R.E.M., ONCE one of the world’s biggest rock bands, expressed their “deepest thanks” to fans yesterday as they announced they were breaking up after a 31-year recording career.
The US band, who have strong Irish connections and are best known for massive hits such as Everybody Hurtsand Losing My Religion, made the surprise announcement on their website yesterday.
“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,” they said.
From Athens, Georgia, R.E.M. had a 30-year long recording career and although emerging as part of the independent, alternative music scene they went on to become global bestsellers in the early 1990s thanks to albums such as Automatic For The Peopleand Out Of Time.
Subsequent albums though did not have nearly the same commercial and critical impact and their sales have been in slow decline for the past decade. Their current (and now, last) album, Collapse Into Now, was released in March and although it represented a return to form for the band, sales were poor.
It was, though, a glittering career – R.E.M. have sold more than 30 million albums, amassed numerous music awards and attained a rare iconic status in rock music circles. Always hugely popular in Ireland, the band headlined Slane Castle in 1995 when they were at the height of their fame. It remains one of the best Slane headlining shows.
As some indication of how enamoured the band were of this country and their fans here, both their live albums were recorded in Dublin. R.E.M. Livewas recorded at the Point Theatre in 2005 and their 2007 Live At The Olympiaalbum was recorded during a five-night stint of "live working rehearsals" at the Olympia Theatre.
Living briefly in Dublin at various stages of their career, singer Michael Stipe and guitarists Mike Mills and Peter Buck (original drummer Bill Berry left the band following illness in 1997) were well-known faces on the Irish music scene. Close friends with U2, when Buck found himself in court in Britain in 2001 on charges of common assault on stewards on an airline flight, Bono spoke on his behalf at the court case.
The band’s regular producer (in the latter stages of their career) is Dubliner Garret “Jacknife” Lee, and a lot of their recent material was recorded in the Grouse Lodge recording studio, Co Westmeath.
Stipe said the decision to split was not easy. “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.”
Guitarist Mills said the end was amicable. "There's no disharmony here, no falling-outs, no lawyers squaring off. During our last tour, and while making Collapse Into Now, we started asking ourselves 'What next?'
“Working through our music and memories from over three decades was a hell of a journey. We realised that these songs seemed to draw a natural line under the last 31 years of our working together.”
Well known for their commitment to environmental and human rights causes, the band were heavily involved in encouraging voter registration in their native US. They were once memorably referred to as “the most liberal and politically correct rock group in existence”.
The band signed off their breaking-up statement by saying: “To anyone who ever felt touched by our music, our deepest thanks for listening.”
Adventures In Hi-Fi: Five great R.E.M. musical moments
SHINY HAPPY PEOPLE
Sunshine indie pop at its very best
MAN ON THE MOON
A beautifully executed musical tribute to the late comedian Andy Kaufman
RADIO FREE EUROPE
Their first single from 1981 and still a jingly-jangly classic
LOSING MY RELIGION
Agnosticism-a-go-go on one of their most up-tempo songs
EVERYBODY HURTS
An anthem for the dispossessed and alienated
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