Freebass: The dream is over

How shall we go on without Freebass? The Mani-Hooky supergroup has split up in what looks like acrimonious circumstances. The NME reports:

Mani posted a host of outbursts on his Twitter account, Twitter.com/maniscream, attacking Hook for supposedly exploiting his past glories. Hook recently performed a series of shows where he played Joy Division's 'Unknown Pleasures' album in its entirety.

"Three things visible from space, Great Wall Of China, Peter Hook's wallet stuffed with Ian Curtis' blood money, Man City's empty trophy cabinet!" he tweeted, adding: "I've actually got an ongoing career, so I don’t feel the need to exploit my past glories. I exist in the here and the now."

That's sort-of true, isn't it? It's not entirely Mani's fault that his first name has become "FormermemberoftheStoneRoses"; and Primal Scream might be exploiting past glory to remain a going concern these days, but most of the glories date from before Mani joined.

And it isn't entirely clear what Mani thought Freebass was, if not a chance to cash-in on the past lives of those involved - nobody would have got to the end of the first demo track if it hadn't had Hook's name on it. Maybe Mani thought that was down to people's affection for Revenge.

The reference to Manchester City's trophy cabinet doesn't make any sense, either - why would an empty cabinet be visible from space? Unless someone had built a large cabinet to put nothing in? Was the emptiness supposedly visible from space by itself?

The formal announcement of Freebass split runs like this:

"It is with great sadness that just prior to the long-awaited album release of 'It’s A Beautiful Life' we have to announce that the much anticipated Mancunian union of bassists, Freebass, is no longer a functioning group."

"Recent events have made Freebass entirely unviable as a band and, with this in mind, it has been decided that the project should be shelved, rather than placed on hiatus while members pursue their other interests.

"The band would like to take the opportunity to thanks friends and fans for their support and interest, especially on the UK tour in June 2010. We also hope that people will enjoy the album, which concludes five years of work, and treat it on its own merits. No third parties were involved or harmed in the break-up."

The clash of egos. Even smothered in a polite PR sheen, you can still see that from space.

[Thanks to Michael M for the tip]