Members of R.E.M., Yo La Tengo and the dB’s came together over the weekend to pay tribute to Big Star. ORDER NOW: Bruce Springsteen is on the cover of Uncut’s January 2022 issue READ MORE: Michael Stipe and Mike Mills reveal the secrets of R.E.M.’s “Electrolite” The group of mus...
Members of R.E.M., Yo La Tengo and the dB’s came together over the weekend to pay tribute to Big Star.
- ORDER NOW: Bruce Springsteen is on the cover of Uncut’s January 2022 issue
- READ MORE: Michael Stipe and Mike Mills reveal the secrets of R.E.M.’s “Electrolite”
The group of musicians – which included R.E.M.’s Mike Mills, Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan, the dB’s’ Chris Stamey, Skylar Gudasz, Brett Harris, Charles Cleaver, Crispin Cloe and original Big Star drummer Jody Stephens – gathered at St. Ann & The Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn on Sunday night (November 7) to play a concert celebrating the Memphis band.
The self-described “one-of-a-kind acoustic, orchestrated performance” follows a series of tribute concerts in 2016, which featured some of the same musicians, surrounding Big Star’s never-completed third album.
The setlist for the Brooklyn show included “September Gurls”, “Back Of A Car”, “In The Street” and many other classics from the acclaimed band.
You can watch clips from the show below:
In R.E.M. news, Michael Stipe has put an end to any suggestions that the band could reunite, insisting that the group’s break-up 10 years ago was permanent.
During an interview with radio station WNYC to discuss a recent Velvet Underground tribute compilation, Stipe responded to a 2019 Rolling Stone article that speculated over the likelihood of R.E.M. reforming, describing it as “wishful thinking at best”.
“We will never reunite. We decided when we split up that that would just be really tacky and probably money-grabbing, which might be the impetus for a lot of bands to get back together. We don’t really need that, and I’m really happy that we just have the legacy of the 32 years of work that we have,” he told All Of It host Alison Stewart.
Meanwhile, Ken Stringfellow of the Posies, who’s also played with Big Star and R.E.M., has been accused of sexual misconduct by three women. He has denied the allegations.
The Posies, the Washington power-pop band he co-founded 35 years ago, are “in the process of breaking up” as a result of the allegations, Stringfellow’s former bandmates say.