Homophobic violence accusations by Faker front man, venue refutes claim

Nathan Hudson, lead singer of Australian rock outfit Faker, has tweeted over the weekend of alleged Homophobic violence towards him by the Hotel manager of a Tasmanian venue:

"My recollection of last night is that I got beat up by the manager of Hotel New York, Launceston. It felt homophobic and it felt backward."

He followed that tweet up with this:

"My last comment was authentic. I'm kind of sore (bruise on my left cheekbone) so I'm gonna be quiet while I try and figure out what happened"

The venue, Hotel New York in Launceston have issued an official statement regarding the incident:

This is our official statement on the alleged homophobic attack toward Nathan Hudson, frontman of Faker, in the early morning of the 26th of June, 2011. We thank everyone who has taken the time to write to us and can assure you that we appreciate your concerns and take any allegations of a homophobic driven attack very seriously.

We were very shocked to hear this statement from Mr Hudson as his recollection of events is somewhat different to what happened and what is recorded on our surveillance. After Mr Hudson performed he disappeared from the venue for numerous hours and when he returned at 3:30am he showed signs of being extremely intoxicated. He was refused entry to the nightclub but told he could retire to his room on the premises. Mr Hudson initially agreed but then insisted on going back into the club. He was then escorted back out to the front of the premises where he was monitored by our crowd controllers. Under Tasmanian Liquor and Gaming legislation, it would have been an offence to allow Mr Hudson into a licensed area whilst showing signs of intoxication. After being picked up by car, Mr Hudson left again and when he returned at 5:50am he appeared to be even more intoxicated and insisted on being served even though the venue was closed. After getting into a verbal argument with the venue’s manager they pushed each other and Nathan fell over. Nathan was then helped back up and assisted by other staff members to his room. Earlier that night the venue's manager had bought Mr Hudson and the rest of Faker dinner at our restaurant close by. At no stage of Mr Hudson's time at Hotel New York was there mention of his sexuality. As the owner of a number of establishments that employees over 60 people, I hope you can appreciate our staff are from varied walks of life, and of differing sexual orientation. We pride ourselves on creating a culture amongst our staff that would not discriminate or hold prejudices against anyone.

We are disappointed that Mr Hudson feels a homophobic attack took place as it clearly didn't and we are currently in contact with Mr Hudson's management to rectify this situation.

Faker were in Tasmania over the weekend, performing in both Hobart and Launceston with a Channel [V] Guerrilla Gig appearance on the Sunday in Launceston (hungover?)

No doubt we can expect an official statement from Faker's management regarding the issue.

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