"It would have been a lot more serious.”
Boyan Chowdhury, a former member of the indie band The Zutons, said he “could have been killed” after a racist attack in Liverpool left him with serious head injuries.
The musician was treated in hospital following the attack, which police described as an “abhorrent” hate-related incident. It took place in the Wavertree area on March 21, 2026.
Mr Chowdhury said a group of young men began shouting racist slurs after he asked them to move away from him and his five-year-old son, as they were smoking nearby.
After taking his son to a neighbour’s house, he said two members of the group continued the abuse before a third approached from the side and struck him.
Mr Chowdhury told Sky News: “Something in my head just said, turn around quick. Instinctively, I turned and I raised my hand, I took some of the blow away.”
He suffered a deep head wound.
Mr Chowdhury continued: “I honestly believe if I hadn’t turned around at that time, I don’t think I’d be here because it would have been the back of my head.
“It would have been a lot more serious.”
Mr Chowdhury added that he has struggled to sleep since the incident and now feels constantly on edge:
“My hands don’t seem to stop shaking… My wife is scared and we’ve got our little boy as well – he was scared to go to school [on Monday].
“But I don’t want to feel like I’m trapped. I can’t feel like I’m trapped.
“There’s no shame in it. Why is it okay?
“People with that mindset, they do believe it’s okay. They do believe in a greatness of themselves over others. That’s what it comes down to and it’s a greatness embedded within this system…
“You can’t really turn your head away from it anymore.
“I think everyone has to start facing the reality, the horrible truth that this country is going into a really dark phase of its history and I still believe we’re in the early stages of it.”
Mr Chowdhury believes such incidents are fuelled by “rhetoric being peddled by people who want to make money off other people”.
The musician, whose parents moved to the UK from Bangladesh, said he is proud of his heritage and “proud to be the child of an immigrant”.
However, he added that racism has been a constant throughout his life.
He also expressed a lack of confidence in how racist incidents are handled, noting his experiences across several decades.
Mr Chowdhury said: “I’m sure other people with other experiences of crime and assault have possibly different experiences, but these are my personal experiences through the ’80s, ’90s and 2000s.”
Boyan Chowdhury was a guitarist and founding member of The Zutons, known for hits including ‘Valerie’, later covered by Amy Winehouse.
Their debut album, Who Killed… The Zutons?, was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2004.
Mr Chowdhury left the band in 2007 but returned for reunion shows in 2019. He is now working on music, acting and production projects.
Following the attack, he said he intends to stay active and thanked his neighbours for their support.
Merseyside Police have launched an appeal for information as part of their investigation.
Detective Inspector Debra Morley said: “This was a shocking assault that has absolutely no place in our communities.
“To racially abuse someone and then attack him with a weapon is abhorrent and I’m sure the public in Merseyside will be just as appalled as we are about what happened…
“Violence and hate crime will simply never be tolerated in our communities.”
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