Inthe week when they've announced the end of their working life, it's hard toremember a time when R.E.M. were the kings of alternative rock. In the springof 1989, punk historian Jon Savage interviewed the Athens band - and recappedon their remarkable rise - for the UK's Observernewspaper--Barney Hoskyns,Editorial Director, Rock's Backpages
"I COULD TURN YOU inside out! But I choose notto!" R.E.M.'s singer Michael Stipe, back arched, is bellowing into amegaphone. Five songs into their concert at the Onondoga War Memorial Hall in Syracuse,an upstate New York college town, R.E.M. are into their stride. The MemorialHall, built in 1951 and running to seed, is filled with over 8,000 bodies andthis mixed audience of students, rock fans and teens attracted by R.E.M.'scurrent hit single is going gently berserk amid purple and orange light.
Syracuse is the twenty-ninth American date out ofR.E.M.'s eight-month 1989 world tour. The night before, they played to 17,000people (85 per cent capacity)
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