Turns out Keane came very close to splitting up while they worked on their up coming second album - but alas they pulled through - ah, so close. Hang on, I can't remember if we're championing or dissing Keane at the moment. Better get some balance. Good news folks, Keane came close to splitting while in the studio, but managed to pull through. Hurrah.
Anyway, all this relates to comments made by keyboardist Tim Rice-Oxley who told MTV: "We had been through some big highs and big lows over the past two years, from playing Live 8 and Radio City Music Hall to being on a bus together, wanting to kill each other or escape from each other. If we had any sense, we would've taken a break, but we had this great idea to take all those emotions and head directly into the studio, and, well, it got really, really intense for a while. It got to the point where I was afraid that I would have to wake up the following morning and think about what I was going to do next. To suddenly realize that everything was disappearing was incredibly frightening. We all loved the music we were making so much, but when you're dealing with things that were really personal to all of us, when you immerse yourself in the emotions we were writing about, it can't help but bring up bad things."
But the band decided the best way to overcome the tensions was to just get on with it. Rice-Oxley: "We certainly did lots of talking, but basically we just put our heads down and plowed through. And slowly we all realized that none of us wanted this band to end."
And praise/curse the Lord for that (take your pick).