Long Blondes split

The Sheffield band call it quits and frontwoman Kate Jackson to go solo

20 October 2008 - In a message posted on their official website, the Long Blondes guitarist Dorian Cox has announced the band are calling it a day.

He suffered a stroke at the start of the summer, forcing them to cancel a string of European dates and what would have been their second Glastonbury performance.

The quintet have released two albums and were critically praised for their latest offering, the Erol Alkan-produced Couples.

"The main reason for this is that I suffered from a stroke in June and unfortunately I do not know when / if I will be well enough to play guitar again."
Dorian Cox

Dorian's statement reads: "We have decided to call it a day.

"The main reason for this is that I suffered from a stroke in June and unfortunately I do not know when / if I will be well enough to play guitar again.

"On behalf of the band I'd like to say a big thank you to anyone who ever came to one of our shows, bought one of our records or danced to one of our songs in a club. Thank you, if it wasn't for you the whole thing would have been pointless.

"Finally on a personal note, thanks for all your well wishing messages. Dorian xxx"

6 Music news spoke to the lead singer Kate Jackson about Dorian's stroke and the decision: "It was actually two days after we got back from our American tour and we have no idea what caused that.  Obviously, it was a complete shock for all of us, something that we’ve had a bit of time now to come to terms with.

"It does mean that he’s unable to play the guitar at the moment and we don’t really know when he’ll be able to do that again. Unfortunately we’ve had to take the decision to split up."

Kate said that Dorian, who wrote a lot of the music, is still on the road to recovery: "He’s having physiotherapy every day and is making vast improvements.  When it first happened he couldn’t move his leg or his arm at all and we weren’t sure how his speech, memory, or intelligence were going to be affected.

"Thankfully those things are completely unaffected. He’s still the same Dorian, just lovely and hilariously funny. We haven’t lost him at all, it’s just the arm now that they’re working on."

The frontwoman didn’t rule out the possibility of getting back together if Dorian makes a full recovery, but says that everything has been put on hold, so they’re going to pursue their own things for now.

Going solo

It’s not all bad news for fans of the Long Blondes as Kate revealed she's working on her own solo album.

She's also been taking to the decks: "I’ ve been doing some DJ-ing on my own and with Screech. We went off to Milan last week and did some there.

"I’m gonna be doing stuff in London, Madrid and Holland, just for fun really, playing some 7-inch singles and making people dance. Apart from that I’ve also started writing on my own, working on a solo record.

"It’s the first time I’ve talked about it but that’s my plan.  I’m gonna write a solo record which will be released at some point."

As for what form that will take, she said it’s in the very early stages: "I’m just beginning but I think it will reflect my personal music taste a bit more than the Long Blondes, which was a collaborative thing.

"I’ve only just started and a lot of the influences will overlap so hopefully fans of the Long Blondes will like what I do."
 
Kate is DJing at Twisted Licks on 7 November at The Last Days of Decadence in Shoreditch.

Georgie Rogers