Looks like things are officially heading to an end for the trouble-plagued BLACK GRAPE. As you'll remember, founders Shaun Ryder and Kermit got into a row around New Year's, causing Kermit to leave the band for an indefinite time period. Now NME is reporting today that Shaun Ryder has officially announced that the band is on indefinite hiatus in order for Ryder to pursue a film career.

Meanwhile, April appears to be the month to, erm, kill yourself. (Funny, it's been a good month for us!) But apparantly it's NOT been good for WENDY O. WILLIAMS, formerly of seminal 80's pseudo-punkers The Plasmatics, who ended her life with a shotgun blast this past Monday. Also released today was news of the death of ROZZ WILLIAMS, (no relation we suspect,) singer with the more-than-seminal, Uber-goths Christian Death. Anyone up for taking bets on how long 'til Cleopatra releases a tribute album? Us, we're betting it's a death pact with the Milli Vanilli guy.

As reported at Rolling Stone's website, New Order intend to play some Joy Division tracks during their performance at the Phoenix Festival in July. In addition, the band intends to record new material together for the first time in the better part of a decade. Whether this will result in a new single, new album, or simply a few new tracks included in the box set remains unclear. It seems that the long-anticipated box set will be released in two parts, the first of which is now scheduled for June.