Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 27, 1995 TAG: 9505300004
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GENE STOUT SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Drummer Bill Berry, who collapsed during a show March 1 in Lausanne, Switzerland, suffered a ruptured aneurysm on the right-hand outside surface of his brain that required emergency surgery. It was the rock world's scariest on-the-road medical crisis in recent memory.
``None of us had ever walked off a stage,'' said guitarist Peter Buck. ``Every single one of us had the flu, and we felt really bad. It was wintertime in Europe and we were in cold, dank buildings, and we were just dragging.
``Bill was having a great time and then suddenly he told me, `Man, I think I'm going to pass out.' Then he just sort of collapsed. They carried him off, and I thought, `Well, I guess it's the flu.'''
With the help of drummer Joey Peters of Grant Lee Buffalo, R.E.M. finished its set. Band members didn't find out what was wrong with Berry until the next morning.
``I got woken up at 8 the next morning and it was like, `Well, Bill's got an aneurysm and the tour's off.' We thought, `Let's just hang out in Switzerland with Bill and make sure he's OK and not worry about anything else.'''
The group canceled the European leg of its tour, and for a while there was concern that U.S. dates might be affected, too.
But Berry is now fully recovered, allowing R.E.M. - the monsters of alternative rock - to set off on its U.S. tour. The tour supports the powerful new album ``Monster'' and is expected to gross at least $50 million.
``Bill has 100 percent of his neurological capabilities back,'' said Buck, who lives in Seattle with wife Stephanie Dorgan (owner of the Crocodile Cafe) and their year-old twin daughters, Zoe and Zelda.
``The doctors gave us a date that he'd definitely be fine by, and if we wanted to go out earlier, it would be up to us. Bill wanted to go earlier and we wouldn't let him.''
It was Berry who had prodded the band to end its five-year hiatus from touring and return to the road.
``I think if we hadn't gone on the road, Bill might have quit the band,'' Buck said. ``He said he didn't want to be in a band that just stayed home. He likes to tour.''
R.E.M. - Buck, Berry, lead singer Michael Stipe and bassist Mike Mills, as well as additional musicians Scott McCaughey and Nathan December - travels with a half-dozen equipment trucks, nine buses and a 47-person road crew. The perks are being paid for in part by the chart-topping success of ``Monster,'' the boldest, most guitar-heavy album in the group's 15-year history.
When R.E.M. made its debut in 1980 - a year when Michael Jackson, Queen, Pink Floyd, Blondie and Paul McCartney and Wings ruled the charts - the group was notable for its artful sound and probing, eccentric lyrics. R.E.M. was the prototype alternative-rock band, helping to create a genre that wouldn't mature until the early '90s.
Today, R.E.M. is taking some flak for its supergroup status and high level of commercial success.
``I think it's kind of weird that success is something thought of as evil,'' Buck said.
``I'm not embarrassed about selling millions of records. But we've never gone out of our way to sell records. I mean, when we first signed, we had offers from major labels, but we signed with IRS, basically an independent. We didn't take an advance, and we toured in a van for years and played every crummy little dive in the country, which is what the punk bands did. But we were never punks and we never believed there was some code we had to adhere to.''
One of the group's most successful albums was 1992's ``Automatic for the People,'' which sold more than 3 million copies. But the band reassessed its approach to rock 'n' roll with ``Monster,'' which has yielded a hit single, ``What's the Frequency, Kenneth?'' (a song about an older generation trying to fathom youthful tastes).
``We thought, `Let's reapproach it. Let's relearn what rock 'n' roll is to us,''' Buck said.
``It's not heavy-metal to me, and it's not blues-oriented. Unlike a lot of the Seattle bands that grew up with Kiss and Robin Trower, our influences are really different. I'm not saying that we're mod or hip or groovy or whatever. It's just our different take on what rock 'n' roll is.''
The band has already written more than a dozen songs for its next album, which it hopes to complete by the end of the tour.
``It's going to be pretty chaotic and wild,'' Buck said. ``We're going to try to record them during the tour, on stage, during sound checks, maybe in dressing rooms, maybe even jump into a studio one afternoon with local musicians and knock something out. We'll just try to pull something together in the most creative and interesting way.''
by CNB