Reverend And The Makers' Jon McClure to quit music?

Reverend And The Makers' Jon McClure has declared that he will quit the music industry after the release of his next album.

McClure is set to release his second album, 'A French Kiss In The Chaos', in early 2009.

The Sheffield musician said that his disappointment with current attitudes in the music industry and press had prompted his decision.

"I played a festival recently – I put up a peace sign and got the crowd to put up a peace sign," he told BBC Radio Ulster's Across The Line. "It was written in the music press [in NME] that my asking people to put up a peace sign was a crassism.

"Now if it's a crassism to ask people to put up a peace sign at a time when we're at war in two countries, we're shafted. And therefore 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.

"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.

"I got herded into that pop game by the management I had at the time. Now I'm gonna go to Venezuela and go on [Hugo] Chavez's [Venezuela President] TV show and I'm gonna go to Lebanon.

"I would never have been allowed to do that before, I would never have been allowed to say anything of a political nature because it didn't square with their idea of what a pop artist is.

"But 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."