Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Here's something cool I found online....

It's the set-list for the REM gig me and my best mate Nick saw in Manchester, back in 1985. It was the second gig they'd played following the release of "Fables....", the first gig was a rather underwhelming affair (by all accounts) supporting U2. So by the time they reached Manchester, they were like a coiled spring; they absolutely ripped the venue apart.In 2007, REM are one of the biggest bands in the world (last time I saw them, they were playing to a packed Hyde Park), but back in 1985, virtually no-one ,except the faithful few, knew who they were: the venue, one of Manchester's seediest clubs, held about 200 people. Nick and me managed to squeeze down the front (in our Paisley shirts, natch.) and watched, spellbound for the next two hours. We were close enough to reach out and touch Peter Buck's 12-string Rickenbacker, and at the end, when Michael Stipe was trying to get the crowd to move back, it was me and Nick who were manhandled out of the way by the road crew.
Here's the set:

24 June 1985 - International Ballroom, Manchester, England
set: Boy (Go) [Stipe a capella] / Feeling Gravitys Pull / Hyena / Harborcoat / Green Grow The Rushes / So. Central Rain / Have You Even Seen The Rain? / Driver 8 / Good Advices / Talk About The Passion / Can't Get There From Here / Cushy Tush / Maps And Legends / Seven Chinese Brothers / Auctioneer (Another Engine) / Old Man Kensey / Pretty Persuasion / Life And How To Live It / Home On The Range-Little America
encore 1: Femme Fatale / (Don't Go Back To) Rockville / Broken Whisky Glass / Second Guessing - Respect
encore 2: Theme From Two Steps Onward / 9-9 / Windout
notes: At the start of the show Stipe sings lyrics from '(Boy) Go'. As an intro to Little America Stipe sings 'Home on The Range' a capella with help from the crowd. Cushy Tush is played while Stipe asks the crowd to step back ('Simon says two steps back').
A slightly different setlist appears in the book "It Crawled From The South" - this setlist was taken from the tape of the show so they changed the encores slightly from the written setlist
(taken from here)

It mentions a tape of the show: does anyone have one? Or know where I can find one? After all these years, I'd LOVE to hear the gig again.........

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

And while we're at it does anyone know what happened to the guy who slept in the waiting room on Manchester Victoria Station with us?