The Beautiful South have announced they are to split up – on their MySpace page the band have announced that they are splitting due to musical similarities. Bass player Sean Welch, also logged onto the band’s official message boards as Pudding Billy to make the announcement.

It is thought that Paul Heaton will persue his songwriting with solo projects and Dave Rotheray will continue his Homespun project.

Begin to mourne now – we’ll tell you when you can stop!