13.03.1991
UK, London, BBC Maida Vale Studios, BBC Radio 1, Studio 5
Into The Night
exc. Broadcast

01. World Leader Pretend [4:45]
02. Fretless [5:17]
03. Half a World Away [3:39]
04. Radio Song [4:01]
05. Losing My Religion [4:58]
06. Love is All Around [3:20]

BONUS:
07. Fretless - combined version from the Unplugged and Poets CD, to get the best of both (worlds). [5:28]
08. Fretless - short version from the Poets of the Wheat CD. [1:00]
09. Love is All Around - version with longer intro from Live Collection (the first REM bootleg CD apparently!) [3:30]

Total Running Time: [36:00]

Source: EX FM Stereo
Lineage:
"Unplugged" (CYE003) silver CD + Poets of the Wheat silver 2 CD set + Live Collection silver CD > Audacity (gain changes only, + EQing on bonus track 7 only) > TLH > FLAC

This was from three different sources - the "Unplugged" (CYE003) silver CD, and the Poets of the Wheat silver 2 CD set, and finally for the last (bonus) track, "The Live Collection". The Poets of the Wheat set is the best quality, but only features the last minute or so of Fretless, in admittedly amazing quality, and misses off World Leader Pretend. So, I included World Leader Pretend and Fretless from the Unplugged CD, went over to to the Poets CD for track 3-6 of the session. As a bonus, I added a combined version of the two CD versions of Fretless, and the short version of Fretless from Poets untouched. This way, with these permutations, you get a straight 'raw' version of each song in complete form, as well as my combined version, and the components to do your own combined version if you like, or simply hear the long and short version of Fretless - for which there are differences in EQ and even the channels are swopped round between one CD and the other in raw form - just as they were. The only other alteration made was raising the gain on the Poets tracks to bring them more in line with the levels of the tracks from the Unplugged CD. Finally, I have added a further Love is All Around at the end, from the "Live Colelction", which I read online was the first REM bootleg CD? I can't be sure if that is true, but I do remember CDs like that being among the first bootleg CD titles. Anyway, the intro is quite unique, with Michael joking - nicely - about Mike Mills doing the next number, saying watch out for his bass mistakes. I included this recording seperately...it sounds a little 'fuller' sonically, but the version from the Poets of the Wheat CD has greater fidelity, so I thought I'd include both. Enjoy.