Manchester's The Tribe call it a day after 12 years.

MANCHESTER'S hugely popular dance and rap evangelists The Tribe have announced that they will be bowing out at the end of the year. In their 12 years of ministry the band, under the direction of The Message, have presented the Gospel in hundreds of Manchester high schools, sold hundreds of thousands of albums around the world and performed face-to-face to well over 1 million people. In a statement the group said "The Tribe (formerly The World Wide Message Tribe) feels that another new line up is not the way forward this time. Instead The Tribe will be putting all their energies into passing on their creative and evangelistic DNA to the next generation through a brand new training initiative called genetic to be launched next year. They will be looking to release dozens of young gifted evangelists into music ministry plus develop cutting edge evangelistic and discipleship resources. In recent years The Message, the family of youth ministries to which The Tribe belong, has grown significantly through the launch of highly commended initiatives such as EDEN and Festival: Manchester. It is in this context of sustained, determined outreach that The Tribe's legacy will live on."

A goodbye tour for The Tribe for December is now being planned. Dates so far confirmed are Glasgow SECC (December 3rd) and Manchester Apollo (December 19th). Tied in with the tour, Authentic Music will be releasing a 'Best Of' CD and DVD. The tour will feature special appearances from one-time members including Deronda K Lewis, Cameron Dante and Andy "Heavyfoot" Hawthorne. For more information on the tour visit www.thetribeuk.com.