dear friends

illuminatus stands for honesty and integrity. it is why we write our kind of music; why we sing about our kind of issues; and why we play to our kind of fans.

we take pride in the effort we put into this love of ours, which was never aimed at making money, or being famous, or conforming to anything other than our own goals and expectations.

for ten years we have followed this path. and it took us to places we never expected, gave us experiences we could have never hoped for, and made us create music we only ever dreamed of. but as all creative people out there can attest to, success will always come at a cost.

we had several line-up changes over the years, with the last being our bassist and friend Leo Giovazzini effectively leaving the band last summer due to injury. we managed to continue touring through the year, with our friend and founding member Mark Freestone helping out on bass. but we have now reached a point where we have to decide if and how we want to go on.

and at this point we simply are not able to face our fans and claim to offer the same energy, as we did when we first started. and we have therefore decided to call a halt to our band operations.

we do not know if this is forever, especially as we have seen far too many “band re-united” tours to want to claim that that is the case. we are also all continuing to be creative in our own ways. and we are discussing maybe playing one last show together in Nottingham, as a tribute to our fans, and perhaps releasing more video or other snippets from our archives.

but to continue writing and touring as a band at this point, would not give our music the honesty and passion it deserves.

we must therefore bid you all farewell. and we leave you with our latest video “You’ll Never Know What This Means” as a fitting dedication to all those who understand our struggle. and all of those who do not.

we thank you for ten years of unbelievable joy.

we love you all.

julio – jon – felix

illuminatus