And in the last few minutes...

Mani has just apologised to Peter Hook for that jibe about blood money:

"I wish to apologise unreservedly to Peter Hook and his family regarding comments made on a social networking site, which was totally out of character for me. It was a venomous, spiteful reaction to a lot of things that are going on in my life right now and I chose to vent my frustrations and anger at one of my true friends in this filthy business, and ventured into territory which was none of my concern," said Mani.

"The Freebass thing has tipped me over the edge and became the focus of my bilious rants. Twenty-two years of being tripped up, face down in the mud and being kicked in the face with an iron boot will do that to the most stable of men. I hope I haven't blown a great friendship forever. Sorry Pete."

It's not clear what bit of the honking-mouth-off-on-Twitter was supposed to be out of character; perhaps Mani just means he doesn't normally use Twitter but instead shouts through letterboxes.

Close analysis of his apology indicates that Mani isn't saying he was wrong; he's just saying it wasn't anything to do him and he shouldn't have said anything. One of those unreserved apologies that are only sort-of sorry.

He also doesn't withdraw his suggestion that Freebass was a bit rubbish.