Catherine Wheel has decided not to renew its contract with Mercury Records.|

JAMTV learned on Tuesday that the Brit Pop group, who just completed a run of the States, will leave Mercury at the end of this year. Catherine Wheel is very close to "shaking hands with another major label," according to Merck Mercuriadis, the band's manager.

Catherine Wheel will announce the new contract -- a multialbum deal -- early next year. The band's new home will re-release Adam & Eve, their last album on Mercury, which hit record stores in late August. According to Mercuriadis, Catherine Wheel will head back into the studio next summer and release an album of all-new material in early 1999.

"Mercury is a different company now than when we signed with them five years ago," Mercuriadis told JAMTV Tuesday afternoon from New York. "We have a different vision than they do. It's just not the right home for us anymore."

Mercuriadis said the band is in a bit of a celebratory phase despite the pending label change. "It's a really good time for us," Mercuriadis said. "We've proven ourselves by selling albums without the help of MTV. Our next album will attract a bigger audience without compromising the music -- and that's what's most important."

Starting in 1992, Catherine Wheel released five albums on the label, including Ferment (1991), Chrome (1993), Happy Days (1995), a collection of B-sides titled Like Cats and Dogs (1996) and this year's release, Adam & Eve. Since their inception, Catherine Wheel has sold more than one million albums worldwide, with 500,000 of that in the States alone. On Jan. 22, they kick off a 42-date U.K. tour that takes them through the middle of March. From there, they plan on returning to the States, where they've played 60 shows since the end of August, according to Mercuriadis.

Catherine Wheel formed in 1990 in Great Yarmouth, England when singer Rob Dickinson and guitarist Brain Futter recruited Neil Sims to play drums and Dave Hawes on bass. Their lofty, guitar-driven indie rock found its way to the BBC's John Peel Show and from there, the buzz on the band increased. In 1991, Catherine Wheel released two EPs -- She's My Friend and Painful Thing -- on Wilde Club, a small, English indie. Following the commercial success of those records in England, the group landed a deal with Mercury subsidiary Fontana. (Ari Bendersky)