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... "We are standing here at the site of Saint Mary's Episcopal church," says Paul Butchart, who gives tours to people from all over the world, who come here for one reason. " It was here in 1980, that R.E.M. played their first show." It was a birthday party of a friend of his.

The church building is long gone, torn down to make way for condos, but the brick and stone steeple remains, a monument to where it all started.

But if you really want to go back to the beginning, to "begin the begin" you're gonna go to Wuxtry Records in downtown Athens. Not the main store, but the boxcar sized building on the side. ....