Bloc Party comedown for NME

The ructions over at Bloc Party feel a bit like Big Brother or the Rugby World Cup, don't they? You're mildly aware that there's some sort of competition going on, but it's hard to be interested because, whoever wins, it's not like anyone else cares much and nobody is sure what the prize is supposed to be.

In fact, it's like it's only the NME who give a rat's bandana about it, and are now desperately trying to shore up their original coverage of the story:

NME has been accused of sensationalising, or even fabricating, details of the band's apparent split after Kele revealed he had discovered the band's plans to continue without him.

Faced with the singer's allegations, we contacted the band to clarify the situation, and guitarist Russell Lissack confirmed that while Kele is busy with his solo career, the remaining members would be auditioning new singers to allow them to continue playing together. But it appears that Bloc Party are now backtracking on the admission.

I don't think it's fair to claim the NME sensationalised anything. As there was nothing especially sensational about the idea that Bloc Party were looking round for a new singer. But the NME is desperate to uphold its reputation, and so has embedded great chunks of audio which somehow proves something:

But with fans confused and concerned, here we publish all the conversations in full to set the record straight.

Yes, the streets are full of young people, ashen faced, gripping the sleeves of passers-by and crying "what news of Russell Lissack?" Seriously, I even liked the second Bloc Party album, and I can't get very bothered about who may or may not be singing on the next one.

Still, full disclosure from the NME. Because it's the biggest guitar-based scandal of our age:

Here is Kele opening up about spotting his bandmates going into a New York rehearsal space without him. The claim comes four minutes into the Soundcloud file.

Hmm. Apparently, even the NME can't really be bothered about this, as it couldn't be arsed to fired up Audacity and snip out the key bit of the conversation.

They also embed five minutes of an interview with Lissack. There's thirteen minutes of stuff, there.

They end on a plea:

Do you see a future for the band without Kele? Or are Bloc Party trying to whip up publicity at the expense of their fans? As ever, leave your thoughts below.

You might have thought that the second question was one that the NME should have had the answer to before running the story in the first place.