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1. R.E.M. were almost called Twisted Kites

Most people know that R.E.M. stands for Rapid Eye Movement, a name that “just popped out of the dictionary one night,” as guitarist Peter Buck told Uncut. “We needed something that wouldn’t typecast us, because we didn’t know what we were gonna do.” Up until showtime of their first ever gig they were toying with the name Twisted Kites but “we just bagged it and went up and played without any introduction”, said drummer Bill Berry to R.E.M. HQ. By the time of their second show on 19 April 1980, and having rejected a couple more unsavoury band names, they were unveiled as R.E.M.

2. Michael Stipe used to be a punk

Before R.E.M., frontman Stipe was in a St. Louis punk band called Bad Habits. In one of the only two gigs they played, they supported and .

3. The band made their own bubblegum to woo promoters

According to Stipe, early R.E.M. demo tapes came packaged with “handmade” bubblegum in order to make them more appealing to prospective promoters.

4. Stipe recorded second album Reckoning naked and in darkness...

Stipe worked to elaborate private rules in R.E.M.’s early years. The words “I” and “you” were deemed too personal to be used in lyrics, which he sang in darkness on their 1983 debut album Murmur - and naked, too, on the follow-up Reckoning. He also turned his back on the audience for a whole tour.

5… and had a strict rule about his on-stage stance

Even when he decided to face forwards, Stipe kept his feet close together to avoid looking like “those heavy metal guys”, and wore heavy layers of coats and hats during gigs for “protection”, gradually stripping down to jeans and a sweatshirt.

6. At the height of R.E.M.’s fame, Peter Buck still played a local dive bar twice a week

After third album Fables of the Reconstruction (1985), Peter Buck went back to work one day a week at an Athens, Georgia record shop. Even in 1990, he could be found playing twice a week at a local dive bar. That way, he observed, he could tell people where to go when they moaned he hadn’t played The One I Love. Even as R.E.M. became international superstars, Buck remained a man of the people, as the below clip shows.

7. Document could have been called Mr Evil Breakfast

As far as R.E.M. album titles go, there have been several lucky escapes. Fables of the Reconstruction was almost High on Drugs, Document was nearly Mr Evil Breakfast, Buck wanted Automatic for the People to be called Unforgettable, Monster could have been Exploding Heads, and Stipe argued that New Adventures in Hi-Fi should have been titled Alone in My Urine. Reckoning actually kept its alternative moniker. “The real, real title of the record,” Stipe told NME, “is File Under Water. In America, both titles are on the spine, with nothing on the cover.”

8. Stipe had a thing about famous people with the initials LB

It’s the End of the World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine) was partly inspired by a dream Stipe had in which he was the only person attending the late gonzo rock critic Lester Bangs’ birthday party who didn’t share Bangs’ initials, making him feel awkward as he mingled with Lenny Bruce, Leonid Brezhnev and Leonard Bernstein.

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9. R.E.M. once recorded a metal song

Stipe’s least typical lyric can be found on R.E.M.’s not-entirely-serious heavy metal anthem Burning Hell, wisely relegated from Fables of the Reconstruction to the B-side of Can’t Get There From Here. “Women got skirts / Men got pants,” he emotes. “If you’ve got the picnic / I've got the ants.”

10. Stipe has admitted to channelling Patsy Cline

The singer claimed to Trouser Press magazine that his vocal style was influenced by “early country singers, mostly women: , , , .”

11. 1994’s Monster was dedicated to actor River Phoenix

River Phoenix’s premature death outside LA’s Viper Room in 1993 had a big impact on close friend Michael Stipe, leaving him unable to write for five months. When the muse finally returned, Stipe dedicated the subsequent album Monster to Phoenix, only to be floored by the death of another friend, Kurt Cobain. The Monster song Let Me In is about Stipe’s ultimately failed attempts to dissuade Cobain from his self-destructive path.

12. R.E.M were once supported by their 60s heroes The Band

At an MTV-sponsored gig in 1984, R.E.M. were supported by a jaw-dropping dream team of their 60s influences, including ’s John Sebastian, ’ Roger McGuinn and ’s Rick Danko, Levon Helm and Richard Manuel.

13. Peter Buck had an impersonator

In the late 80s, a New York man deceived acquaintances and even a girlfriend into believing he was the R.E.M. guitarist. The real Peter Buck only found out when strangers kept accusing him of owing them $20.

14. R.E.M. briefly renamed themselves It Crawled From the South...

R.E.M. often played sets of cover versions under an assumed name. Supporting in New York at Halloween 1983, they called themselves It Crawled From the South and played versions of 20th Century Boy, Pale Blue Eyes and Bloodrock’s proto-metal workout DOA.

15. ...and unwittingly made an album as Hindu Love Gods

Buck, Mills and Berry were surprised to find they’d made an album as the in 1990, having previously played a few gigs under the alias with the acerbic LA singer-songwriter . A drunken blues jam while playing on Zevon’s 1987 album Sentimental Hygiene belatedly became a full-blown, cash-in LP, to R.E.M.’s ill-concealed annoyance. Their cover of ’s Raspberry Beret sounded pretty good, though.

16. Stipe produced a public service film about abortion

Former art student Stipe claimed his first love was photography, not music. When success gave him the resources, he moved into the visual arts with his film company C-00, producing R.E.M.’s avant-garde Tourfilm, and making underground pop videos, art films, documentaries and public service films about abortion and the environment. Stipe directed several of these himself.

17. Even a psychic failed to predict the band’s resilience

In 1990, psychic Ian Bliss inspired the confident headline 'R.E.M. To Break Up' in the Athens Banner-Herald, declaring that “there will be internal problems in the band, with everybody wanting to do their own thing and not being successful". Buck pithily countered: “I predict his hair will fall out within two years.”

18. There are numerous R.E.M. live albums sitting in the vaults

R.E.M. possess tapes of every tour from 1983 on, but have only released two live albums of later shows: R.E.M. Live (2007) and Live At The Olympia (2009).

19. R.E.M. were once paid $500 not to play

R.E.M. played anywhere that would have them early on. When a local biker club hired them to play their party, a terrified Stipe jumped over a fence to get away. In Albuquerque, they were due to open a hot legs contest till the promoter took one look at them and paid them $500 not to. As late as 1985, a Halloween gig in Honolulu found them on the same bill as a costume contest, won by a lewd Hitler impersonator. “What a career,” Buck sighed.

20. No one knows anything about Kenneth or his frequency

The title of 1994 hit What’s the Frequency, Kenneth? was the opaque phrase shouted by muggers when they targeted US newscaster Dan Rather. Their reasons remain a mystery.

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21. In 1992, some fans genuinely believed Michael Stipe was dying (or already dead)

Stipe’s gaunt appearance and refusal to be interviewed around the time of Automatic for the People led to ghoulish gossip that he was dying of AIDS, was a heroin addict or had already died in a car crash. Stipe made light of the rumours in a 1994 interview with Jo Whiley: “I was personally wounded for about 10 minutes. In the past I’ve been Peter Buck’s lover, I’ve been a junkie… I went off to a vacation with in Ireland… is carrying my baby… I think she’s having triplets with me and and .”

22. Moon River was a formative influence on the band

Long before Michael Stipe and Peter Buck met, the first song they both loved as children was Moon River. “Even as a little boy, it made me kind of want to cry or be by myself for a while,” Stipe told Creem. R.E.M. covered the song at early gigs.

23. After leaving the band, Bill Berry periodically returned as their sushi chef

When Bill Berry moved out of the city in the late 90s to be a “gentleman farmer”, he dismantled his whole home, then rebuilt it in the country. “That’s Bill Berry to a T,” his former bandmates approvingly told Jo Whiley. Further eccentricities, they claimed, included cooking sushi for the band in full chef’s gear.

24. R.E.M. inspired the Beastie Boys

As with many an aspiring band, the nascent R.E.M. appeared on a few kids TV shows in the early 80s. On a clip from Nickleodeon’s Livewire, the band can be seen mumbling awkwardly as they take questions from the teenage audience. “Three of the kids, incidentally, were the ,” Stipe claimed to Q. “They were 15, these cute little child actors.”

25. R.E.M.’s final album cover was a big clue to their split

For what was eventually revealed to be their final album, 2011’s Collapse Into Now, R.E.M. were pictured on a record sleeve for the first time, with Stipe even waving goodbye. “That whole record was a whole big goodbye,” he delightedly told . “I’m shocked no one noticed.”