TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

This all seems a bit trivial now and I'm left wondering if the London concert will go ahead.
However.

REM, Nottingham 06/07/05


REM probably have three kinds of fans. The Shiny Happy People who best know the chart material, those who have followed the band from the early days and those who, like me can't claim to be an earlier adopter but also love music that is intelligent in content and can somehow combine being challenging and anthemic.

Either way, last night's performance would hit all the right buttons whichever camp you're in. I won't give the game away by giving all of the set-list but there were songs from 'Murmur' to 'Around the Sun'. In theory, this tour was supporting the most recent release but you wouldn't have guessed as there wasn't an intrusive number of tracks from that album.
This is the first time I've seen them live and if I had a mental wish-list, they certainly ticked them all off.  'Imitation of Life' alone means this will go down as one of my favourite gigs.

Michael Stipe, still with his blue face band as seen at Live8 (you wait, we'll all be sporting one soon), has to go down as one of the great live performers. Nothing too showy but you suspect this is a man who takes on a different, extrovert persona in the spotlight.
He is charasmatic on stage and has a voice easily strong and supple enough to drive a rock band of this calibre whether they're playing 'Star69' or 'Nightswimming'.
I've heard they're not as trendy as they used to be. No loss, because it leaves space for people who know good music.

They were supported by Idlewild whose sound compliments REM and the sax-mad Zutons. Both are deservedly current Indie favourites and damn good big-crowd pleasers in their own right.

Thanks for that Clive.
I'm green with envy, cos I won't get to see them live, but I'll just keep playing the CDs and pretending.
Reading your piece did make it all a little more real for a while though :)
I also like The Zutons, and would have liked to see them live as well. Idlewild, I've heard of, but know very little about, but if they were chosen to support REM I'd guess they're pretty darned good.
Mic

No, it won't

Well, not this weekend - both the REM & the Queen gigs in Hyde Park this weekend have been postponed to next weekend - I got an email from a ticket agency last night.

Tickets for both shows still valid - refunds from point of purchase.

REM - fantastic live band. ;D

One of the best things about them is that they vary the set list from night to night, so you can never be sure what they are going to play. Adds a great feeling of spontaneity (which is pretty rare amongst established acts these days..........)

Well i was all set for REM this weekend tickets booked. The plan was to spend the weekend in London at my wifes sisters house and we were to meet up with friends and all go to the gig and just generally have a good ol time and guess what it still is. OK the gig has been cancelled and moved to next week (but ive got a wedding to go to and can't go) so it looks like well just hit the pubs instead.

Phew, glad I saw this. A quick check on the REM website gives the following details (Randle you need to get your claim for a refund in by Wednesday):

"07.07.05
HYDE PARK SHOW POSTPONED FOR ONE WEEK

Due to the tragic circumstances today in London, the Safety Advisory Group for Hyde Park has agreed that R.E.M.'s scheduled concert for this weekend, July 9th, will be postponed until Saturday July 16th.

All tickets will remain valid for the new shows and an information line has been set up on 0870 060 1767. If ticket holders are unable to attend on the rescheduled dates, they should contact their point of purchase by 6pm on Wednesday 13th July for a refund.

Those who bought a ticket from getLIVE or Ticketmaster and need a refund should call 0870 400 0750.

R.E.M.’s shows in Ipswich (8th July) and Cardiff (10th July) will go on as planned."

The Ipswich show was truly phenomenal - if anyone's thinking of getting a refund, simply don't. After a very moving pre-kick off announcement they started with Everybody Hurts (on this occasion) and finished about two hours later with Man on the Moon. In between they were, I firmly believe, the greatest rock n' roll band on the planet, bar none. Oldies, newies, in betweenies, they were all there. I've been trying to remember a better gig, ever, and I'm coming up with blanks. That face stripe is a bit unnerving, mind - it's like the gap between Mark Knopfler's sweatband and the start of his actual hair used to be - it seems to be getting very gradually wider by degrees. The Zutons were fantastic, and a personal triumph was achieved when Stipey started the encores in a Town shirt. Good man, well done.
Skirky

Radio 2 are planning to broadcast the London gig.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/events/

my daughter has just returned from that London gig, fantastic she said, she was right at the front, lucky thing  ;)

Thanks JJ rub it in

There's an hour of the Hyde Park show on Radio 2 at 9:30 tonight - well worth a listen...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/events/rem/

And its on Listen again on the Radio 2 site for those of you who missed the transmission last night.

Same link as above. It will be there for a week.

cheers

MikeC

I'll pop it onto Slashtemp later in the week in mp3 format.

Just listening - brilliant.

Now, as I'm a fairly recent convert - which albums should I go for?  :D

My preferences, sort of in order:

Automatic For The People
In View- The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003
Green
Out Of Time
Document
Around The Sun
Murmur
Reveal
Lifes Rich Pageant
Monster
New Adventures in Hi-Fi
UP
Reckoning
Fables Of The Reconstruction
Dead Letter Office

...but I change my mind about this order. The "Best Of..." compilation is second only to AftP as far as I am concerned.

thanks Andy - I'll get bidding! (cheapskate? moi?)

Being an REM fan from day one i'd recommend 'Green' as probably their finest moment but if you want the more commercial side of REM i'd go for 'Automatic for the people'

So you'd be a good person to ask what REM stands for? as in R.E.M.? Or otherwise how did the name come about?....

Rapid Eye Movement

According to Wikipedia, "The band members picked the name R.E.M. out of the dictionary. They liked the name because it was so ambiguous. They started out as Twisted Kites for the first show they played at a party, but, according to "It Crawled From the South," considered Negro Eyes, Slut Bank, and Cans of Piss before settling for R.E.M."

See the full entry at this location (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.E.M._%28band%29)

I first saw REM in. I think, 1987. They weren't big then, but I was visiting Athens, Georgia and saw them in, again I stumble around old memories, "a large bar".

It stands for 'Rapid eye movement' Chris which is a thing that happens while you are sleeping. Although a lot of REM fans like to make up their own meanings 'Remember every moment' being one.

---

I must admit I like Fables of the Reconstruction, it being the first REM album I came across, but I agree I'd probably not recommend it as a starting point to a recent convert. In this respect I'd have to go with my esteemed colleagues that "Automatic for the People" and "Green" would be the studio albums to start with, but for a true novice I'd go with two compilations:

1. "In View- The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003" (covers the Warner years)

2. For the EMI years there is little to choose between the two compilations "The Best of REM" or "Eponymous", the differences being (IMO) not the better tracks.


The good news is that the albums are all really cheap on Amazon!

http://www.amazon.co.UK/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000CC6QF/quid=1122217628/Sr=2-1/ref=Sr_2_11_1/026-8778146-4042043
http://www.amazon.co.UK/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000073AK/quid=1122217212/Sr=1-5/ref=Sr_1_11_5/026-8778146-4042043
http://www.amazon.co.UK/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000002UVY/quid=1122217397/Sr=1-20/ref=Sr_1_2_20/026-8778146-4042043

Thats a first!!! ;)

myself ,i think green is far and away their finest moment,followed by document and lifes rich pageant
i started to lose interest about the time of monster and each subsequent cd  has done nowt to rekindle my admiration of them
not that all their lps dont have the odd redeeming song

I pretty much agree, and feel much the same way about U2 - I've not bought their last studio albums, but both bands are still worth going to see live, and the next compilations from both will probably be worth getting as well for a collection of the "odd redeeming song(s)".