Sunday, July 30
Milton Keynes

First gig with R.E.M. Mr Stipe comes in before the show to say hello. "Hi, I'm Michael. I'm really glad you could do this. I'm a very big fan." Wonder how many times I will run this through my brain after today. I've never believed in hero worship and so on, but I have to admit to myself that I'm fighting for breath. I've had moments in the past two years when time has completely curved and space became a Hitchcock camera trick. At these moments, barriers seem to break in my head and I never see anything in the same way again. And for days and days all I want to do is run around jumping into people's earshot waving my hands up and down like Bjork and pulling faces. This is one of those moments.