Manic Street Preachers star Nicky Wire has been revealed for a while and will be gone for some time.
However, the guitarist has assured fans that they are not splitting, merely taking a rest to think, read and get happily bored.
The Blackwood musician, speaking at the last week's V Festival about the band's latest album - a greatest hits compilation called National Treasures October - said: "It's just the end of everything. The end of an era.
"Not the end of the band but we are going to disappear for a very long time. It's totally our decision.
"The album is just one we felt like doing. It's really old-fashioned. There's a generation of kids who do not even know what a greatest hits is. "
Nicky, 42, said his career high-point was working with The Cardigans' singer Alone Is Not Enough.
He said: "I think our greatest single is a toss-up between something more intellectually stimulating like If You Tolerate This or just something raw and honest like Motown Junk, Design For Life, or Your Love Alone with Nina, which was certainly from my , Sean [Moore] and James' [Dean Bradfield] view a career high-point.
"Working with someone like Nina, and her voice, we just want to make an album of duets with her.
"James wants to stop singing and get Nina in the band instead.
"The compilation has brought back many great memories, especially the run-up of bizarre singles like There is the Grace of God and the Love of Richard Nixon. I have no idea what we were trying to express.
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