The author follows the story of R.E.M. from its humble origins in Athens, Georgia, to their status as a leading world-wide act, all the while placing the allure of their appeal in the context of its time and place. Drawing on dozens of interviews with friends, associates and the band members themselves, this is not just the story of one group's rise through cult status, but the story of American rock in the 1980s. This edition brings the band's story right up-to-date, covering the departure of drummer Bill Berry, Michael Stipe's increasing role as a spokesman for humane causes, and the group's music right up to their "Reveal" album.
Tony Fletcher has been writing about music since 1977 when, at the age of 13, he started a 6-page fanzine, Jamming, at school in London. Jamming grew to become a major music monthly, landing exclusive interviews with Paul McCartney, Pete Townshend and U2 and helping to introduce the likes of Scritti Politti, Aztec Camera and the Homosexuals to a wider audience (or not). The success of Jamming also propelled Fletcher into the world of freelance journalism and television work before the magazine folded in 1986 (having optimistically attempted to expand in the middle of a deep recession) and Fletcher discovered the joy of writing books.
Falling in love at first sight with New York, Fletcher moved across the Atlantic in 1988, living in various roach-infested apartments on the East Side of Manhattan while contributing regularly to New York Newsday, New York Press, Spin, and Details - back when print media was still considered cutting edge - and bringing his love of music into a stint as resident DJ for Communion, an acclaimed weekly alternative music night at the Limelight club. He continued freelancing as a television journalist and producer, mainly for the cult classic Rapido and its various offspring, and found himself with an expense account for the first (and last) time in his life when hired as a major record company A&R consultant during the music industry's lucrative swan song period of the mid-nineties.
But his main love has always been the written word. He has contributed to countless magazines and newspapers on several continents, some of which even paid him on time, and is the author of several books. These include the best-selling biography on Keith Moon ("Dear Boy" in the UK, just "Moon" in the States), the first ever biography of R.E.M. (updated and expanded into something of a director's cut, as "Remarks Remade"), a song-by-song chronology of The Clash, a biography of the highly influential Liverpool band Echo and The Bunnymen, plus a novel of New York nightlife, "Hedonism," which would come with a Parental Advisory sticker except that, thankfully, publishers don't believe in such things.
In 2005, Fletcher left the funk and soul of brownstone Brooklyn, where he'd been living since 1996, for the relative peace and quiet of New York State's beautiful Catskills. There, tucked into a mountainside between Woodstock and Phoenicia, he resides with his wife, two sons, Rickenbacker, Hammond B-3, cat, and various wildlife. Ironically for such a bucolic existence, his most recently published book is entitled "All Hopped Up and Ready To Go: Music from the Streets of New York 1927-77," which was published by W. W. Norton in October 2009 to a significantly positive reception.
Since the year 2000, Fletcher has been posting regularly at his web site, www.ijamming.net, where he muses upon his love of running, skiing, writing, wine, women - and, of course, song. More recently, he has shown up on http://twitter.com/TonyFletcher. In the year 2010, he completed a memoir of his schooldays, entitled Boy About Town, and began work on a major biography of The Smiths, for publication by William Heinemann (UK) and Crown (USA) in 2012.
