The story is not a sad one, but told many times.....
Or: Why I call myself a "Lucky bastard".
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Wiese (TV show), Oslo 12th March 1999
A late evening in January, when I was baby sitting for my cousin, I was reading the newspaper. I suddenly got an eye on a small article, saying that R.E.M. was going to be in a famous norwegian TV show 2 months later. I thought "Oh my god, this can't be true!" and tried to call the TV station to ask for tickets. But it was too late in the evening, so I had to wait until the next day. I could not get a minute of sleep that night. I was so nervous that I would not be able to get tickets, as I knew that a TV studio is quite small. And I was right, by the time I got through on the phone, the tickets had already been given away. Anyway, I decided to at least be sure to be in town at the time of the show, so I rented a room in the hotel I knew the band would stay. It was very expensive, but my friend Elisabeth shared it with me so we could afford it. Now I was almost sure to meet the band again.
The day came. We went to Oslo, and checked in. Then we went out on the town, in search for a suitable frame for the picture of me and Peter from Stockholm. I thought he needed a copy of that. I was looking for the ugliest frame I could find, because that would suit the picture. I wrote a subtitle to it as well: "They didn't airbrush our faces". Finally I found what I was looking for: A black and white leopard patterned, furry frame. I put the picture with the subtitle into it.
Elisabeth and I met Stig after a while, and just as we had said hello to him, Scott McCaughey and Ken Stringfellow came out of the hotel. We had a nice little chat with them, and they signed my Up CD.
We met Ole and Silje a little later, and Silje said that she maybe could get us tickets to the TV show. After a few phone calls, she told us that she had made it. But there were only 4 tickets, and we were 5 people! We decided that Elisabeth would have to stay at the hotel while we were at the studio, because she was not as big fan as the rest of us.
We gathered in our hotel room, and listened to some R.E.M. records to warm us up. Then we tried to figure when the band would leave the hotel to go to the studio for soundcheck. We estimated the time we thought they would need, and went down in the lobby at the time we had found. Exactly 30 seconds later, Peter came out of the elevator. I was the only one who noticed, because the others went into another room to look for the band, so I had to call out to Ole to get his attention, and I nodded my head to indicate that Peter had just arrived.
We rushed forward to him, and we were even less people now than when we met him in Stockholm. I gave Peter the framed picture, and tried to explain that I had to find a frame that was worse that the picture. But he just said "It's a good picture", and thanked me for it. We had a real photo session this time, everyone got what they wanted. I asked him if we could try to improve what we had achieved last time, so we took a new picture.....
(Click on picture so see a larger version)
...and as you can see, it became EVEN WORSE than its predecessor! But it's kind of cool anyway, as you actually can see that ugly frame that Peter is holding.
I was going to ask Peter to sign my Up CD because he didn't sign that in Stockholm (he signed my invitation then), but I could not find it in my bag, so I pulled up the Monster ltd. ed. instead. He signed it, and even made a little drawing of the monster's missing head. I thought it was very nice....
Then Mike Mills appeared, so we approached him too. He had hurt his arm, and when we asked what he'd done, he said he had been using his computer too much lately. I had decided since last time I met him, that if I ever got to meet him again, I would say that I really loved his voice, and was hoping for him to sing more. But when he was standing there right in front of me, I forgot all about it. So I got him to sign the Monster ltd. ed too, and he even drew a self - portrait! You gotta love the Mills-man......
We were now waiting for Michael, and Michael came. He was wearing big glasses, very similar to the ones he has in the video for Daysleeper. Ole and Stig have been fans of R.E.M. since the beginning of the 80's, and met the guys several times, but they have never been able to get Michael's autograph. Now their time had come. And my time too. Michael was in a very good mood, he smiled and signed autographs for us. So now my Monster ltd. ed was as complete as it could be, without Bill of course. As I was standing right next to Michael, I noticed how short he really is. I used to think he was very tall, but he isn't. He also joined Stig and Ole for a picture, and I regret that I didn't ask for a picture myself.
We went up to our room again, everyone was really excited. Now it was time to find out who was the biggest R.E.M. expert of Stig and Ole. I had prepared a quiz for them, just to check how much they really knew about the band. They were both quite good, but Ole won the competition.
We decided to go up to the TV studio early, to get good seats. Elisabeth came with us, because I told her she might be lucky and get in after all. We hired a maxi taxi, and drove up to the studio. But when we arrived, we found out that we had come there too early, as we were the only ones there. But it didn't take long until some more people came, and one of them proved to have a few extra tickets. He gave one to Elisabeth, for free!
There were less than 100 people in the audience, and we were in the front of the queue, so we made sure that we would get the best seats. And we did. In the very front.
This was just a TV show, but R.E.M. played three songs including Everybody hurts, as this song is extremely popular here in Norway. In addition, they played Happy birthday, because the host of the show turned 39 that day. We all had a good time. After the show, we talked a little with the guys, but it was quite crowded, so Sue kind of pushed us away.
On the way out of the studio
we met a girl from Israel, Yaël. She travels around the world,
and had seen the band many times. She came with us to the hotel,
and when we got back there, we started talking to Bob Weber, he's
the guy who takes care of Mike's instruments (as Microwave does
for Peter). He asked us if we wanted some wine, and so we
gathered in our room to watch the show on TV and have some wine.
Or 
, in my case. He
told us that he had been working with the band for about 10 years.
He gave us some of Peter and Mike's plectrums. He was a very nice
guy, he stayed for about half an hour as we watched the show. He
said that he was not too happy about the sound, though.
After he had left, we went out on the town to look for the band. But we didn't find them, so we decided to try the day after, when they were about to leave the hotel.
Stig and Ole didn't want to get up that early to catch the band, but Elisabeth and I did. When we got up the next morning, we met David Russell and Microwave in the elevator. I asked if the band had left, but they were not too keen to answer. They just said that some of them had left. I was hoping that Mike and Michael were still there, since I wanted to have some pictures with them.
We waited in the lobby for a while. Sue came after a while, and started walking around, so we figured that at least one of the guys were still there. She recognized us from the day before, but she was in a good mood and came to us and said "Hello Ladies" and smiled. Bob came up to us as well, and he asked how we were and if we liked the show yesterday.
After a while, Eivind came and asked if we had seen the newspapers. He showed us a couple of articles on the show and the band. Elisabeth and I decided to get some breakfast, as we had now been waiting for about two hours. But as we had just sat down in the dining room, I saw that two dark vans were being parked just outside the front door. I figured that these vans would be R.E.M.'s, and I hurried out of the dining room, having eaten nothing but a small slice of bread. And here I was, in this fancy hotel, with the opportunity to have the most "classy" breakfast of my life.......
We sat down in the lobby, waiting for whoever came. Michael came first. We decided to just wait and see what happened. Sue and some of the other people in the R.E.M. team sat by the other of the two tables in the lobby, about 5 metres away from us. They were eating some breakfast, and Michael was standing beside them, talking. He was carrying a bag, and on the top of the bag he had a teddy bear! I decided to make a move, as it looked like he was on his way to leave. By this time, Mike had arrived there too, and he sat down. I approached Michael very carefully, he didn't notice me at first but Sue did. She smiled, obviously she didn't consider me a threath. I said to Michael: "Would you join me for a picture, please?" He turned towards me, and said: "Look, I've just got up from bed and come down here, would you please give me some privacy." Obviously it was too early in the morning for him to have his picture taken. I just said "sure", and sat down again. I was really disappointed, thinking that now I had really made a fool of myself. But as we were observing him from a distance, he didn't seem bothered at all. We heard him say "this orange juice is really good!"
I took the decicion to go and ask Mike for a picture. After all, he is my favourite R.E.M. member. I waited about 5 minutes, when they were about to leave the table. Then I approached him and said: "Would it be rude of me to ask you for a picture?" Then he smiled and said the famous words: "Oh, I think I will survive!"
This was such a relief! So we posed for the picture, and I was very satisfied with at least getting a picture with him. Afterwards I told him how much I love Country feedback, and he thanked me for saying that. But I got the feeling that he did not quite understand why just this song is so special to me.
(Click on picture to see a larger version)
The same picture as before, only this time the signed version.....
Then we said goodbye to him, and he left. Michael left just after him, but as he walked away, he turned around to us and said "Bye!" with a smile on his face. At least he was not angry with me for my rude approach, and it was a happy ending after all. Now there was only three months left to the next time....
The story is not a sad one....... PART III