Wargasm singer claims bouncers “held head down toilet” after gig at London’s Scala nightclub
The band has alleged that three bouncers assaulted Sam Matlock in a "completely overzealous and unnecessary use of force"
Wargasm frontman Sam Matlock has accused bouncers at London nightclub Scala of assaulting him after a gig.
The upcoming group played a set at the venue’s FaceDown rock night last Friday (November 5), before a bouncer was allegedly “verbally aggressive” towards the band’s female tour manager, which prompted Matlock to “step in”.
In a statement posted to the band’s Twitter, they alleged: “After this, in a completely overzealous and unnecessary use of force, three bouncers then dragged Sam into the backstage toilets, where two of them slammed his head against the toilet seat and held his head in the toilet bowl while the third bouncer held the door closed with his foot.
“At this point, luckily, another member of our touring party was able to intervene and remove Sam from the situation.”
They also shared a picture of injuries sustained by Matlock, where red marks and scratches are seen across his back, shoulders and arm.
The statement continued: “Wargasm’s management have been attempting to contact Scala directly over the weekend to no avail. Scala have still not responded to our team’s emails.
“We feel that anyone visiting or playing at this venue should be aware of our deeply shocking experience and the treatment of our team by the current security staff.
“It’s now been made very clear to us that as long as this current security team are under employment there, from our experience we do not consider Scala a safe venue, especially for women.”
The band also wrote that they will “not accept aggression, verbal or physical, towards any member of our team.”
Scala addressed the incident on Twitter, writing: “Scala is aware of the allegations that have been made and are conducting a full scale investigation with our security provider, Saber Security. We will not tolerate this sort of behaviour alleged or otherwise.”
FaceDown also responded in a statement that said: “While we do not employ the security at our events, as this is the venue’s responsibility we do not appreciate people being manhandled this way be it someone in the crowd or backstage.
“This has been communicated to the venue and we await their response.”
Security Industry Organisation (SIA), the UK’s official regulator of the private security industry, said in a statement: “We have received a report relating to an incident at the Wargasm gig and will be looking into this further. Security operatives in the regulated private security industry, including door supervisors, must be ‘fit and proper’ to fulfil their important role in protecting the public.
“Violent behaviour is not acceptable. Should a licence-holder do anything that means they fail to comply with our licensing conditions or they do not live up to the standards of behaviour we require we will investigate the matter. Once their identity has been confirmed by a reliable source, such as the police, venue or local authority, we will review evidence against our licensing criteria and consider whether a security operative should retain their licence or if it should be suspended or revoked.”
Rolling Stone UK has contacted Wargasm and Saber Security for comment.