R.E.M. at the Songwriter's Hall of Fame: the comet moment

Last night, the four original members of R.E.M. were back together one more time, receiving their induction into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame at a ceremony in New York.

Michael Stipe, Mike Mills, Peter Buck and Bill Berry, who formed back in 1980 in Athens, Georgia, played as a quartet until Berry's departure in the mid-90s after he had suffered a brain aneurysm on stage in Switzerland. They had last performed on stage in 2007, at their induction into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.

Photo credit: Reuters

This time they were inducted by alt-country legend Jason Isbell, who noted their appeal to a fellow Southern 'outsider' in the 1980s. Stipe spoke for the band, saying, "Writing songs and having a catalogue of work that we’re all proud of that is out there for the rest of the world for all time is hands-down the most important aspect of what we did."

Then came the surprise - they performed together again - playing their biggest global hit, Losing My Religion, off of 1991's seventh album Out Of Time. It came after their pre-recorded interview with CBS's Anthony Mason, where they had said that it would 'take a comet' for them to perform again.

Here are the two parts of that CBS interview - you can scroll through much of the in-studio chat, which is mostly just guff, but there are a few interesting bits in the short interview clips, especially when Berry wells up remembering his difficult decision to leave the band. The second clip includes some segments of them playing last night.

Clip 1

Clip 2

Back in February they were also all in the same room - that time at Athens legendary 40 Watt Club, where actor Michael Shannon and Split Single's Jason Narducy had brought their tour celebrating 40 years of REM's debut album Murmur.

That night all four band members briefly appeared on stage together to thank the band for the show (see the start of the second song clip below).

While Stipe didn't perform, the other three all popped up a few times across the evening to play with the band.

Shannon / Narducy & Friends: Second Guessing (includes Mills on backing vocals)

Shannon / Narducy & Friends: Don't Go Back To Rockville (with Mills and Buck)