Now Playing - RIP R.E.M.

“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.”



So reads the statement just released by R.E.M confirming the band are no more after more than 30-years together.



It’s hard to underestimate the contribution that R.E.M have made to alternative music over the past three decades. Formed by Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry in Athens, Georgia in 1980, their early albums on I.R.S – most notably Life’s Rich Pageant and Document - were crucial in pushing alternative rock into the mainstream.

The band went on release a further 11-albums on Warner Brothers culminating in this year’s Collapse into Now, headlining Glastonbury Festival and becoming one of the world’s biggest stadium rock bands in the process.



In recent years their output may not have matched the critical and commercial peak of 1991’s Out of Time and 1993’s Automatic For The People, and many argue that the band never recovered from Bill Berry’s departure in 1997 after suffering a brain anurysm during the Monster world tour.

However they leave one of the best back catalogues in rock and an enduring legacy in opening the down the doors for alternative music worldwide. Indeed, you can arguably this week’s other major story, 20 years of Nirvana’sNevermind, may not have come about if it wasn’t for Stipe and company.



So on this Friday’s Now playing we want to celebrate R.E.M – their music, their influences, those they influenced and key collaborators



- Think stuff from their own back catalogue

- College rock bands who they paved the way for – like Nirvana, Gigolo Aunts, Mudhoney, Wilco and Weezer

- The punk rock artists which inspired them like Patti Smith, Television and The Velvet Underground

- Michael Stipe’s collaborations associations from Placebo to Billy Bragg

- And your memories of when you've seen them live



It’s up to you – give us your suggestions on Facebook, Twitter, e-mail and drag tracks onto our collaborative Spotify playlist.