Suede split up because they ''weren't very good'' any more.

The 'Trash' hitmakers went their separate ways in 2003, a year after the release of their poorly-received fifth album 'A New Morning', and bassist Mat Osman admits it was because they knew they weren't performing to the standard they previously had.

He said: ''It's really weird, I'm slightly spooked by the fact no one ever gives up music - who do you know that was in a band and actually gave it up, that wasn't forced to retire but said 'This isn't the greatest thing in the world, I want to do something else'.

''What would make us give it up? If we weren't any good. If we got s**t. That's why we stopped last time, because we weren't very good.''

The group - Mat, Brett Anderson, Richard Oakes, Neil Codling and Simon Gilbert - can see the positive side of their long break, as it quashed any ideas they had about experimenting with new genres because now they are back in the recording studio, they just want to make ''a Suede record''.

Speaking at last weekend's Hop Farm Festival in Kent, Mat exclusively told BANG Showbiz: ''I think there's that weird thing where you're on your fourth or fifth record, you want to do whatever you haven't done before and it takes a lot of time off to get that out of your head.

''This time, we just wanted to make a suede record so hopefully it'll just carry on where we left off.''