Peter Buck

From Free net encyclopedia

For the New Zealand Maori leader and academic, see Te Rangi Hiroa (Peter Buck)

Peter Lawrence Buck (born December 6, 1956 in Berkeley, California) is the guitarist and co-founder, along with Bill Berry, Mike Mills, and Michael Stipe of the seminal 1980s alternative rock band R.E.M..

1 Biography
2 Music
3 Disturbance on a flight
4 External links

[edit]

Biography

After spending time in Los Angeles and San Francisco, the Buck family moved to Atlanta, Georgia. Peter went to college at the University of Georgia, in Athens, Georgia, where he worked at the Wuxtry Records store and met regular customer Michael Stipe.

Buck currently lives in Seattle, Washington with his wife Stephanie Dorgan. This is notable considering the remainder of R.E.M. (Mike Mills and Michael Stipe) still live in Athens, Georgia. The Bucks have twin girls, Zelda and Zoe.

Peter, Mike Mills, Bill Berry and Warren Zevon recorded an album under the band name Hindu Love Gods, while the R.E.M. bandmates and Zevon were recording tracks for Zevon's 1987 album "Sentimental Hygiene." Hindu Love Gods is one of many names the guys from R.E.M. have used performing around the Athens area.

[edit]

Music

Buck's style of guitar playing is simple and yet distinctive. He makes wide use of open strings while chording to create chiming and memorable pop melodies. However, on more recent R.E.M. releases, the guitar has been noticeably less prominent, often turned down lower in the mix in deference to the band's increasing use of synthesizers and other atmospherics.

Buck has produced many bands, helming the boards for albums by Uncle Tupelo, The Fleshtones, and The Feelies, among others. Buck also has made contributions on many other musician's albums, including The Replacements, Robyn Hitchcock, and several Eels albums. Along with R.E.M. sideman Scott McCaughey, he has been a partner in The Minus 5, for which he plays bass, and has been a member of the instrumental band Tuatara. His voice can be heard on one R.E.M. song: "I Walked With a Zombie" from the Roky Erickson tribute album "Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye."

[edit]

Disturbance on a flight

On April 21, 2001, Buck was aboard a transatlantic flight from Seattle to London to play a concert at Trafalgar Square. Witnesses alleged that Buck exhibited various bizarre behaviours on the flight. These included shoving a CD into a drinks trolley, thinking it was a CD player, tearing up the 'yellow card' warning notice handed to him by the flight crew, claiming "I am R.E.M. and I can make up a story that I was assaulted" and being involved in a struggle over a yoghurt pot with two stewards, which resulted in the exploding of the pot. Buck's actions led to two charges of common assault on the stewards, one charge of being drunk whilst on a plane, and one charge of damaging British Airways cutlery.

At the ensuing trial in London, Buck's defence claimed that the small amount of wine he had drunk had reacted adversely with the brand of sleeping pill he was taking and rendered him unable to control his actions. The prosecution, on the other hand, argued that he was simply intoxicated from supposedly consuming fifteen refills of wine. After the trial, which included testimony from none other than Bono of the rock band U2, Buck was cleared on the grounds of non-insane automatism.

[edit]