THE MUSIC THAT MADE ME: AN OCCASIONAL SERIES
PART 1: R.E.M.

Welcome then, to - as the above title suggests - an occasional series of posts looking back and celebrating the bands, artists and genres that have shaped my music listening life over these past four decades or so. These posts will delve deep into some of those touchstone acts and areas of music that are most important to me and have indeed made me the person I have become as I hurtle rapidly toward my half-century. Yikes.

First up - and this will come as absolutely no surprise to anybody out there who knows me well - are the mighty R.E.M. who have been my favourite band by some considerable distance for almost 35 years. I first discovered them - like so many other fantastic artists - whilst listening to the late and oh so very great John Peel on his Radio 1 show in the mid-80's and they quickly became the best band in the world as far as I was concerned. Since that rubicon moment, I purchased every single album - studio, best of, live, rarities, whatever - on it's day of release, as well as singles, collectibles and various flotsam related to the band. And, even though they didn't tour for 6 years during their all-encompassing early 90's heyday, I was lucky enough to later catch them live on a handful of glorious occasions. And finally, when their split was announced in 2011, there was a period of intense mourning as I realised that there would be no more music from this very special band. The split was amicable, and the band remain firm friends to this day, and even though I - like countless others - would love to see a full-blown reunion, they left us at the top of their game after 30 years and 15 albums. And you can't say that about too many bands, that's for sure.

R.E.M. - named, as AnyFuleNo, after the acronym for rapid eye movement or the dream stage of sleep - were formed in Athens, Georgia in 1980 when four local University students by the names of Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry got together and bonded over a love of 60s folk-rock, 70s punk, art, poetry, photography and The Velvet Underground. Stipe became their lead singer and principal lyric writer whilst Buck, Mills and Berry knuckled down and mastered the guitars, bass and drums respectively. After hooking up with manager, and future 'fifth member' Jefferson Holt, and signing with the indie label I.R.S. Records, the band released their first EP - 'Chronic Town' - in 1981. A fully formed masterpiece containing 5 extraordinary tracks, the EP was an astonishing opening gambit from such a fresh-faced and inexperienced group. Combining Buck's love of the chiming Byrds-ian guitar jangle with Mills and Berry's driving rhythms behind him, the songs were topped off magnificently by Stipe's mysterious lyrics and his unique vocal style - at once low and mumbling but also high and keening and interspersed with yelps and howls that made him and the rest of the group stand out strikingly from most of the so-called new wave acts that were hitting big at the time.

The early critical response to their music was universally positive and subsequently the band didn't rest on their laurels, releasing 5 remarkable albums over the following 5 years including the classic 60's folk-rock infused harmonics of their debut 'Murmur' from 1983, and culminating with the huge sounding full-blown indie-rock valhalla of 1987's 'Document'. By this time, combined with years of solid world-wide touring, the band were on the cusp of greatness and hit singles - such as the phenomenal sonic boom of  The One I Love - were commonplace. In 1988 they signed a huge major label deal with Warner Brothers and released the quite brilliant 'Green' album which saw them taking their place at the top table of modern rock bands. Around this time the band also embraced their new-found success with gusto, becoming more robust and confident on stage whilst Stipe in particular metamorphosed from the shy and bookish enigma of their early appearances into a sharp, funny and in your face rock star partying with luminaries from across the creative spectrum. A monumental 18-month world tour followed by which time the group were burnt out. They took time off and returned in 1991 with the more reflective acoustic-based folk-rock of 'Out Of Time' which included the huge hit singles Losing My Religion and Shiny Happy People. All of a sudden, R.E.M. were everywhere and, even though they chose not to tour the album, they still managed to sell 12 million copies of it and found themselves hoovering up awards by the bucketload. The following year, the even more ruminative and sedate 'Automatic For The People' consolidated this gargantuan success with 15 million copies flying off the shelves and singles like Everybody Hurts becoming radio play staples to this day. At one point in 1993, it was stated that in terms of record sales and performance royalties, R.E.M. were officially the biggest band in the world at that time. It couldn't last of course, and even though there were more huge albums in the grunge filled uptempo rock of 'Monster' and the expansive, widescreen Americana of 'New Adventures In Hi-Fi' - as well as a return to gigantic stadium tours in the late 90s - by the time of the millennium the band's sales had dwindled and later albums, although full of good moments, weren't a patch on their imperial phase. It didn't help that drummer Bill Berry left the band in 1997 after suffering a huge health scare whilst touring. The remaining trio came close to calling it a day at that point but continued on with Stipe exclaiming about the band that "a three-legged dog is still a dog". To this day there are stalwart R.E.M. fans of 35-years standing who will argue the toss over whether they should have split when Berry left. I'm on the fence personally - there were stellar musical moments after his departure, but on the other hand they were never really the same. But, I would never have got to see them live if they had split then so I'm glad they kept going. The eventual break-up in 2011 - although sad - was definitely the right thing to do and they went out on a high with the lovely 'Collapse Into Now' album. Since then, all four members have remained close and have all - with the exception of Berry who is happy being a farmer - continued working in the arts with Stipe focusing on his first love of photography and Buck in particular throwing himself into various different musical projects. A money-spinning reunion tour is about as likely as Donald Trump becoming a likeable human being, so what we have left is an extraordinary musical legacy of a truly unique band.

My memories of R.E.M. over the years are indelibly imprinted into my psyche and have been some of the most important musical moments of my life: Hearing John Peel play Radio Free Europe in the mid 80's and marvelling at Buck's glorious arpeggiated guitar playing; spinning around at an indie disco in 1987 hopped on on snakebite and black as The One I Love thundered around my ears; jumping up and down like a loon to Stand in my grotty old Leatherhead bedsit in 1988 after purchasing 'Green' on CD; slumping down onto my chair in the same grotty bedsit 10 minutes later when the sublime majesty of the heartbreaking You Are The Everything poured out of the speakers; seeing the band perform Orange Crush on Top Of The Pops in 1989 as a shirtless Stipe bellowed into a megaphone; missing out on seeing them live on the Green Tour in 89 beacause I went to see - oh the horror - Bon Jovi instead; lying on the floor of my lodgings in April 1991 in the middle of the night with my headphones on listening to 'Out Of Time' over and over again the day it was released and realising that the band were going to become absolutely HUGE; travelling around Europe in the summer of 91 with a C90 mix tape of all their best tunes on constant rotation on my Walkman; listening to 'Automatic For The People' for the first time the following year with a catch in my throat for the full 50 minutes because it was just so bloody beautiful; finally seeing the band live in 1999 at Earl's Court on the 'Up' tour and somehow blagging my way into the VIP area stage right; seeing them again a few years later at the - for them - relatively tiny Brixton Academy when they rattled through 1985's 'Life's Rich Pageant' in full; watching them bring a small part of the city together in 2005 at Hyde Park a week after the London bombings and then bringing Patti Smith onstage with them to perform a spellbinding E-Bow The Letter; beginning to understand toward the end of their career that their 1991 track Country Feedback could well be one of the greatest songs ever written; watching them live for what turned out to be their final British gig at Twickenham in 2008 and being blown away by their righteous power; buying 'Collapse Into Now' the day it was released in 2011 and picking up on clues that it might be their final album but secretly hoping it wouldn't be; raising a glass of something suitably Southern to them when the news of their split was announced at the end of that year. They have been my constant since the middle of the 1980's and their music has been the most pivotal part of the soundtrack of my life - and, as such, they are the backbone of the music that made me. 
Thanks chaps - you were utterly tremendous.

TOP TEN R.E.M. ALBUMS:

1: GREEN
2: MURMUR
3: AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE
4: RECKONING
5: OUT OF TIME
6: LIFE'S RICH PAGEANT
7: MONSTER
8: NEW ADVENTURES IN HI-FI
9: DOCUMENT
10: UP

TOP TWENTY R.E.M. SONGS:

1: COUNTRY FEEDBACK
2: PERFECT CIRCLE
3: YOU ARE THE EVERYTHING  

4: THE WRONG CHILD
5: PRETTY PERSUASION
6: RADIO FREE EUROPE
7: WORLD LEADER PRETEND
8: HALF A WORLD AWAY
9: SWEETNESS FOLLOWS
10: FALL ON ME
11: DON'T GO BACK TO ROCKVILLE
12: SO. CENTRAL RAIN
13: TALK ABOUT THE PASSION
14: DRIVE
15: IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT (AND I FEEL FINE)
16: ELECTROLITE
17: DRIVER 8
18: MAN ON THE MOON
19: CUYAHOGA
20: NEW TEST LEPER
21: LET ME IN
22: E-BOW THE LETTER
23: LOSING MY RELIGION
24: THE ONE I LOVE
25: FIND THE RIVER