With the announcement that they were finally calling it a day after 30 year career, I thought that it was worth putting up a video from one of REM's final French appearances.
I remember Michael Stipe telling the audience at an early show in the UK how he was met with puzzled looks in France once as he wandered a town in search of the station, asking locals "Ou est la guerre?"
They played their final French show on Augst 28 2008 at the Rock en Seine festival in Paris in 2008, during their tour to promote their Accelerate album.
They also earlier played in Lyon (July 8) and Nice (July 9) and a TV special in March on the Taratata programme.
There's a lot of terrible quality video of the final Paris show available on youtube, as well as a TV clip that could well be from the show, but as it says on screen that its from another festival altogether I can't be sure.
What's certain is that their performance on Tatratata - broadcast on April 2008 - was absolutely tremendous and filmed with the highest production values that anyone could ask for.
They were an extraordinary live band and I followed their releases fanatically until the release of the Monster album. I enjoyed some of their subsequent work, but I don't think they ever reached the same peaks as they did before then.
It could be argued that they should have called it a day after New Adventures in Hi Fi, but in their later years they were still capable of greatness, and they'll certainly be missed.
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