''Athens Andover'' is a collaborative album between

The Troggs The Troggs (originally called the Troglodytes) are an English garage rock band formed in Andover, Hampshire in May 1964. Their most famous songs include the US chart-topper " Wild Thing", "With a Girl Like You" and "Love Is All Around", all o ...

and what was then three-quarters of

R.E.M. R.E.M. was an American rock band from Athens, Georgia, formed in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the first alternative ...

Released in March

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

, the name of the album is derived from the hometowns of the two bands:

Andover, Hampshire Andover ( ) is a town in the English county of Hampshire. The town is on the River Anton, a major tributary of the Test, and is situated alongside the major A303 trunk road at the eastern end of Salisbury Plain, west of the town of Basingsto ...

, in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, and

Athens, Georgia Athens, officially Athens–Clarke County, is a consolidated city-county and college town in the U.S. state of Georgia. Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta, and is a satellite city of the capital. The University of Georgia, the sta ...

, in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The joining of forces was sparked by R.E.M.'s covering the Troggs' single "

Love Is All Around "Love Is All Around" is a song recorded by English rock band the Troggs, featuring a string quartet and a 'tick tock' sound on percussion, in D-major. Released as a single in October 1967, it was a top-ten hit in both the UK and US. "Love I ...

" in live performances during promotion for the former's album '' Out of Time'' (

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

). One such performance, on the American

radio show A radio program, radio programme, or radio show is a segment of content intended for broadcast on radio. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series. A single program in a series is called an episode. Radio networ ...

''Rockline'' in April 1991, was released as a B-side on R.E.M.'s single "

Radio Song Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitt ...

". "We’d just done a show in a hotel, and as the lift door opened there was this crowd waiting for autographs and someone shouted out, 'What do you think of R.E.M. doing your record?'" explained Troggs frontman

Reg Presley Reginald Maurice Ball (12 June 1941 – 4 February 2013), known professionally as Reg Presley, was an English singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer with the 1960s rock and roll band the Troggs, whose hits included " Wild Thing" (#1 on th ...

to ''

Record Collector ''Record Collector'' is a British monthly music magazine. It was founded in 1980 and distributes worldwide. History The early years The first standalone issue of ''Record Collector'' was published in March 1980, though its history stretches ba ...

'' editor

Peter Doggett Peter Doggett (born 30 June 1957) is an English music journalist, author and magazine editor. He began his career in music journalism in 1980, when he joined the London-based magazine ''Record Collector''. He subsequently served as the editor t ...

.Taken from the liner notes to ''Athens, Georgia & Beyond'' "Well, I hadn’t heard of R.E.M. But my manager had, so he suggested working with them on our new album. And when I listened to their records, I thought they weren’t far removed from what we were doing when we started. They invited me and Chris over to Athens to work with them for a week. By this time I’d realised quite how big they were, and so we spent the first five minutes walking around one another going, 'Wow'. It was quite different working with them. With the Troggs it had always just been you had a guitar and so you had a sound. With them, you had a roomful of 65 guitars to get exactly the right sound. They were very laid back, very normal. There was no high falutin sort of, 'Listen to this 'cos we’re better than you.' After all, their drummer was selling hamburgers until a few weeks before they made it. He was doing quite well with his own business. Having been a roofer when " Wild Thing" hit the charts, I could relate to that." Recording took place over a one-week period in September 1991 at John Keane's Studio in Athens.

Bill Berry William Thomas Berry (born July 31, 1958) is an American musician who was the drummer for the alternative rock band R.E.M. Although best known for his economical drumming style, Berry also played other instruments, including guitar, bass guitar ...

Mike Mills Michael Edward Mills (born December 17, 1958) is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, and composer who was a founding member of the alternative rock band R.E.M. Though known primarily as the bass guitarist and backing vocalist of R.E.M., hi ...

and

Peter Buck Peter Lawrence Buck (born December 6, 1956) is an American musician and songwriter. He was a co-founder and the lead guitarist of the alternative rock band R.E.M. He also plays the banjo and mandolin on several R.E.M. songs. Throughout his car ...

made up the R.E.M. contingent. Vocalist

Michael Stipe John Michael Stipe (; born January 4, 1960) is an American singer-songwriter and artist, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of alternative rock band R.E.M. He is known for his vocal quality, poetic lyrics and unique stage presence. Poss ...

was not involved. "Nowhere Road" was composed by the R.E.M. trio along with

Peter Holsapple Peter Livingston Holsapple (born February 19, 1956) is an American musician, who formed, along with Chris Stamey, the dB's, a jangle-pop band from Winston-Salem, North Carolina.Strong, Martin C. (2003) ''The Great Indie Discography'', Canongat ...

The dB's The dB's are an American alternative rock and power pop group, who formed in New York City in 1978 and first came to prominence in the early 1980s. Their debut album, '' Stands for Decibels'', is often acclaimed as one of the greatest "lost" powe ...

, who was R.E.M.'s auxiliary musician for their 1991 tour. The album was re-released by the Troggs as ''Athens, Georgia & Beyond'' (

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

) with seven additional tracks not recorded during the R.E.M. collaboration.

Track listing

#"Crazy Annie" (

Chip Taylor Chip Taylor (born James Wesley Voight; March 21, 1940) is an American songwriter and singer noted for writing "Angel of the Morning" and " Wild Thing". Early life Taylor was born on March 21, 1940, in Yonkers, New York. He is the brother of a ...

) – 4:43 #"Together" (

) – 4:01 #"Tuned into Love" (

Daniel Boone Daniel Boone (September 26, 1820) was an American pioneer and frontiersman whose exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. He became famous for his exploration and settlement of Kentucky, which was then beyond the we ...

Larry Page Lawrence Edward Page (born March 26, 1973) is an American business magnate, computer scientist and internet entrepreneur. He is best known for co-founding Google with Sergey Brin. Page was the chief executive officer of Google from 1997 unt ...

) – 3:39 #"Déjà Vu" (Tony James Shevlin) – 3:33 #"Nowhere Road" (

) – 4:44 #"Dustbowl" (Presley) – 3:26 #"I'm in Control" (Holsapple) – 3:51 #"Don't You Know" (Presley) – 4:06 #"What's Your Game" (Presley) – 4:56 #"Suspicious" (Presley) – 4:22 #"Hot Stuff" (Boone, Page) – 4:02

Personnel

– lead vocals * Chris Britton – acoustic and electric guitars, backing vocals, bass * Peter Lucas – acoustic and electric guitars, backing vocals, bass *

– acoustic, 12-string and electric guitars, mandolin *

– acoustic, 12-string and electric guitars * John Keane – pedal steel, electric and slide guitars, backing vocals *

– electric guitar, backing vocals *

– bass, organ, accordion * Dave Maggs – drums *

– drums, percussion ;Technical *David Baker, John Keane - engineer *Brian Burrows, Larry Page - sleeve concept *Brian Burrows - sleeve design, typesetting

Notes

References

* ''Athens Andover'' at AllMusic.com {{Authority control 1992 albums Collaborative albums The Troggs albums Rhino Records albums R.E.M. Albums produced by Larry Page (singer)