have been elected simply because he has blond hair."

Actually, it turns out that most Boris voters thought that he'd only be mayor for one week, followed by the bloke from the Pimms advert the next, and then Brian Blessed.

Subpop turns 20

It's hard to believe - okay, it isn't hard, but it's depressing and makes me feel ancient and so I choose to try and dress it up in a carapace of deniability - that SubPop has reached 20. They're having a party to celebrate:

The SP20 Festival is happening July 12 & 13 at Marymoor Park just outside of Seattle in Redmond, WA. In addition to reunited bands, acts currently on the label's roster, and everything in between, the festival will also host a half-pipe featuring both Nike and Girl + Chocolate sponsored skaters. While the full day-by-day line-up will be announced in the coming months, the festival will include:

Beachwood Sparks / Comets on Fire / Fleet Foxes / Flight of the Conchords / The Fluid / Foals / Grand Archives / Green River / The Helio Sequence / Iron & Wine / Kinski / Low / Mudhoney / No Age / Pissed Jeans / Red Red Meat / The Ruby Suns / Seaweed / Wolf Parade, and more to be announced. For artist images and bios please visit: http://www.subpop.com/artists/

Proceeds from ticket sales will benefit a variety of charities chosen by both Sub Pop and each act performing.

It's quite a line-up, however you measure it. Good news if you're in Washington State, or flexible travel arrangements.