R.E.M.

In 1980 four fellows, interested in post-punk - Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry met in a Southern town of Athens and decided to form a band. After trying such truely punk names as Twisted Kytes, Negro Wives and Cans Of Piss, they stopped at the name of R.E.M., which they found at random in a dictionary. In the summer of 1981 the first single, Radio Free Europe, was released in the amount of 1000 copies. Those copies got to the right hands, and soon R.E.M. singed to I.R.S. Records. The debut record Chronic Town successfully anticipated the first full-length Murmur in 1983. It was well received by critics and Rolling Stone magazine even called Murmur the rock album of the year. 1984 was lighted by Reckoning with the major hit So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry). Soon after the release R.E.M. were known in American rock circles for their constant touring, hard work and Stipe's vocal identity - he sang in a rather mumbling way so that the lyrics were partly incomprehensive. By 1985 R.E.M. became the underground icon.

The third album Fables Of The Reconstruction was recorded in London, UK. The band was so depressed by the gloomy English winter that this dark state was tramsmitted to the disc. Next year the quartet saw a relative commercial success with Lifes Rich Pageant. This was probably due to the clearer sound and a more distinct Stipe's singing (initiated by the producer), which actually made Lifes Rich Pageant the most understandable R.E.M.'s record to date. Several months later I.R.S. issued Dead Letters Office compilation, featuring B-sides and earlier unreleased songs. Due to the constantly growing auditory of the band the next work Document became platinum shortly after the presentation in 1987 on the wave of the hit single The One I Love. R.E.M., dissatisfied with a lack of promotion beyond the USA switched from I.R.S. to Warner Bros. and in 1988 released Green. The album generated the enigmatic single Stand and became twice platinum. The support tour proved to be exhasting for the band members, and they decided to make a several years break.

Later R.E.M.'s members gathered in the studio for recording their seventh album Out Of Time. It saw light in the spring of 1991 and became four times platinum, generating the band’s biggest hit - passionate confession Losing My Religion. The success was continued by a less rocky and more dark Automatic For The People in 1992. Featuring Led Zeppelin's bassist John Paul Jones it issued such piercing hits as Drive, Man On The Moon and Everybody Hurts. In 1994 R.E.M. came back for touring with the newcomer Monster. The tour was a big success inspite of the fact, that during it three of the four band members underwent emergency surgery. In 1996 the quartet resinged the contract to Warner Bros. for the pretty sum of 80 million dollars. Ironically, the tenth studio piece New Adventures In Hi-Fi was a "commercial flop", as it became "only" one time platinum. In October 1997 percussionist Berry announced his departure. So R.E.M. became a trio and in 1998 released Up. Though in the USA Up had a humble success, it became a firm hit in Europe, especially in the UK. The next creation, Reveal, was presented in 2001 and was received the same as Up. In 2004 the band issued their follow up Around The Sun. In October 2007 R.E.M. released R.E.M. Live, the first live album in the whole history of the band. In 2008 R.E.M. issued the record Accelerate, which confidently debuted at number two on the Billboard 200. A year later the rockers made a present for all the lovers of live sound by releasing an incredibly strong concert album Live At The Olympia (2009), which was recorded in the capital of Ireland. The album preserved all the energy of the show; thereby the fans who did not manage to get to Olympia Theatre definitely should not give a way to despair.