REM Call it a Day...

cassette50

"To our Fans and Friends: As R.E.M., 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. To anyone who ever felt touched by our music, our deepest thanks for listening." R.E.M.

Great band and live performers. I thought they still had something to offer after the last album. Shame that they are not going to do one last tour.

Simon Adebisi

Im actually upset over this. My favourite band of the last 20 years. Seen em first in slane in 1995 then tagain in Dublin and always thought id get to see them again.

Ye were a brilliant band lads and ye'll be missed.

zoomtard

Very sad. I was hoping to see them evolve again out of the arena rock and into something totally new.

henryporter

They made the right decision - last few albums were a bit ropey and undermined the phenomenal work of their early years. Still - sad to see a good band go.

mike65

Never quite "got" them fully but they weren't the worst and certainly had a few good albums - Green I do like.

cherryghost

Glad they're gone. They should have hopped off the station 10 years back. Everything since then has been rubbish and sub-standard of what they produced in the 80's and 90's.

Fago!

Bit sad init, they were a good band. Thought they already were split up tbh but now that it's official I feel

KnifeWRENCH

cherryghost wrote: »

Glad they're gone. They should have hopped off the station 10 years back. Everything since then has been rubbish and sub-standard of what they produced in the 80's and 90's.

Bit harsh. Reveal, Accelerate and Collapse Into Now all had some decent moments. (Won't comment on Around the Sun. )

Wouldn't be a diehard fan or anything but they have released some wonderful stuff. I think this is will always be my favourite song by them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cnIQHJ169s

I'll never know what it's about but it's such a beautiful, mysterious song.

Minstrel27

Sad news. I really have great time for them.

cjmcork

sad day for music..........hopefully they'll be back individually..........

SilverScreen

I was very surprised by this. Then again they've gone on long enough, too long perhaps, and said everything they needed to say, so it's probably best to call it a day now. I was never that keen on everything they released after Automatic For The People but everything up to and including that is a remarkable achievement. I'm also glad I caught them at Oxegen 08 where they put on a great show. Perhaps U2 will follow suit.

DjFlin

Its been a bad day....

foxyboxer

One of my favourites. Only just heard Uberlin and it's stuck in my head the past few days.

Victor Meldrew

Real pity...

But thanks for the back catalogue.....

cjmcork

Zero1986 wrote: »

Perhaps U2 will follow suit.

woohoo (Homer Simpson style!)

ballsymchugh

easily the best concert i was at was at hyde park in london in 05. they had to reschedule because of the bombings on the tube so the concert was at the end of the european tour.
twas a lovely sunny evening, the crowd were resilient and out for a good night, and the band were taking it easy, as if tooling around in a garage somewhere.
the sound was just perfect.

i've been to so many gigs where there was some young fella jumping about with his tshirt off, the singer has been drowned out, the weather was shyte, the band were angry or whatever else, but REM in hyde park was just 100% bang on.

Glassheart

That's really knocked the wind out of me.:(

I listen to them a lot but i didn't pay much attention to the last record even though i bought it.
The last 10 years have been patchy but there has always been a few tracks on every record that made it worthwhile.The gigs were always great too.

Truth be told,it really hasn't been the same since Bill left.

Can'tseeme

Never been a huge fan but they've had some great records along the way. Last few years they've kind of drifted through without anything of note.

JP Liz V1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-bokeh9rDo&feature=related

Shame such a great band

ciaranmac

Class band.

blastman

Some great albums (some not so great, admittedly). Sitting on the hill in Ardgillan on a rare sunny Sunday listening to them play World Leader Pretend will be hard to beat. They'll be missed.

karaokeman

Really sad to hear that.

Definitely my 3rd favourite band of the 80s next to U2 and the RHCP.

Can't understand why they wouldn't play a farewell tour.

Very sad now I never got to see them live:(

Zero1986 wrote: »

Perhaps U2 will follow suit.

Nope Bono said that U2 will never split, but they probably won't have a new album or tour out for another few years because they're on a hiatus.

trashcan

For their first five albums they were just untouchable. Some of the best music ever made. More patchy after that and a definite decline in later years. Sad I suppose, but possibly the right decision.

Boognish

Would rather see them quit now than continue to slip further into irrelevance. Chronic Town to Automatic of the People was a great run of records

iGenius

One of the great bands, but it's probably for the best.