Michael Stipe confirms R.E.M split

Michael Stipe has confirmed that R.E.M. have no plans to ever return to the stage, insisting that ending the band was 'liberating'.

The Everybody Hurts singers stunned fans in September by announcing that they were splitting up after 31 years together and the frontman claims there will be no distant reunion.

He says: "It's done. Of course (it's sad). It's bittersweet. (But) strangely liberating."

Stipe and bandmate Mike Mills appeared on British political show Newsnight on Wednesday, where they discussed the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York.

When the talk turned to the ending of the group Mills added: "We feel very comfortable with what we have done."