MORNING RUNNER - MORNING RUNNER SPLIT

MORNING RUNNER SPLIT

Cult rockers MORNING RUNNER have split due to record label pressure to follow up the commercial failure of their 2006 debut album with a hit. The British band disagreed with bosses at their label Parlophone on the direction they should take after last year's Wilderness Is Paradise Now debut. Announcing the split on MySpace.com, the group writes: "The first record was a relative commercial failure and heaped pressure on us to have a follow up hit record. "We tried to ignore this and write the songs that we wanted. However, having been encouraged by the label to go away and experiment, they made a U-turn and decided that the music wasn't commercially viable. "We had a couple of days apart to think through what we wanted to do next. When we came to sit down and talk about stuff, Tom (Derrett, bass) and Fields (Chris Wheatcroft, drums) came to the decision that they'd had enough. "This wasn't what Matt (Greener, vocals) and Ali (Clewer, drums) wanted particularly, but obviously they respect their decision and came to the agreement that with the loss of Tom and Fields they should call it a day."