departures shrouded in rumour

At the time, the departures of Moakes and Tong were shrouded in rumour and innuendo. Okereke alluded to drugs being an issue on multiple occasions, after he had to intervene during a Bloc Party performance. He told The Guardian : “There’s a song where somebody makes a mistake and … well, I guess Gordon makes a mistake. And I say something to him, and he kind of responds, and I realised at that point that this was as far as our relationship was gonna go. I’ve never interfered with anyone’s performance before, and I thought that if that was the state of our relationship, it felt fitting that this should be our last show together.” Before the article was published Okereke told NME that “I can tell you it was about someone doing cocaine and someone not being into it. That’s all I’m gonna say.” Before publication Okereke contacted The Guardian to address his comments to NME saying the ‘someone’ he referenced was a person around the band, not actually in the band: “This then led to a big argument and that’s the situation,” he says. “I don’t want people to think Matt and Gordon were cokeheads, and that’s why we had to lose them. And I don’t want their families thinking that.” In a 2024 interview, Tong elaborated that his departure was due to feeling unable to continue working with Okereke, with the breaking point being Okereke’s attempted removal of someone in the band’s touring party whose birthday celebration on their bus involved the aforementioned drugs. Tong claimed he wasn’t present during the incident, took exception when he heard about what had happened, and quit via email with the band still in the middle of a summer festival tour. In a 2025 interview, Moakes said Tong’s departure prompted his own decision to also quit after finishing that tour, since he felt that Tong “was the heartbeat of the band” and that he did not wish to continue in Bloc Party without Tong.