Tom Chaplin is going solo

Tom Chaplin, "the voice of Keane", is going solo, but cautiously:

A source shared: ''Tom didn't want to rush his first record. He wanted it to be perfect.

''He's taken his time and now feels he has the makings of an album that can withstand the comparisons to Keane's amazing back catalogue.''

Tom, sweetheart; I've heard foxes on heat screeching in the night who are capable of withstanding comparisons to Keanes - cough - amazing back catalogue.

''Tom isn't afraid to get personal on the album.

''His bandmate Tim Rice-oxley wrote the majority of Keane's tracks so Tom didn't always get the chance to explore his inner demons. Now it's his project he feels a lot more liberated.

''There will be more lyrics about his own struggle than ever heard on the band's records.''

Ah, who can wait until Christmas to hear "my struggle" from the boy who went to Tonbridge School (which is more costly than either Eton or Harrow)?

Keane leave themselves wide open

Oh, it's an open goal, and so the rest writes itself: Tom Chaplin talks about the new Keane single:

Keane Frontman Tom Chapman says the band's new song, 'Spiralling', is them “ignoring rules of good taste”

[Yes, Gigwise called him Chapman. He's so dull they can't even remember his name.]

Charlie, Chaplin?

Trying desperately to cling to the few days last year when he was vaguely interesting, Tom Chaplin says that he still falls off the wagon from time to time:

"I still have long manic phases followed by terrible lows and I'm acutely aware that the whole thing could fall apart at any time.

"I've had a few relapses, but not for a few months now."

I suppose we should at least be delighted that he's not sharing his lumbago with us.

Tom Chap-lin(e)

Simply checking into rehab hasn't made Tom Chaplin interesting, so today, Tom's given an interview to Victoria Newton about how much he loved snorting coke. Well, we say to Victoria Newton. He gave it to Q, where Victoria read about his drug problems.

Or, as Victoria puts it, presumably using some sort of keyboard shortcut:

Now the singer has revealed the scale of his drugs hell.

Apparently, he even quit the band at the end of a Japanese tour. Only he didn't tell anybody, which... well, it's not quite quitting, is it?

Then, he traipsed off to the Priory:

“I was at the end of my tether in Japan. I was tired of life and feeling pretty suicidal.

“I got off the plane and phoned my dad. I told him I’d left the band and that I was falling apart. I checked myself into The Priory.”

But this wasn't a sudden thing - oh, no: Tom had problems before:

“In late 2005 and the start of 2006, when we were finishing Under The Iron Sea, I was in a state. Tim would come to my house and I’d refuse to answer the door. I was spending a lot of time at home crying in front of Cash In The Attic."

Well, who wouldn't? When they're trying to scrape together the money to buy an iron lung or something, and the auction's going badly, and they start to play the 'sad' version of the music under the saleroom sequence, with Alastair putting a consoling arm round a woman who's just seen her treasures barely scrape the reserve price... I'm starting to sniff myself, and this is just a composite Cash In The Attic I'm making up in my head.

It sounds like Chaplin's problems have very little to do with drugs - drug hell or otherwise - and more like depression. Still, apparently treating the symptom has done well, so that won't be like cutting a limb off but being okay because you've staunched the flow of blood.

One other thing: Victoria says that Tom's two gramme a week habit would "have cost him £700" - where the hell do Sun journalists get their cocaine from? Selfridges? Based on prices quoted by Drugscope, if you shop around you could get ten times that amount.