News

Madina Lake Will Still Play UK Dates

• 12th Jul 2010

Last week Madina Lake bassist Matthew Leone was brutally attacked while rescuing a woman from being battered by her husband. He didn’t know them; he just encountered them as he walked down the street in his native Chicago and couldn’t ignore it. Having rescued her, the husband turned on Matthew as he was calling 911 and left him for dead, unconscious on the street. The beating he received was so severe, he had emergency surgery to remove a third of his skull to relieve bleeding on his brain and repair numerous facial fractures. Some of the initial news reports can be seen at: link and link and link>

Matthew has been now temporarily discharged from hospital to recuperate at his twin brother/Madina Lake frontman Nathan's apartment and awaits further surgery on July 16. Nathan has confirmed to MTV News that things are still touch-and-go. “Honestly, it's like walking on glass, because I have to make sure absolutely nothing happens to him, have to keep him safe and protected and healing, and then, there's the brain surgery, with all the risks of that,” says Nathan. “It's a very tenuous situation. He can't roll over, can't really rest the side of his head on anything, and he can't get up and walk around, even though he very much wants to. He spends most of the day right in the middle of my bed, so he can't roll off at night. I've been sleeping on the couch. He's slowly but surely getting his strength back, but it's still hard, because not only is his surgery upcoming, but any time you have a neurological trauma, the long-term effects are unknown, and can be for up to a year,” Nathan explains. “So, right now, it's a situation where we have all this time until the surgery, and you're holding your breath that everything is stable until then. Then you need that surgery to go perfectly, and from there it's another four to six weeks of recovery. So hopefully everything goes as well as possible.”

Arrested after the vicious assault, there is also the pending case against Matthew's alleged attacker, 33-year-old Justin Pivec, which Nathan can't talk about for legal reasons (“You have no idea how badly I want to say something,” he sighs), and the ongoing efforts by Madina Lake's friends and fans to raise funds to help with un-insured Matthew's mounting medical costs – efforts that have left Nathan amazed and his brother more than a little embarrassed. Fans and people just touched by the situation have already donated more than $12,000. Plans are afoot for a global online charity auction with donations of items from across – and outside – the music industry, not to mention multiple benefit concerts.

“In some ways he's a shy person, and the attention that's come from this is something he's not ecstatic about, but at the same time, it's just overwhelmingly positive, and of course it makes him feel much better,” Nathan says. “Everyone's been so amazingly supportive, really, I can't express what it means to all of us.”

Fans can send email messages to Matthew via mail, titling their email ‘A Message For Matthew’.

As for the upcoming UK Madina Lake dates, Nathan and his bandmates met to discuss how Matthew’s injuries will affect their plans. “We have the Sonisphere Festival coming up in the UK and a few headlining dates around that. We decided last night that we're going to commit to playing them, and we're not going to hire a bass player to fill in,” Nathan says. “Instead, if it's possible, we're going to try to have Matthew record his bass tracks here, and then run them when we play live. We're not going to hire a new bass player [for the shows] … we don't want anyone to take his place. So, if he can pick up a bass, he's going to play his parts.”

The full list of dates you can see Madina Lake at are as follows:
Sun 1 Aug – KNEBWORTH Sonisphere Festival
Mon 2 Aug – CARDIFF Barfly
Tues 3 Aug – KINGSTON New Slang @ Hippodrome
Wed 4 Aug – LONDON Barfly
Thu 5 Aug – YORK The Duchess
Fri 6 Aug – POOLE Chords
Sat 7 Aug – NEWQUAY Boardmasters Festival
Sun 8 Aug – FOLKESTONE Hevy Festival

Details of the online auction will be announced shortly. Donations can be made towards Matthew’s medical costs at: link (more info va Sweet Relief at: link)