Echo & The Bunnymen frontman Ian McCulloch has been in court in Scotland this week charged with assaulting two fans backstage at the Glasgow Barrowlands venue. Gary Duncan claims McCulloch attacked him and his girlfriend, Julient Selbey, after they went backstage after the band's gig there last October.
Quite why they were backstage I can't quite figure out (alas I couldn't make it to the Glasgow District Court myself, what with me living in London and all, so I'm going on the somewhat sketchy court reports here), but the couple went to use the toilet facilities there, and that's where their run in with McCulloch took place.
Duncan "[We heard] a fierce roaring and threatening language. Then he [McCulloch] was threatening to kick the doors in of the toilets if we didn't get out". Having left the toilet, McCulloch then allegedly grabbed Duncan's jacket and "pushed and pulled me in a threatening manner".
After a member of the band's entourage intervened Duncan said he then looked for his girlfriend and, when asking said entourage member as to her whereabouts, was told "Don't worry, she'll be all right with Mac". His girlfriend then reappeared seemingly in a state of shock - "she was in a state of stress and in fear and was clutching her head at her right temple" - Duncan then says he realised his girlfriend's head was bleeding because the door McCulloch kicked in had fallen on her.
Said girlfriend explained to the court: "This person was shouting through the cubicle door. I said 'Please just give me a moment', because I was in a vulnerable situation and hadn't finished. I just remember the door hitting in the side of my head because when it came in I was still sitting on the toilet".
McCulloch's defence claim that the couple were in the same toilet cubicle prior to the incident (make of that what you will), that McCulloch was, in fact, just trying to escort them out of the dressing room area, and that Selbey was hit by an unlocked toilet door as it swung open, not as it was kicked in.
The case was adjourned yesterday until 18 Sep when the interview police undertook with McCulloch after the incident will be presented to court.