An estimated audience of 190,000 people attended the second night of ROCK IN RIO and witnessed the debut live performances of two new REM songs, ‘SHE JUST
WANTS TO BE’ and ‘THE LIFTING’, both to be included on the band’s forthcoming album,’REVEAL’.
Arriving at the City Of Rock, the festival’s venue, the audience received green,
yellow or red stickers, indicating their marital status. Quite why, no-one seems to know but there seemed to be a lot of loving
going on, as Michael Stipe observed: “I’ve never been to Rio before. I
think it might be the sexiest city I have ever set foot on. Seriously. I’m dizzy
with ecstasy.”
The singer went on to say : “We’ve been working on this record for the last year and a half. It’s
coming out sometime in May. That doesn’t matter. What matters is that we never played these songs before in front of anyone.”
REMthen performed
the mellow ‘She Just Wants To Be’ (chorus: “Now it’s greater and she knows that she just wants to be somewhere/She just wants to be”).
Later
they played the heavy rock of ‘The Lifting’ (in which the word “never” is
repeated ad infinitum).
Once again it was a very hot day in Rio , with temperatures over the 38 Celsius. The day passed without any major incidents bar a few reported robberies as Beck, Foo Fighters and REM entertained the massive crowd.
Earlier in the day, Oasis’ Noel
Gallagher met journalists at a press conference while the rest of the band sunned themselves at a hotel pool. With a beer glass in hand, he declared that he was about to embark on recording a new Oasis album, and that the proposed co-headlining tour with The Black Crowes was planned for late May. When asked whether he preferred Brazil, booze or women, he said: “I prefer to dance to Brazilian musicwith Brazilian girls that drink”. The motto of the festival is Rock In Rio For A
Better World and Noel said he would like “a world without guns… and roses”.
He also went on to say that the only two
rock bands in the world are Oasis and The Black Crowes.
Later on the day, the Gallagher brothers had their bit of fun throwing underwear
and beer cans to the crowd outside their hotel window before heading for the hotel swimming pool.
Tonight (January 14) is one of the most hotly anticipated of the seven-day long festival, with the first
major performance by Guns N’ Roses in almost eight years.
Current rumours have it that a few surprises are still to come. Brian May is said to
be performing on Thursday (January 18) with Five, and EMI confirmed that Jimmy Page will be coming to Rio with his pals Iron Maiden. Whether he will go onstage with the band remains to be seen.
Axl Rose stayed away from the press once again, and spent the day at the swimming
pool. He is also learning jiu-jitsu from the Gracie family, whom he hired to be
his personal security during his visit.