I have just joined the world of Twitter and saw it 20 mins ago. Have to say: devastated.

but many thanks, guys, for tons of great music. And top marks for having the courage and honesty and dignity to wind it up when you thought the time was right.

I read the statements from Mike, Michael and Peter and felt really moved. God. This is a weird feeling.

I've been a huge, huge R.E.M. fan since I was thirteen: I love them possibly more than any band in my whole history of loving music, even though I've not felt their more recent records have cut it. I've often thought and said that they should pack it in, and now they have. The world doesn't have R.E.M. in it any more. That is odd, to me.

A big part of my love of them is actually that I feel - hokey as it sounds - like I know them as people. That makes them more special to me than other bands in my personal canon who have never let me down musically, like Pixies. R.E.M. *have* let me down a few times, but I never stopped loving them, because I sort of loved *them*, not just their records. You can't really do that with Black Francis.

"It Crawled From The South" was the first band biog I ever read. I know tons of stuff about their personal histories, where the songs came from, how Michael recorded his vocals on "Murmur" (occasionally with a bin on his head for muffling purposes, fact fans). I know that, in the background on "Perfect Circle", you can hear Bill Berry playing pool. They were the first band I did that with: hungrily sought information, usually of the most worryingly nerdile type. There was a period of my life between 1991 and 1999 that I was heavily emotionally invested in them. I remember my friend Heather wrote to Mike Mills once and received a lovely handwritten note back. I was indescribably envious.

I guess, at the back of my mind, I always hoped they'd pull one last absolute classic out of the bag. They never did, and there's very little of their output from this century that I truly rate (I think "The Great Beyond" was the last thing). But now they're properly gone, and I don't know how to feel about that, apart from strangely and unspecifically emotional. I'll really miss them.

than any of us realise, it would seem...

Seriously though, REM are a great band who've made so much of my favourite music over the years & I will miss them.

I began to miss them when Bill Berry left but that's been discussed already.

Good luck to the guys.

Collapse into Now was a great record in my opinion and I'm glad they're going out on a high - if not quite at their peak :)

They were well past their sell-by date years ago and I gave up on them when Stipe turned into a Premiere-Attending Socialite. Bah.

Instead, I shall remember them this way, from one of my most favourite records ever, ever, ever.

But the last one on my shelf is called Monster. I bought 'em all up to that point, and played them to bits. Have I missed anything?

I ordered a compilation album from NME or Melody Maker in '81-'82 and I'm sure it had an REM track on it called "Green". I'm no REM fan but I seem to remember that I liked that track. It had New Model Army on it as well if that helps. A search only brings up the album "Green".

of generally diminishing returns, no more opportunities to see a great live band do their thing.
However, I think they are currently auditioning for the official REM tribute band....

I'm off to play Document and remember what an impact that album had on my sixteen year old mind.

I 've loved REM since an American friend sent me a tape of Murmur and Chronic Town. I haven't been paying attention recently, I must admit, but to be honest I can't think of anyone whose latest release I'd run out and buy.

So I feel sad but also glad that they've parted as friends. The friendship thing was as important to me as the music, I think - not least because the friend who sent me the tape died a few years back.

It is no doubt entirely unreasonable of me but if it had ended in acrimony, I'd have felt let down. As it is, I don't - and for that, as for so much else, REM have my profound gratitude. Happy trails guys.

They were the first band I ever got into. The first eleven records I ever bought were all by R.E.M. and they were the first band I ever saw live. And yet, I'm strangely unmoved by the news of their split, primarily because they've done little to interest me since Bill Berry left.

Still, I wish them all the best.

It was all a dream.

...Fables and Lifes Rich Pageant.

All classics.

Give it five years or so and they'll be back. They don't realise it now but there will be "unfinished business" to attend to.

They were a big band for me once in a while but kind of faded away some time ago, though I still like their early funny ones.

to hear this. REM meant a hell of a lot to me, from passing tapes of Document around at school to seeing them at Marlay Park in Dublin and losing it when they started with Begin The Begin.

I really liked CIN as well. Shame they couldn't try to fit in one last ball game before dark.

and the last of those was arguably as good as the first. That's almost the "Hepworth Good Album Run Principle" x3, and only Bowie, The Beatles, Bob, and The Stones have been so consistent.

If they'd gone after NAIH-F they'd be as big a part of the rock canon as Led Zep; even they were forgiven their last two duds.

Every album they released after that dented their halo just a little bit more than the one before, and I hope that they'll eventually be recognised for the great group they once were.

I'm saddened to read this, and massively glad I got to see them last time they were over here. Absolutely brilliant it was. (Setlist here: http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/rem/2008/old-trafford-cricket-ground-manch...)

I strongly believe that they are going out on a high. Bill Berry's last, New Adventures... would have been something of a high, Up is great but would have been a wierd album to end on (it feels more like a beginning), Reveal is probably their weakest LP (in my opinion), Around The Sun is good but only half of it is great, then the last 2? Superb! Accelerate and Collapse Into Now sound like albums made by a "live band", one of their greatest strengths, along with the return of Mike Mills' vocals, the missing piece of the previous couple of albums.

Like Bob, they are one of my all time favourites and again, probably the band I know the most of and the most about, including as individuals. I have VHS tapes of them filled with episodes of Planet Rock Profile and the like. Several books, plenty of bootlegs too.

The fact that they didn't tour this last record, at the time just seemed like a break from it (they didn't tour Out Of Time or Automatic.. either) but now it seems like this decision was probably made a while ago.

I'm aware that I'm rambling.

Here's one of my favourites from the old VHS tapes, which someone has kindly put on youtube. A clip from Rough Cut, a documentary following the '95 tour:

I hope there's more music coming from them, in some form or other. Peter Buck is generally the most active in that field and the Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 records have been excellent.

Automatic For The People was the first CD I ever bought. I still consider myself a big fan even if, like many others, I feel that they've been off the boil for years. Only saw them live once, headlining at Glasto 2003. They were amazing. They most definitely did some old. I'd always hoped to see them again some day...

I may be going against the grain but I actually grew to love some of the tracks off Reveal and Around The Sun. I can't subscribe to the common belief that they were total write off's. They just needed more listens than most people were prepared to give at that stage of their career. I think people maybe got a bit bored and dismissive. Give the albums another try. There are riches there to be had.

... their iTunes sales are about to go through the roof. This one goes out to their marketing advisor.

Back in the day (I can hear you yawning), the bands that REALLY mattered to me were The Smiths & R.E.M. In the early days I used to think The Smiths & R.E.M. were running parallel, each releasing great albums every year. Of course The Smiths came to a premature end & R.E.M. went on to become massive with Out of Time & Automatic, but I think they kicked open a few doors in the US, the same as The Smiths did here.

Obviously their best work was past them but there have been some great moments since. At My Most Beautiful is one of my all time favourites & Collapse Into Now was a very good return to form in my view.

Will miss them.

a band that's been making the same album since the mid 80s packs it in.
Yay! say I.

was 15 years ago. Crikey

I don't care if the recent stuff isn't considered to be as good as the older stuff. I love them anyway.

And I'm booking my tickets now for the comeback tour in 2017.

but not record or tour - they could hire a lookie-likie band to go on the road for them. Apparently that would be really really good.

and they leave a hell of a legacy behind. I had forgotten them up till tonight and have gone back to Murmur which is still one mighty fine album. My favourite though is New Adventures in Hi-Fi, though must go back to Up - saw them at Earl's Court around that time and they were excellent, even from the back of the hall.

They played to a half empty SFX Hall in Dublin and I went along with friends of mine who had cooler taste than me (not any more they don't!). It had it's moments - the early jangly stuff and the wonderful accapella Moon River as an encore but they lost me in the middle with a psychedelic wig out while Michael Stipe read Jim Morrison poetry (I think) out loud. So I had started to dislike them before most of you had even heard of them.

There's a photograph of me with the band...That's me in the corner...

Not Before Time

that they're not doing a farewell tour or at least a 'final show'.

If they really are bowing out on such good terms with each other (and I don't doubt that they are) why would they not do this? Both as a great chance for the band and fans to say a proper goodbye and as a very lucrative cap on their career ('final show' DVDs are always huge sellers).

But for me personally, the one time I saw them live was Glastonbury 2003, and that's a very happy memory (I even got to shake Michael Stipe's hand!) So no regrets.

"I just never in my wildest dreams thought that someone in the band would quit while we're doing great work. My picture that I have of us breaking up is that we'd do a couple of really bad records...and then we'd go to a Chinese restaurant and get drinks with umbrellas in them and say 'you know guys it's been a really haul but we just don't have it anymore', you know, and have a good toast and go home"

We now cross to Battery Sergeant Major Tudor Brynne 'Shut Up' Williams for a statement regarding this important breaking news:

"Oh dear. How sad. Never mind".

passed me by I'm afraid.

Heard snatches on the radio every now and then. Struck me as a mite 'meh'.

Sad news, but a relief in a way. Their last album was very good, but it did feel like they were running over the same ground, year after year. I really liked some of their latter day albums though, Up and Reveal, both were different and fresh sounding. New Adventures In Hi Fi is for me, their last great album. I first heard it on a listening post in a big record store in Paris and always associate that album with that city. We'll have always have Paris, but not R.E.M. anymore.

Sad news.

I am a real fan of all of their stuff but haven't heard Collapse Into Now yet so I am off to investigate further.

Surely if they went away and didn't do anything for 3 or 4 years nobody would notice, and then they may feel different about recording something again.

This way they would have to announce that they were getting back together and have to put up with a load of publicity about that......ahhhh

I'm going to cash in and form a tribute band called R.A.M.

Just before leaving for work this morning I remembered I needed a new cd to listen to in the car (yes, I know it's old skool!).
Grabbed 'NAIH-F' cos I'd not given it a spin in a while.
Walked into work, first thing I heard on the shop floor radio was the news that they'd split up.
Coincidence?

Dozen favourite R.E.M. albums, in order:

1. Automatic for the People
2. Document
3. Murmur
4. Up
5. Fables of the Reconstruction
6. Reckoning
7. New Adventures in Hi-Fi
8. Lifes Rich Pageant
9. Green
10. Out of Time
11. Monster
12. Reveal
--------------

Michael, Peter, Mike, Bill. You made some fine records.

Hurrah! and thrice hurrah!

stuff after Reveal. Was a massive fan of their earlier stuff before they became a stadium band. Coincidentally just come back from New York with their best of IRS years double which I got for the princely sum of usd 7.99 which might just be my bargain of the year.

I'll miss them, but I was never a diehard fan. I have a heap of albums, but the ones the fans love, leave me cold, and the ones that the fans pour scorn on (Reveal, Around the Sun), I kinda like.

They'll always, just a few bars into certain songs, take me instantly to a time and place of warmer summers and growing up. As soon as I hear the guitar strum of Half a World Away, I'm transported back to the roof of a pub I had my first 'grown up' summer job (in That London), and the realisation that in a few weeks I'd be a-going to college.

What's the Frequency Kenneth takes me to sweeping leaves in the summer of 1995, when I had to work for my dole. Two things entered my head (along with 'this rocks')

a) The new album won't be like the last one
b) I like that bassline.

My interest in them waxed and waned after that. They played in the Brixton Academy in 2003, and that was a good gig and then the 2007 show in the Olympia in Dublin was good, marred only by the fact that, by the end, myself and Eoin were so drunk that when the text came from Fanning (his mate in RTE) that we could crash the after-party, we were slobbering over kebabs in Zaytoon.

I'll miss them. Like I say, I wan't their biggest fan, but they soundtracked an awful lot of good times and it was nice to have them there.

The 'REM' sound by that point was swamping North American indie and they started to sound like everyone else, only less enthusiastic. The odd hit single they produced didn't revive my previous slavering adoration, which encompassed their first 4 lps and two devastating live shows (touring Reckoning and Fables). I will always hold those early lps in unwavering esteem, but can't find a dimension to their later work that sustains any interest.

From the Daily Mash:

U2 still refusing to take the hint

I remember the shock to my own teenage system when I first heard "Radio Free Europe" - Peter Powell (of all people) played it on his Radio 1 show.

A guy I knew at sixth form college (the same one that Brett Anderson attended, he said smugly) taped me the first two albums, but got "Murmur" the wrong way round so it started with Side 2, so "Catapult" was my album/tape opener for years. As I've said before in other threads, that song can have a weird impact on my emotions and I've no idea why (maybe... "Ooh, we were little boys...").

I stayed a fan until "Automatic..." then I guess I got bored. I missed out on their later albums while listening to other things. I definitely preferred the earlier, more murmur-y stuff, but Bob's point about "Pageant"/"Document" is a good one - the sound of a cult band audibly spreading its wings and flying off the cliff of success. Personally, I think "Green" is the best of their albums from that period, though I love "Automatic..." as well.

My two-pennyworth of off-the-top-of-head REM favourites:

1,000,000
Wolves, Lower
Catapult
Sitting Still
Seven Chinese Bros
S.Central Rain
Maps and Legends
Auctioneer
Crazy
Hyena
Fall On Me
Superman
Swan Swan H
Finest Worksong (but I insist on the brass-polished single)
Fireplace
Oddfellows Local 151
Strange
(pauses for breath)
Pop Song 89
Get Up
The Wrong Child
Country Feedback
Find The River
Strange Currencies (prefer this to "Everybody...")

Phew. Who'd have thought I could do all that in a lunch hour?

Call me a naive old fool if you like (Paul - you're a naive old fool) but I'm not sure they will do the reform thing.

If they'd just wanted to go away and do different things for a few years, to reconvene in 2017 or whenever, then they would have done. They didn't have to split up to do that.

The nature of the announcement, and the comments from all three remaining members, have a real air of finality about them. And in a strange way, the very amicability of the split makes it feel a lot more final to me - it's not as if one of them has flounced after throwing a strop that they might 'repent at leisure'...

Obviously the financial attraction of a reformation down the tracks will be there, but none of them really need any more money, do they? And because of the equitable songwriting split, they won't have the 'keyboard player in penury' reason to get back together.

I honestly think they all feel the thing has run its course, and there is no unfinished business that could be resurrected down the line.

The ONLY scenario I can see a reformation fitting is a major Stipe-led charity-type bash - another Live 8 or something.

So now you can all save this post away somewhere and mock me in 2014...

a certain generation's Amy Winehouse moment.
There is a general sense of loss and sadness at the demise of a band that was very important to a great many people on these pages and across social network sites.

They were the people's band. I will leave flowers outside the Milton Keynes Bowl with a bowl of macrobiotic rice.

mostly for (I assume Mike's) wonderful piano part

that I fell into my curry.........That's me in the korma !!!!

This news has made me sad, I think because it brings back such great memories of enjoying REM in my youth.

I first saw them on 24 April 1984 at the Tin Can Club in Birmingham. I was 17 and a relatively inexperienced gig-goer and thought it perfectly acceptable to bellow out the name of my favourite song (‘(Don’t Go Back to) Rockville’) during any quiet moments. In short I was being (what I believe is called in these here parts) a f***wit. Eventually Michael Stipe sighed and said with a cross between a grimace and a patient smile, ‘Listen man, I will NEVER go back to Rockville’. That shut me up in the nicest possible way (and they did play Rockville as an encore!).

The pleasure and fun their music gave me in my late teens and twenties was immeasurable. Yes, this album’s better than that one, the later stuff may not be as supremely, uniquely and ecstatically brilliant as the earlier stuff (how dare they!). I’m just grateful that I had them to enrich my life. Thanks REM.

That did that B52s tune?

...to a properly great band

They were past their best it's true, but left loads of gems.

Driver 8
Orange crush
Superman
Fretless
Harbour Coat
Fall On Me
7 Chinese Brothers
Bang and Blame
Leave
Ebow The Letter

I would just like to add that one of the most surreal moments of my life was sitting in on the Peter Buck yoghurt rage air incident hearing some years back....one afternoon in Isleworth west London....during a spot 'between jobs'.

of my favourite REM songs it would be at least a hundred songs long
(and would begin with Gardening at Night.)

"Between #REM and #NewFacebook, make sure you hug the nearest white person you see. It's a tough day for them."

Of R.E.M's best tracks according to all music guide,album by album not sure I agree with them since there are several I would have included and others I would have left out anyway here it is.

http://open.spotify.com/user/marbles22/playlist/7323IHXxUrZc2h42X7XW3N

I first heard Reckoning -I thought it was good but nothing special. I never listened to them again until I heard the superb Document - one of the best albums of the 80s. It's worth the price of admission for Odddfellows Local 151 alone! And then there's Exhuming McCarthy, etc. Then went back to their back catalogue and discovered the true joy of Reckoning. Their last great album was AFTP but there have been some superb individual tracks on all the subsequent albums. Even Around the Sun has Leaving New York and Electron Blue. I also had the pleasure of seeing them live - Michael Stipe is definitely one of the most charismatic front men; and they played the Undertones' Teenage Kicks!!

'Lemon World' yesterday and was reminded of the same mixture of sadness, beauty and joy REM had when they were brand new. I did love them a great deal till 88/89. They do really cast a shadow over US music because even though they didn't arrive out of nowhere it sounded that way - what was being PLAYED therefore HEARD on US radio in 1984 (as I experienced it over a long summer in Georgia anyway) was REO Speedwagon.

Maybe sometimes it is necessary to be young and stroppy and floppy fringed to sound like that - though then again the National aren't spring chickens either are they? I'm going to have to think that one out properly...