REM, Noel Gallagher and Foo Fighters – this week’s biggest news stories

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REM have split up after 31 years. The band, considered one of the most influential groups of all time, as well as one of the most successful, announced their decision earlier this week (September 21) via their website REMhq.com. Their joint statement read: “To all our fans and friends: as REM, and as lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band.”

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Foo Fighters fans have hailed the band’s attempts to serenade the Westboro Baptist Church groupwith an ode to gay sex. NME.COM users have taken to Facebook to cheer Dave Grohl’s band for singing the specially penned ‘Keep It Clean’, outside Kansas City’s Sprint Centre. “Mr. Grohl lets smart assed tom foolery be the wind beneath his wings…. and that is awesome,” one fan wrote.

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Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke has admitted he is unsure of his future in the band after the rest of the group went into the recording studio without telling him. The singer has told NME he recently spotted guitarist Russell Lissack, bassist Gordon Moakes and drummer Matt Tong outside a rehearsal studio in New York and he wasn’t even invited to take part in the sessions

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Serge Pizzorno has moved to clear up recent comments about quitting drugs for the sake of Kasabian’s legacy. The guitarist has said his deicision to embrace sobriety came about after the arrival of his son Ennio last year rather than during the creation of the band’s fourth album ‘Velociraptor!’

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Adele’s hit single ‘Someone Like You’ has officially been banned from being played at a shop in Dublin. The move comes after workers at the Opus ii instrument store got sick of customers trying to play the piano ballad on their keyboards. A sign has now been put up in the shop window stating: “Strictly NO Adele”.

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Shaun Ryder has admitted that he has no memory of what happened during 16 years of his life. The Happy Mondays man, who has just released his autobiography Twisting My Melon, told The Daily Star that he has no idea what he did between 1990 and 2006 as he can’t remember a thing.

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Coldplay have announced plans for a UK arena tour. The jaunt, their first in two years, will see the band play three shows including a night at London’s O2 Arena in December. Tickets for the tour went on sale at 9.30am on Friday (September 23).

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Jessie J has revealed she broke down in tears after having to scrap plans to join Katy Perry on her US tour. The ‘Do It Like A Dude’ singer announced she wouldn’t be able to take part in Perry’s ‘California Dreams’ tour this November as she continues to recover from foot surgery.

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The Maccabees have announced plans for a comeback UK tour next month. The five-piece will hit the road on October 21 at Gloucester Guildhall before wrapping their jaunt up at Bristol Trinity on November 2

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Noel Gallagher has compared quitting Oasis to splitting up with a girlfriend. The guitarist, who walked out on the band after a row with his brother Liam in Paris in August 2009, said he was sick of arguing all the time. He said: “I’d liken to it when you know when you’re about to dump a girl, I don’t know what made it any different. We’d had worse fights, worse arguments.

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Guns N’ Roses have announced their first US tour in five years. The Axl Rose fronted group have lined up more than 30 dates in America starting at Orlando’s Amway Centre Arena on October 28, reports Billboard. The band are also due to appear at the Rock In Rio Festival in Rio de Janeiro on October 2.

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Joel Dever, multi-instrumentalist in London electro trio Battant, has died at the age of 25. Battant, who released their debut album ‘No Head’ in 2009 and were gearing up for the release of their new LP, have paid tribute to their bandmate in a heartfelt post on their official website Battant.tumblr.com. No details have been released as to Dever’s cause of death

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