BRMC drummer out of the club

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club have announced that they have split with drummer Nick Jago for the second time.

Writing on MySpace, Jago said: "I just had dinner with Rob [Levon Been, vocals/bass] and Pete [Hayes, vocals/guitar] and, well, I'm not in the band anymore. They presented it to me like they need a break, I took it as I am fired again and to be honest with you I respect their decision. I don't make it easy for them, I hope to be able to play with them again in the future as a reunion, as there is really no bad feeling other than we all wanna be happy and right now we are not. Maybe playing drums for BRMC all the time is not my calling and there is something else I'm supposed to do".

Levon Been and Hayes followed this up with a message posted on the BRMC MySpace blog, saying: "To all of you who have read or heard about Nick's MySpace posting, Peter and I would like to clarify a few things from our perspective. It's true, Nick wont be joining us for the upcoming European tour, but it's not true that he is fired. We just feel Nick needs time to sort out exactly what he wants right now. His heart and all his energy and attention is on his own solo project and he needs to see that through. We welcome his singing and songwriting in BRMC, but his focus, at least at the present time, is on doing his own thing and we wish him the best. He is our brother, our musical partner, and we love him dearly and look forward to playing with him again in the future".

Drums on the upcoming tour dates will be handled by The Ravonettes' Leah Shapiro. The first time Jago parted from the band was in 2005, due to ongoing drug problems, which meant he only appeared on one track on the band's third album, 'Howl'.