Sheffield indie pop barons Reverend And The Makers may be about split after head honcho Jon McClure revealed in an interview that he was preparing to quit the music industry.

Best known for their "Heavyweight Champion Of The World" single, the group were part of a wave of Northern bands who blended sharp indie hooks with a street wise view of British life. Jon McClure acted a as mentor to the young Alex Turner, and his urban philosophy seeps through his music.

The group's second album "A French Kiss In The Chaos" is due to be released in early 2009, after which McClure will apparently retire from music. In an interview with BBC Radio Ulster the singer claimed that "I'm going to retire from the music industry in January because I'm disgusted by it. I don't want nothing to do with it no more."

Explaining his reasons McClure said "I'm going to retire from the music industry because it's run by rich white men who are very conservative and have been around too long. They don't wanna hear anybody with anything truly rebellious to say and that's why British indie music has stalled for the last ten years."

It could be argued that most of the truly rebellious British music of the last ten years has been made by the drum and bass, grime and dubstep scenes, and not Reverend And The Makers' retro-indie scene, but that's neither here nor there.

McClure finished his rant by saying "in reality, you only get two albums anyway before the industry replaces you, so on this album I might as well do what I want to do and go out telling the truth."

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