delay in the new album being finished was due to Chad's injuring his hand after falling into a fire grate, keeping him from playing for four to five months, but confirmed that the band had so far finished 15 songs. Draper later revealed that he had been diagnosed with cancer during recording sessions at Rockfield Studios, after a blister appeared on his left hand middle finger that kept bleeding. He visited a local doctor who took a sample of tissue from the finger. It was confirmed that it was malignant and was known as a "Bowenoid malignancy," and Draper responded positively to five cycles of chemotherapy. However, he was unable to play for several months after his finger swelled up following treatment In April and May 2002 the band embarked on a low-key UK tour, which was initially planned to be secret and promoted under the pseudonym The Masons. The band played short ten song sets on the tour, one half old songs and the other half new songs set to appear on their forthcoming album. One website prophetically reported that the tour would be the band's last, although this was denied at the time. In the following October, Chad revealed that a planned studio session for that month had been abandoned as they had wanted to continue writing. Following extended delays in the band delivering the new album to Parlophone, rumour spread in December 2002 that the band had been given an ultimatum that if they didn't complete the album by early in the new year, they would be dropped. In January 2003, a posting on the band's official Yahoo list claimed that a member of the band had left "amid massive animosity", later elaborating that "a member of the band had quit, did not want to rejoin and the remaining members did not want him back" and that as a result of this, the band had split up. Following months of speculation, the band's split was officially announced on 2 May 2003, with the press release stating that the band decided to call it a day after realising that "the life of the group had come to an end". Chad commented on the split, that "there's nothing sinister behind it, it was completely amicable. We all just want to be able to do other things". It was later revealed that the announcement had been delayed as Draper had