REM announce they are splitting up

The group of childhood friends once hailed for taking indie music into the mainstream are to split after three decades For three decades REM evolved. They were a group of childhood friends, hailed for taking indie music into the mainstream. Later, they filled stadiums. Yet they were consistently regarded as one of the world’s most significant rock acts In an unexpected statement on their website on Wednesday though, REM announced they were splitting up. The end came with a simple message. It read: “To our fans and friends: As REM, and as lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band. “We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished,” the statement continued. “To anyone who ever felt touched by our music, our deepest thanks for listening.” The band , formed in Athens, Georgia in 1980, originally consisted of the singer, Michael Stipe, the guitarist, Peter Buck, the bassist, Mike Mills and the drummer, Bill Berry, although Berry quit in 1997 two years after suffering a brain aneurysm. The group released a series of records and were cult heroes on the US college rock circuit before finding worldwide fame in the 90s with the multiplatinum selling albums Out Of Time, Automatic For The People and Monster. Their hit Everybody Hurts – written as a plea to suicidal teenagers to reconsider ending their lives – became a generational anthem. Speaking about the split, Stipe said: “I hope our fans realise this wasn’t an easy decision but all things must end, and we wanted to do it right, to do it our way.” According to Mills the decision was amicable: “There’s no disharmony here, no falling-outs, no lawyers squaring off.” In recent years, the band’s fortunes have waxed and waned with 2004′s Around the Sun becoming their first studio album to miss the US top 10, although it still hit No

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