Fighting made us stronger, says Franz drummer

Franz Ferdinand drummer Nick McCarthy is glad he threatened to leave the Scottish band in November following a vicious row with frontman Alex Kapranos because it made the group stronger.

The stars almost disbanded after a gig in Paris when the hot-tempered bandmates had a furious argument during a prize-giving ceremony in front of more than 400 people.

But the bust-up cleared the air, allowing the award-winning foursome to continue their assault on the international music scene.

McCarthy said: "Of course I thought about leaving the band. Absolutely. After that moment, for the next few days I was thinking: 'Is it worth it? If we get on each other's nerves that much'.

"But mine and Alex's friendship was born out of a fight anyway, so it's fine. Living together 24 hours a day for a year and a half had just got to the point where if you dropped your pencil, it was the other guy's fault. I'm quite glad it happened. After that, it couldn't get much worse."