There very well could have been a full-fledged R.E.M. reunion in Portland, Ore., on Saturday night as all four members of the defunct college-rock superstars performed after Peter Buck’s wedding. But, by all appearances, they managed to avoid such headlines, just barely, by not actually sharing the stage together.

Andreas Thein — who co-founded Propaganda and co-wrote and performed on the German synthpop group’s debut single, 1984’s “Dr. Mabuse,” before being asked to leave the band — lost his battle with cancer and died this past Thursday, according to ZTT Records.

Welcome to the Week in Rock, where we round up all of the headlines posted on this site over the past week. This week featured posts about Talking Heads, Lou Reed, New Order, OMD, The Stranglers, Elvis Costello, Pet Shop Boys, Vince Clarke, The Church, David Bowie, New York’s WLIR and more.

No official reason was given when Lou Reed canceled his performances at Coachella and three other California concerts this spring, but now we know why: Reed recently underwent a liver transplant that was necessary to save his life, his wife Laurie Anderson tells The Times of London.

With two weeks left to go, the producers of a documentary called “Dare To Be Different” — which aims to tell the story of hugely influential New York alternative station WLIR 92.7 FM — are more than $12,000 short of their fundraising goal, and are still hoping to lure fans with a variety of donor perks.

For this week’s “120 Minutes” Rewind, we revisit the very early days of the program, for an Alan Hunter-hosted “120 X-Ray” segment on New Order that ran during the show’s first year on the air. The clip features Bernard Sumner talking about how the band brought on Gillian Gilbert.

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark wrapped up a U.K. tour this month in support of their second post-reunion album, English Electric, and this week stopped by “Later… with Jools Holland” for a pair of broadcast performances, including the record’s new single, “Dresden,” and the band’s classic hit “Enola Gay.”