[Kev]

Italian R.E.M. Friends revealed the "Around The Sun" album cover on their website. It hasn't been officially confirmed if this is the real cover art, but the same picture can be found on CD WOW! website, so it's most probably real. You can see the cover at the end of the article.
From the other album news - it's been confirmed that Q-tip will guest on the new record. According to the "Q" magazine, the forthcoming album "features veteran rapper Q-tip on moody duet The Outsiders."

According to information from some Polish online music stores, "Leaving New York" will be released in Poland (so that means that in other European countries too) on September 20th - it's one week earlier than it was originally scheduled.
In the last news we have posted the tracklisting for "Leaving New York" single and it says that the first B-side, "You Are The Everything" was recorded live in Raleigh on October 10th, 2003. But some of you probably noticed that this song wasn't played that evening, so it was probably recorded during the soundcheck or it's simply mislabeled.

Last week R.E.M.hq has emailed randomly selected UK Fan Club members with invites to a concert at some unknown London venue. The performance will take place on September 15th.
Meanwhile, Warner Music in Spain announced that R.E.M. will hold a press conference in the country on September 9th.

And now some important news for Fan Club members who received postcards containing an unique key code. You can now pre-register to buy tickets for the band's upcoming concerts around the world. There's a link to the registration page at the end of the article.

From the other tour news, R.E.M.'s side musician Ken Stringfellow is in Athens, Georgia, according to a post on his website. He's probably rehearsing with the band for the forthcoming tour.
According to Pollstar, R.E.M. will play at Palacio De Los Deportes in Mexico City on December 3rd and 4th.
And in closing, some news we got from a fan from Ireland yesterday: "I was listening to the Dave Fanning show on 2FM Ireland and after reviewing Leaving New York, he mentioned thant they would be playing the point in Dublin. This is an indoor venue in Dublin and I guess would hold no more than 10,000. Maybe this is an indication of thing to come on the European Leg".

And finally here's the promised "Around The Sun" cover:



Links:
http://www.remhq.com/html/fanclubtickets/index.html - registration page at R.E.M.hq


Three formats of the UK "Leaving New York" single
Source: HMV.co.uk


According to the HMV.co.uk website, there'll be three versions of the "Leaving New York" single available in the UK:

Format: 7" Vinyl Single
Track Listing:
1. Leaving New York
2. Don't Go back to Rockville [Live]
Catalogue number: W654

Format: 5" CD Single
Track Listing:
1. Leaving New York
2. Don't Go back to Rockville [Live]
Catalogue number: W654CD1

Format: 5" CD Single
Track Listing:
1. Leaving New York
2. You Are the Everything [Live]
3. These Days [Live]
Catalogue number: W654CD2

All formats will be released on September 27th.



I think the album cover looks fantastic!!