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All three security guards involved in Wargasm assault now banned from working at The Scala
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 12 November 2021
A third security guard has now been banned from working at London venue The Scala after Wargasm’s Sam Matlock was assaulted backstage following a performance at the Face Down club night there last Friday night.
In a statement last weekend, Wargasm explained that – while loading out of the venue – “a bouncer was verbally aggressive to our female tour manager, leading to Sam having to step in”. Amid the resulting altercation, “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”.
On Tuesday, The Scala announced that it had now conducted a “full investigation” into what happened on Friday night and that, as a result, two security guards had been banned from working at the venue. It said: “The two security personnel involved were deployed by Saber Security Ltd to work at the club night. The two rogue individuals who carried out the offence were dismissed from working at Scala with immediate effect”.
That statement left some questions unanswered, though. First, why had only two security guards been banned when three were involved in the assault? And second, while they had been banned from working at The Scala, did Saber Security now intend to deploy those men to other London venues?
Wargasm themselves provided an update on Twitter yesterday, confirming that the third man involved in the assault had also now been banned from working at The Scala.
They stated: “After working with Saber Security and Scala, the three bouncers in question have been fired from their positions at Scala. We hope this serves as a reminder to all other security and staff in positions of power that there are rules to be followed for people’s safety, and that actions have consequences”.
Meanwhile, according to NME, Saber Security has confirmed that it has “suspended the services of the security operatives concerned, pending a full and thorough investigation”.
The Scala also posted another update regarding security at the venue yesterday ahead of a sold out performance by Erika De Casier last night, seeking to reassure her fans that lessons had been learned and changes made. After Wargasm went public about the assault against Matlock last weekend, a number of other artists and fans took to social media to discuss their own negative experiences with security personnel at the London venue.
The Scala’s statement read: “Having liaised with Erika’s team we are looking forward to welcoming Erika De Casier to Scala tonight for her sold out show”.
“We would like to take this opportunity to reassure all of her fans and our customers that their enjoyment and safety is paramount to us”, it went on. “We have introduced a larger team of female to male ratio of security personnel and will have an increased amount of staff to greet you at the door. We look forward to welcoming you and seeing you this evening”.
