REM split

In a statement on their website, remhq.com, the band said they had decided to “call it a day”.

“We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished,” they added. “To anyone who ever felt touched by our music, our deepest thanks for listening.”

Bass player Mike Mills explained, “During our last tour, and while making Collapse Into Now and putting together this greatest hits retrospective, 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.”

This greatest hits retrospective, REM. Part Lies. Part Truth. Part Garbage, 1982 – 2011, may actually be the band’s fourth greatest hits set (not including a singles collection) but is the first to cover their entire four-decade career and also includes three new studio tracks.

It is released by Warner Bros on November 14.

REM were formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry.

They started their career on indie label IRS Records and were already a considerable – if cult – success when they signed to Warner Bros in 1988.

Their two most successful albums were 1991’s Out Of Time and 1992’s Automatic For The People, although they continued to shift records in large amounts and sell out arenas around the world.

Their last studio album, Collapse Into Now, was released in March. It has sold more than 66,000 in the UK to date and peaked at five in the charts.

Source: REM