REM announce they have split up

Iconic US rock band R.E.M. have announced within the last hour they have split up.

The group from Athens, Georgia have been together since 1980.

A statement was released on the band’s website, ‘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.’

The band comprising of Micheal Stipe, Mike Mills and Peter Buck became the most successfull of all the alternative acts to come out of the US underground music scene in the 1980s.

Signed to I.R.S. Records, the band released classic debut album Murmur in 1983, which beat Michael Jackson’s Thriller to the title of Rolling Stone album of the year.

The group gre steadily in popularity throughout the 1980s and signed with Warner Bros in 1988.

Classic albums Out of Time and Automatic For the People released in 1991 and 1992 respectively saw the band become one of the biggest acts in the world.

Eveybody Hurts, Man on the Moon, Shiny Happy People and Nightswimming became huge international hits and brought them a neew generation of fans.

The departure of drummer Bill Berry in 1997 left the group unstable, yet they continued as a three piece.

R.E.M.s third decade saw the group suffer a dip in commercial and critical fortunes.

Last studio album Collapse Into Now was released to lukewarm reviews in April.