Save the clock tower! Erm — help rebuild St. Mary’s Steeple!
The 145-year-old Athens, Georgia landmark — known to locals as the venue where R.E.M. played their first show in 1980 — was demolished in 1990 to make room for a student apartment community. Now, Athens musicians’ health and resource center Nuçi’s Space has made it their mission to restore the steeple and potentially transform it into a meditation space.
Raising funds via Indiegogo, Nuçi’s Space has rounded up a notable crew of Athens-based musicians (R.E.M., Neutral Milk Hotel, the B-52’s, of Montreal, and Drive-By Truckers, to name a few) to donate various forms of paraphernalia. For example, $100 buys a Drive-By Truckers/Freed poster. Donate $300 and get an actual St. Mary’s brick, and toss in $2,000 for Kate Pierson’s black sequined dress from the B-52’s “With the Wild Crowd” performance. (But just in case you’re not a thousandaire, you can always donate $5 or $10 for some campaign goodies.) Either way, sounds like a worthy cause to us.
To find out how you can donate, learn more about the St. Mary’s campaign via the above trailer.
