Idlewild to split… Who cares?

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Well, I guess the writing has been on the wall: dropped by the record company a few years back and making mediocre albums… Idlewild, via their Myspace blog, have announced they are to split:

Decided to let the audience know that it will be our last London show, which makes the remainder of the concert quite poignant. At the end of this final part of the tour we will have played 40 gigs around the UK and Ireland in support of ‘Post Electric Blues’, which seems more than enough for some time. There isn’t the demand for our music that there was in the past, especially not outside of Britain so it seems after this year it’s an appropriate time to take a break, a ‘hiatus’ or whatever you want to call it.

Not to cast shadows over the remaining concerts though, an irony of idlewild has always been that as we moved from the bigger halls into smaller halls and clubs we improved dramatically as a live band. Partly because the pressure had gone, but also with age we became tighter, more adaptable, confidant and importantly, more relaxed. At our ‘commercial peak’ or whatever you want to call it, we were frequently unprepared, stressed, scrappy and rigidly stuck to the same set of songs. Of course some people preferred this more, but we didn’t and now there’s a contentedness among the five of us with our concerts, which I think is reflected by the fact that the people that do come to the shows come to them again and again.

Expect more folky goodness from Womble in the future I guess…