The Enemy’s frontman Tom Clarke has revealed his battle with depression and announced that he is leaving Twitter.
He spoke openly on Twitter about being hurt by bullying and suffering from depression.
The singer said he is tired of being labelled a “gnome” and a “hobbit” by various members of the public and music publications.
Clarke tweeted a photo of Time Out’s preview of his band’s forthcoming UK tour with The Twang. Time Out wrote, “‘Away From Here’ is exactly where we’d like subtlety-deficient indie gnomes The Enemy to stay, but no, they’re coming to London soon on a UK tour ahead of album number four.”
Wonder if @TimeOutLondon would like to justify their personal attack on my height & explain why it’s relevant to everybody now? Well?
— Tom Clarke (@tomclarke_enemy) September 10, 2014
Time Out continued “Even worse, daft Brummie bellowers The Twang are the support act. Can someone put a bullet in indie’s head already? Welcome back? No.”
In response Clarke declared critics as “Morons. Jealous, juvenile, inept, generically conformist morons. With your little pens. Do me a favour and get yourself a life transplant.”
If I had a pound for everytime a journalist called me a hobbit I could buy enough bullets to round them up and disfigure the lot of them.
— Tom Clarke (@tomclarke_enemy) September 9, 2014
Vice referred to Clarke as a “talentless little arsewipe” and claimed “We will give The Ememy £1 every time someone calls him a hobbit.”
In a Twitlonger post, The singer described the articles as bullying, saying, “Fortunately most people are protected from being bullied at work because in civilised society we recognise it as wrong.”
Hope you all understand why twitter and I are taking a break. This industry should be ashamed of it’s complete tolerance of bullying.
— Tom Clarke (@tomclarke_enemy) September 10, 2014
He continued “I’ve never spoken about this publicly before but I feel it’s pertinent to add context to this weeks events. Since I was 16 I’ve struggled with depression. In my early twenties I was prescribed medication to try to manage my mental health. At many times during my adulthood I’ve battled with the overwhelming urge to take my own life. As recently as a few years ago I felt in control enough to stop taking anti-depressants daily, which for most people who suffer from depression is both a huge risk, and a huge milestone.”
Clarke is remaining optimistic though, one of his final tweets read:
Luckily for every inept journo who wants to have a pop there’re thousands upon thousands of amazing fans & tickets for December are flying!
— Tom Clarke (@tomclarke_enemy) September 10, 2014
Read the full Twitlonger article Hobbits, professionalism & why I’m leaving twitter.
