R.E.M. reunites with drummer for induction

NEW YORK - R.E.M. will perform three songs with original drummer Bill Berry to celebrate its induction into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, to be held September 16 in Atlanta.

Berry has played only three times with his long-time colleagues since exiting the band in 1997, most prominently at the October 2005 wedding of R.E.M. guitar tech Dewitt Burton.

At that performance, the foursome played a seven-song set of classic early material, including Sitting Still, Radio Free Europe and Wolves, Lower. In April, Berry joined vocalist Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck and bassist Mike Mills to perform R.E.M.'s Country Feedback at an Athens, Ga., show by Buck's side band, the Minus 5.

Following the Hall of Fame induction, R.E.M. will end a year-long hiatus and hit the studio to begin work on the follow-up to 2004's critically maligned Around the Sun. That album debuted at No. 13 on The Billboard 200.

In the meantime, the band's first five years will be celebrated with the CD/DVD package And I Feel Fine, due in the US on September 12 via I.R.S./Capitol. The collection includes the first authorised release of a number of long-bootlegged rare tracks.

- REUTERS/Billboard