The Beards Pen Open Farewell Letter: 'We Faced An Uphill Battle From The Start'

Having announced their break-up and farewell tour early last month, our favourite hairy band of merrymen The Beards have penned an open letter to their fans, citing reasons for their disbanding and a heartfelt goodbye to those who stuck around for the ride.

The band write, "Whilst being on stage in front of all of you can be the most awesome job in the world, we feel that now is the right time to (hopefully) go out with a bang with one last tour, rather than slowly fade from relevance until we’re nothing but a quirky answer to a 2011 Hottest 100 quiz question.

"Being a novelty band (and we’re not afraid to admit it), we faced an uphill battle from the start in many respects – we’ve had precious little radio play over the journey, the majority of festivals didn’t want to know about us, and most self-respecting music fans would screw up their nose at the idea, at least until they saw us live. And so to win people over, we toured. Then we toured more. Then we toured again, until people began to take notice. That’s the reality we faced, as do many young bands that start out with nothing but a glint in their eye and a station wagon that they borrowed from their drummer’s dad."

The band goes on to explain that they're not feeling "sour grapes" about anything in their 11-year career.

"We all know bands and musos who would give their left nut to have the career that we’ve had and we’re exceedingly lucky that from the start, there were enough of you – fans, other bands, managers, booking agents – that believed in us and believed in what we were trying to do."

Check out the full open letter below and head to theGuide for full details on where you can catch The Beards for the last damn time.