The Enemy: 'Alex Zane is a talentless prick'

The Enemy have hit back at presenter Alex Zane after he declared this morning (September 20) that he would never the play the band on his radio show again.

The Xfm breakfast DJ announced he would not be playing the group’s records following a run-in with the band at the Vodafone Live Music Awards last night – but The Enemy have told NME.COM it was the presenter who started it.

Having declared he would never play the band again after spinning seven seconds of their current single ’You’re Not Alone’, Zane then alluded to a letter that frontman Tom Clarke had sent him some months previously, which declared Zane “talentless” and wondered how “how he got on TV in the first place”.

Read a transcript from Alex Zane's Xfm show on NME.COM now.

However, Clarke told NME.COM that the letter was actually in response to Zane’s treatment of the band when he interviewed them for a TV show earlier this year.

“He interviewed us on ’Popworld’ – a show I must point out that has been decommissioned since – and he just wasn’t funny. He hadn’t done his research and I told him he was just wasting everyone’s time,” explained Clarke. “We wouldn’t let it go out, it was terrible, so instead he got these three baby dolls and said 'here’s The Enemy'.”

This led Clarke to drop off his reply – the letter – in Zane’s pigeonhole when the band recorded a session at Xfm.

“I thought if he’s going to take the piss out of me, then he should be a man and let me take the piss out of him,” reasoned Clarke.

However, things came to a head when the pair came face to face at last night’s award ceremony in London.

“He was being sarcastic, going 'I got your letter, that was lovely of you’, so I told him I meant it,” declared Clarke. “I told him he’s just a shit Russell Brand. Russell is a funny guy with a brain, he’s just a talentless, soulless prick.”

The Enemy frontman claimed that, since this morning, the radio station had actually contacted the band to throw their support in with them.

“Xfm rang and said they’re still totally behind The Enemy, it’s just Alex Zane who’s got the problem,” said Clarke. “It’s a shame, because it’s probably the most interesting thing that’s happened on his show - unfortunately no one heard as everyone was listening to Chris Moyles!”

Xfm however hit back with Head Of Music Mike Walsh explaining: "Xfm and Alex Zane have always supported The Enemy, in fact Alex has made them single of the week on his breakfast show before.

"As a network, Xfm will continue to support fantastic new artists including The Enemy, however, we respect Alex's version on the altercation and wont be forcing him to play any of their records until he has a satisfactory apology from Tom."