This Friday, REM come to London! Not to play a reunion show, sadly, but to talk about their career and the 25th anniversary of their album Out of Time, which is getting the deluxe reissue treatment, also on Friday.
On 18 November, Michael Stipe and Mike Mills from the band will be in conversation with the Guardian’s John Harris, and we will stream the event live on our Facebook page. Stipe and Mills will also be taking your questions. So if there’s something you desperately want to ask them about the contrary career of one of the most unlikely superstar bands in pop history, email your question to: R.E.M.Ques@umusic.com.
As Michael Stipe told our own Michael Hann recently: “You can fuck with people if you’re gonna be contrarian. And we were always contrarian about it. We would go on stage and perform the four songs everyone knew. This was 1987. We would open the set with the four songs everyone knew, then – the real fans, you can stay. Everyone else go home, go drink somewhere else, go flirt somewhere else … But we were always contrarian, and we were always pushing ourselves to do things differently. To not have the same setlist every night, to not allow it to become a job. We were throwing marbles under our feet at every turn to try to trip ourselves, to try to not allow it to become quotidian. Is that the word? Uninteresting, mediocre, boring.”
This promises to be a fascinating event – especially because it is their first chance to speak publically about Donald Trump’s America. So tune in on Friday – Stipe and Mills take to the stage at 12.30pm – and see what they have to say about the life of REM and the state of the US.
