R.E.M.
Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff - 23rd July 1995
Support: Cranberries, Del Amitri, Belly
This could well be the most important gig of my life. The newspaper was running a trip to see R.E.M. in Cardiff. I was skint so went to speak to one of the sales managers to see if they could "do something" for me. Turns out, they needed a representative from the paper on the bus to check pick-ups, tickets, etc. I volunteered and was given a ticket - on one condition... that I look after said sales manager's daughter who was also going with a friend, but who had never been to an event like this before. "Sure," I said. Anything for R.E.M.
More than 30 years later, said sales manager is my mother-in-law, her daughter and I are still together, living just 12 miles from Cardiff, and have raised 2 daughters of our own. So you see, this gig just about eclipses all others for me...
We arrived too late to see Belly, which was a shame. Even more so when you consider we made it to see the whole of Del Amitri who were dull beyond belief. The Cranberries were much better and that's when the audience began to actually realise there was a stage with some bands on it.
As for R.E.M., well the Monster Tour was their first since the Green Tour 6 years earlier. Theatrically, nothing betters the Green Tour, but this show gave us a band revelling in playing live again, to their biggest ever audiences. The songs from 'Monster' were superb. A great deal of the crowd was hanging on for the songs from the previous two records, but I wanted the loud guitar stuff. 'Monster' was/is a great record for loud guitars!
We'd managed to work ourselves down towards the front of the massive crowd so our view was fantastic. It was a very special day for numerous reasons.
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