R.E.M announce break-up

[CK]

R.E.M have officially announced today that they are breaking up after 31 years together:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ ... s-20110921

Sad news. Their "Around The Sun" tour brought them to Adelaide in 2005, for one of the best concerts I have ever seen. Was lucky enough to get a copy of that concert a few weeks later, and just a fantastic gig.

Thanks for 31 years of great music, gents.

[zipzap]

I just posted on the NME website: They lost a lot more than a drummer post Bill Berry, some would say post-Warners, still some would say post-Reckoning. REM mean different things to different people but I will miss them as one of my favourite bands from my own formative years. Wonder if we still get a fan club single this year?

[GWW]

I presumed they'd broken up about 10 years ago.

[Wedgie]

I presumed they'd broken up about 10 years ago.

Make that 20 for me.

[southee]

Broke up after "green" for me

[zipzap]

Broke up after "green" for me

You don't like New Adventures?

[southee]

Broke up after "green" for me

You don't like New Adventures?

Couple of tracks.....but I dont think any of their albums stand up (stand...get it??).....to GREEN

[Leaping Lindner]

Life's Rich Pagent, Document and Green were about as good as three albums by any band for mine. I like a handful of songs after Green but this was their high water mark for me.

[zipzap]

Life's Rich Pagent, Document and Green were about as good as three albums by any band for mine. I like a handful of songs after Green but this was their high water mark for me.

Everything up to and including Green was pure gold IMO - it saddens me that so many people's perception of them is as the band that did Everybody Hurts and Losing My Religion. That's not being a musical snob, it's just relatively unheard of these days that a band is allowed to mature over the course of half a dozen albums before hitting the big time. These days they'd have been dropped by their third album, which is still a challenging listen.

5AA just played a mashup of REM tracks as a 'tribute' (that's a scary thought anyway, hearing one of your favourite bands on flippin' 5AA!) and it was all Shiny Happy People, Man on the Moon etc. Depressing...

[southee]

Really though ... Commercial radio killed REM .

Constant playing of everybody hurts, religion etc...

Pure overkill as I know ZZ they have better tracks than that !!!

Sweetness follows is actually one of my fav songs of theirs ....depressing as hell but do emotional and pure

[zipzap]

Saw them 3 times - Monster tour (absolutely dreadful, hated every second of it), in Padova Italy 2002 (awesome even though me and Mrs ZZ were the only ones in the docile crowd showing signs of life - until Losing My Religion of course) and a couple of years ago in Adelaide which was pretty good, a little safe and predictable maybe.

Still cursing myself I never saw them play the Thebby with the Go Betweens on the Green tour. Apart from being relatively young, I was, along with my friends, on the cusp of musical discovery but not quite there yet (goodbye Noiseworks, hello Pixies!)