Until Feb. 2005 R.E.M. to me always had been the "ultimate background CD"-band , when I had visitors. I found them boring. My darling Richard Davenport from Scotland loved them loads and wanted the two of us to see them live in Berlin in summer 2003 in the famous and wonderful open air Waldbuehne. We postponed it to sometime later, because other things got in the way. "They tour often and will come back soon and we've got so much time on our hands.".
I remember my last present for him was the "best of" of R.E.M. CD and he was so happy about it. In April 2004 he died of bowl cancer. In February 2005 R.E.M. were about to play in Berlin and my daughter and I decided to go and see them on behalf of Richard.
The first tunes of the opening song "I took your name", and this "guru-like" enormous stage presence of the singer, his charisma, and this not boring at all but ROCKING band - all this was so unexpected of the band formerly categorized as "boring".... this took our breath away and we were "lost".... And when then they played "Everybody hurts" my daughter and I did not look at each other but we both knew that we had tears in our eyes. So we quietly grabbed each other's hand in the darkness. I guess this was the moment when we deeply were regretting that we never went with Richard. And this also was the moment when we decided to buy tickets for more concerts. Which we did. We went to Magdeburg together with my brother. Cause I hadn't known before that he also liked R.E.M. (always new things to discover, eh?) and as a highlight we went to London to attend the show together with very good rally friends of Richard from Scotland. Very emotional.
This summer 2005 was some of the best and most fun times I ever had in my life! Thanks, R.E.M.!
You found a way to make me smile.... :-)
(Lower down there's a self-shot video of London/"Everybody hurts")
Magdeburg 2005 * Mike Mills talking to us after the gig
Here is one I filmed myself ("Everybody hurts"). The quality is crap as it is just with a photo-digicam and cameras were not allowed! But it was at London/Hydepark. Gig was dated 9th of July but postponed to the 16th of July due to the London underground bomb attacks, so that it became that last gig on their world tour 2005. It was a warm beautiful summer evening and I was in the expensive and exclusive "gold circle". It looks like shot from far away, but I was approx. 6th row and behind me were another 80.000 people. So I was quite lucky, I guess. Me in the vid, too, cause my daughter took over when she felt I got too emotional to hold the cam steady. Grin... ;-) Thanks, sweety!!!!!!!!!!!!!
London - Hyde Park - 2005 - appr. 80.000 people behind me - Pure fun!!!!!!!!!!! :-)))
Just enjoy the atmosphere and don't bother with the sound and bad quality. It is just a snibbet of what you feel like at a concert of R.E.M. .... Thanks....Trailer for 1st LIVE album ever * CD + DVD:
At my most beautiful
I found a way to make you smile..
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