A video shared with Standard appears to show the moment DJ Fat Tony was struck by a man during a dispute around set times during a set at Margate Lido in the early hours of Saturday morning. A man has now been arrested in conjunction with the attack.
Tony, whose real name is Anthony Marnoch and who has been a well-known figure on London’s party scene for decades, tells the Standard he has been left with “a fractured eye socket in three places and a broken cheekbone,” during his first interview since the altercation.
He says the assault “was homophobic, why else would you punch a 59 year old DJ in the face?” He also states a friend of the alleged perpetrator called him “all the names under the sun” including “a queer c**t.”
Kent Police are currently investigating the allegations. Since the attack, which followed a Friday night event, Marnach has taken to Instagram to film updates of his recovery, complete with his painful looking black eye and swollen face. Friends, celebrities and the general public have rushed to support him.
“I've been trying to process what happened on the weekend at home and the phone just hasn’t stopped,” he says. “The outpouring of love has been unbelievable, from Sharon Stone to JLo.”
Other familiar names commenting their support on his posts include Davina McCall, David Furnish, Pete Tong, Carol Vorderman, Goldie, Russel Tovey, Lisa Rinna, Tracey Emin, John Galliano and Paloma Faith.
Ellie Goulding wrote, “Will find him and punch him back for you,” while others stressed “the DJ booth is no place for violence”.
Now, Tony has shared his version of events.
Recalling the build-up to the violent outburst, he says: “There was an amazing atmosphere, the crowd were amazing and it was a great set but 15 minutes towards the end of my set, these guys come to the DJ box.”
“He's shouting, dancing around and I went, ‘mate, can you leave the DJ box?’”
The group then allegedly escalated the situation by becoming physical. “He said ‘who the fuck do you think you are?’ and with that, he pushed me twice. I was like ‘f**k off you idiot, don’t push me’ so I pushed him back.”
“His mate, who was six foot three was standing to my right giving me dirty looks. I said, ‘what's your problem? Why am I being bullied?’ Before he replied ‘shut your mouth, you queer c**t.”
“Then he came over and pulled my headphone jack out… so I stepped back with my headphones and I let him go on. His mate starts calling me every name on his sun, threatening me. There was an altercation, not a fight or anything, but I leant across and I said: ‘listen, what is your problem? Why are you shouting at me, calling me names?’ and he went ‘shut up, you queer’. I thought: ‘no, no, no, f**k you.’”
At this moment, Marnach says he re-entered the DJ booth to retrieve his USB stick. “I tapped the man on the arm and said, all good mate, let me just get my USB stick I’m off. With that, he then sucker punched me twice in the face, knocked me out and then stamped on my back while I was on the floor. I have a big boot mark. He's broken my cheekbone.”
“All I wanted to do was get out of there,” Marnach says now. “But I had to then leave in an ambulance, be rushed to hospital, and come round on the way.”
Despite “hundreds of thousands” of well wishes on social media, Marnach also reveals “some keyboard warriors have said, ‘oh he deserved it.’” His response? “What the hell! How could someone deserve to end up in an ambulance for trying to take their USB stick out after doing their job.”
Tony made clear the incident “doesn't reflect badly on the nightclub. It reflects badly on one individual that shouldn't be in a nightclub. People like that should not be in clubs.”
“I am a victim, but I'm not playing the victim,” he says. “There's so many c**ts in this world, but you know what — the nice ones outweigh them.”
