The Lost Campesinos: Ollie's off

Ollie has left Los Campesinos, as you're probably aware. This is his farewell:

It is with very sad regret that I have to announce that I, Ollie Campesinos!, have parted company with Los Campesinos!.

When we first started this band we never expected in a million years that three years down the line we would have done and achieved all the things that we have. It’s been an amazing experience and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

I want to thank everyone that we have ever worked with. Without your hard work we wouldn’t have done all these things. Thank you to every band I have ever had the privilege of playing with. I have made some really great friends.

But most importantly I want to thank every one of you that has ever taken any time to take interest in us. Whether it’s coming to a gig, buying a record or merely reading my food reviews. If it weren’t for you guys and gals we would have faded out a long time ago.

It’s been a true honour and a privilege, my life is going to be very different.

And this is the remaining band's response:

This is really tough to talk about for so many reasons. I guess first off, you should know that the last few weeks have been pretty horrible for everyone, especially Ollie. We didn’t think we’d ever be in this position and it’s been hard enough to deal with privately, let alone publicly, but we’ve certainly taken no pleasure whatsoever in any of this: asking one of our best friends to leave the band we formed together really does feel as shit as you would expect.

It’s obviously difficult to explain this decision in a sensitive way, because Ollie’s been nothing but professional and genuinely lovely throughout his time in this band, and has continued to be, even now. Any of you that have met him will know what he’s like, and what a good guy he is.

So we feel we should stress that the reasons for this decision were never personal nor down to any lack of effort or professionalism on Ollie’s part; we still love and respect Ollie deeply. Please understand that it’s a decision we all felt we had to make for Los Campesinos! to be able to continue as a band at all.

We’ve had over three brilliant years with Ollie and made three records I think we’re all proud of, and in that time he’s always been enthusiastic and hard-working, and, well, just an all-round nice guy. Hopefully this decision won’t make any of us less proud of what we’ve achieved together, as it really has been a pleasure being in a band with him. Again, we can’t emphasise enough just how shit this whole situation is, but we hope you’ll understand.

There is no danger of this being the end of Los Campesinos!, and we will definitely continue more enthusiastically and stronger than ever. All scheduled gigs will continue as planned.

And this is what they were like, in less shit times: