Freebass the project headed-up by New Order bassist Peter Hook, featuring two other Mancunian bass icons: Mani from Primal Scream and Andy Rourke from the Smiths has split - just ahead of the release of their debut album and their showcase O2 bubble gig.

Andy quit the band a few weeks back, with Mani going into rant overdrive on twitter last night, effing, blinding and calling Peter everything under the sun - and having his Twitter account (twitter.com/maniscream) taken down in the process. Owing to the joys of Google's cache, you can still read what was said, though - check our "Mani Twitterings" link on the right - will only be available until Google flushes its cache, though.

The trio were due to play the O2's bubble exhibition area next Thursday (16th September),preceded with a Q&A session, but that has of course now been cancelled - ticket holders should obtain a refund from their point of purchase.

With it being so far down the line, the band's debut album - the ironically titled: 'It's a Beautiful Life', is still set for a 20th September release.

The "band" released this statement on their myspace:

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.