r.e.m. live Piedmont Park Arts Festival

(true confessions of a jailbait photographer)

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Photos and commentary copyright © of Sinople. They were shot at the Piedmont Park Festival in May 1982. Permission given by Jefferson Holt.
Special thanks to WRFG (89.3 FM), Radio Free Georgia, for all the great music.
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Here are a few scans of photos I took of R.E.M. for a photography class. Unfortunately, the pictures are not very good. I was shooting with the sun behind the band and I depended too much on my light meter's readings. This was the first time I used a 35mm camera outdoors, as well as photographing a band. There aren't that many photos of R.E.M. performing from the days before they signed their contract with I.R.S. floating around, so I offer these live shots as a glimpse of history. At the time I was grade school jail bait, and anytime I had the slightest opportunity to go see one of the great local bands of the Atlanta/Athens music scene: I did. I took advantage of the Arts Festival to skip school, with the excuse of classwork, to go see R.E.M. perform.

This was a particularly cool show. R.E.M. royally screwed up their opening number, "West Of The Fields" and Peter Buck, Mike Mills or even Bill Berry (I forget who) quipped that, "that was our longest song." One of my classmates, Scott kept yelling "Freebird!" until Michael Stipe told him, he was on the wrong side of the lake. There were many stages with live bands, all playing at once, some Southern Boogie band, whose name I've long forgotten, was performing on the stage across the pond at the same time.

[left] When I think of R.E.M., this photo is the image I have burned into my brain. Bill Berry dressed completely in white, fiercely pounding away on his drum kit. An old and worn cover of Patti Smith's Horses with two black crosses of electrical tape is placed in front of Bill Berry's kit. Oddly enough, Peter Buck was dressed almost identically to Ms. Smith- black pants and a white flowing long sleeve shirt.

[right] Here is Michael Stipe dancing away, while Peter Buck strums a few chords on his guitar. I believe it was Fender, but it could have been a Rick. In this picture neither one is wearing the pith helmet they fought over during the show. Eventually, Michael Stipe won the battle of the hat.

[left] Here's an almost glamour photo of Mike Mills. That is what happens when you don't focus correctly while taking pictures. That's Peter Buck, in focus and all but completely obscured, behind him.

[right] Here's a shot of Mike Mills singing back up vocals. I was attempting to capture a dramatic under the microphone shot. This picture clearly demonstrates why you never ever trust your light meter when you shoot towards the sun!

[left] Here's an almost silhouette of Michael Stipe and Peter Buck. Again neither is wearing the pith helmet they kept grabbing off each other's heads all through the set. In this shot you can glimpse part of Peter Buck's black guitar.

[right] Here's a clear and properly exposed shot of Bill Berry behind his Rogers drum kit. Supposedly, drummers are the hardest members of bands to photograph. For some reason, they seem to be the only ones I can get decent shots of...

[right] During "White Tornado", Michael Stipe left the stage to drink one of the king of beers. This is one of the shots I took of him lounging backstage while the guys jammed away on one of the few instrumental numbers R.E.M. performed live. Yeah, it's a pretty embarrassing photograph, but it is properly exposed and in focus. (g) If you squint really hard, you can see the necklace of gold spray-painted macaroni that Michael Stipe wore around his neck. Also the pith helmet he and Peter Buck fought over.

By popular demand, here's a silhouette of Peter Buck wearing the infamous pith helmet.

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