Half a World Away

What do you do after being inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame? You talk to Tablet, of course, and you tell us all of the most memorable European hotels you stayed in during your peak years of international touring.

On Thanksgiving night 1983, touring in support of their debut album Murmur — an album Rolling Stone would soon call the best of the year, beating out such landmark releases as Thriller, Synchronicity, and War — R.E.M. finished up a gig at Les Bains Douches in Paris, a legendary nightclub in the 2nd arrondissement. After the show, the club provided a “Thanksgiving” meal featuring deli-style, luncheon turkey. Cold cuts might not have been traditional, but they were enough to make the band feel more at home during what was their first week ever playing together overseas. “That was sweet of them,” says Bertis Downs, R.E.M.’s longtime advisor. “It was the gesture that mattered.”

Keeping that spirit of hospitality alive, Les Bains Douches eventually became Les Bains, an equally legendary boutique hotel. I spoke with Downs about R.E.M.’s history with hotels, seeing as 25 years of international touring means there’s quite a lot of it. As a young band, they stayed in the kinds of places a young band could afford, oftentimes not even hotels. By 1995’s massive, planet-spanning tour for Monster, the accommodations had grown accordingly. “Certainly we stayed in some lower-key places over the years, and generally avoided corporate-feeling hotels,” Downs confirmed, “but a major touring act has a lot of logistical requirements — privacy, security, 24-hour services.” And don’t forget about capacity. “We needed dozens of rooms.”

For the band that practically invented modern indie rock, indie hotels were becoming less realistic. Style, though, and sophisticated elegance, were still essentials.

“Lausanne Palace is especially meaningful to us,” Downs remembers, flashing back to one particularly grand hotel. “It’s where we were when Bill underwent the brain surgery that saved his life.” Twelve years after the Les Bains show, drummer Bill Berry suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm on stage in Switzerland. Thinking it was just a migraine, Berry was brought back to Lausanne Palace, where it soon became clear his condition was more serious. Berry had emergency surgery the next day, the tour was postponed, and the band waited at the hotel while their drummer recovered. Once Berry was out of the hospital, the group decamped across Lake Geneva to hole up at the Hotel Royal in Evian, France. “We had to stay a short distance from the doctor and that fit the bill just right.”

Berry’s aneurysm happened at the height of R.E.M.’s global superstardom, when they were one of the most successful and respected bands in the world. That’s why it was such a shock when they broke up in 2011. Bands that big don’t tend to break up, and certainly not amicably. The ultimate tribute to R.E.M. isn’t gold records or ticket sales, it’s that they knew when to call it a day. When you care deeply about your art and your audience, quitting at the right time isn’t complicated; it’s obvious.

R.E.M.’s last full show wound up being in 2008 in Mexico City. Even then they knew it was probably their final concert. To the surprise of nearly everyone but them, it remains so. Speaking on the possibility of a reunion tour during a recent interview with CBS, guitarist Peter Buck put it beautifully: “It’d never be as good.” That speaks to a truth we could all stand to absorb. Hold what you put out into the world to a high standard. Even when it might be lucrative to cut corners or rush or reheat the leftovers — strive always to produce better work.

It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) — from Road Movie, 1995

This is Tablet’s third editorial collaboration with R.E.M., a partnership I’m quite fond of. My R.E.M. fandom started in earnest in 1991 when I got my first Columbia House subscription and decided to have each of my eight free introductory CDs be R.E.M. albums, from Murmur to Out of Time (Dead Letter Office included). I’ve had a lot of “favorite bands” in my life, particularly during those young adult years when our personalities might crumble to dust if we can’t quickly rattle off our top 5 films or books or songs. Now in my mid-40s, I don’t have to pick a favorite band. It picked me. R.E.M. has stood the test of time, becoming the group I’ve listened to the most with the least amount of boredom (although my 5-year-old is really pushing the limits of how often I want to hear “Losing My Religion,” which she listens to a half-dozen times per day — apple, tree, etc.).

Our collaboration kicked off back in 2019, when we paired great R.E.M. songs with great hotels in the South, then we paired them with hotels with gothic architecture, a comment on R.E.M.’s Southern Gothic roots. Now the band is the one picking the hotels. In this case, some European favorites from their most expansive years of touring, recording, and promoting. While many of these are quite luxurious, according to Downs, one basic amenity was always more important than opulence: fresh air. “We had to have windows that opened.”

R.E.M. is having a moment. Induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, prominence on The Bear, Hollywood stars creating tribute bands and podcasts, and a growing consensus out in the critical ether that, with enough time now passed to make a sound judgment, they might truly be the greatest American band ever.

All that and another article on Tablet.

Le Royal Monceau

Paris, France

The day the newly renovated Le Royal Monceau opened its doors was the day we had to stop saying most of the things we’ve been saying about Parisian grand hotels all these years. No longer is it sensible to say that Paris, when it comes to luxury hotels, is entirely a conservative town — not after Le Royal Monceau was redesigned from top to bottom in maximalist, hallucinogenic fashion by none other than Philippe Starck.

The Clarence

Dublin, Ireland

Yes, the Clarence is owned by Bono and the Edge, of U2 fame. And yes, the Clarence is more or less the official stopover for actors, musicians and the like. But we’d argue that this has little to do with the owners’ marquee value, and everything to do with the fact that it’s simply a well-designed and thoughtfully conceived hotel borne out of a characterful 1852 Regency building in the heart of Dublin’s lively Temple Bar district.

Hotel Maria Cristina

San Sebastian, Spain

We’re as fond as anyone is of the small hotel, the quirky hotel, the independently owned, off-the-beaten-path hotel — but there’s something to be said for seeing a city from the vantage point of one of its classic grand hotels. San Sebastian’s most luxurious hotel is the Hotel Maria Cristina, on the banks of the Urumea river, a massive Belle Époque mansion in the heart of the city, lovingly maintained and painstakingly restored.

Hotel Principe di Savoia

Milan, Italy

The Principe is the Milanese hotel against which all other Milanese hotels are measured. Though the amenities are modern, there’s a sense in which the atmosphere of the place has stayed the same for the last hundred years — crystal chandeliers, ornate antiques, and bathrooms with many bidets. The hotel is not stuck in the past, though, a fact made clear by the fashionistas at the bar and the jetsetters getting laps in at the indoor pool.

The Dolder Grand

Zurich, Switzerland

The century-old Dolder Grand was impressive enough as it was, but it entered a new league following a massive renovation by the British architect Norman Foster. This isn’t just a refreshed interior for an old hotel, but a complete re-design, with a bold contemporary addition wrapping around the original turreted hilltop château. Inside, it’s almost unrecognizable.

San Domenico Palace

Taormina, Sicily, Italy

Taormina is nothing if not spectacular, with the Ionian Sea at its feet and Mount Etna at its back. No less spectacular is San Domenico Palace — first a 14th-century convent, later a 19th-century grand hotel, playing host to everyone from Oscar Wilde to Audrey Hepburn. Now, as a member of the Four Seasons family, it’s simply a top-flight luxury resort, made newly famous as the setting for the second season of The White Lotus.

Santo Mauro

Madrid, Spain

The Duke of Santo Mauro’s 1895 French-style neolassical mansion is now one of Madrid’s most elegant and luxurious hotels. At just 51 rooms, and located in a largely residential district off the Paseo de Castellana, it’s intimate — a feeling magnified by the discreet nature of the service. Any number of foreign dignitaries and stars of the stage and screen prefer the Santo Mauro, including a certain rock band from Athens, Georgia.

Lausanne Palace and Spa

Lausanne, Switzerland

This monument of a hotel stands high on Lausanne’s terraced hillside streets, with the financial district city-center just out the front door and spectacular views of Lake Geneva and the mountains out the back. The Lausanne Palace and Spa is a classic, but it’s managed to keep itself up to date as well. It’s neither a museum piece nor a pale modern recreation — much of the 19th-century grandeur remains.

Hôtel Royal

Évian-les-Bains, France

An early 20th-century palace with an elevated view of Lake Geneva, the Hôtel Royal stands above the lakeside spa resort of Évian-les-Bains, home of the famous mineral water. It retains its Belle Époque grandeur even as it’s kept pace with the times; in its present incarnation it’s a tasteful mix of classic and contemporary elements, aiming to deliver the elegance of a bygone era without disappearing into nostalgia.

Grandhotel Schloss Bensberg

Cologne, Germany

Though the Grandhotel Schloss Bensberg is perhaps not the most conveniently located hotel for doing business in Köln, there’s more to life than convenience alone. This three-hundred-year-old Baroque castle, on a hilltop in Bensberg, is close enough that traveling downtown is no great trial, yet just remote enough that its old-world elegance and immersive luxury make for something of a resort experience that’s hard to come by in a city hotel.

The Berkeley

London, England, UK

If the Berkeley is famous for anything, it’s for providing extreme comfort. It is not considered to be the grandest or the most stylish hotel, but for many people, it’s the best. Doormen and concierges call you by name and it’s on the doorstep of both Hyde Park and Harvey Nichols. No wonder all sorts of people just opt to move in. Lawrence of Arabia director David Lean lived here, as did London it-girl Tara Palmer-Tomkinson.

Hotel Atlantic

Hamburg, Germany

The elegant white castle that is the Atlantic has stood on the shores of Hamburg’s Außenalster since 1909, when it catered primarily to travelers on luxury ocean liners. Today its guests fly first class, but much else remains familiar — its 221 rooms and suites are decorated in a classic style, though they’ve been updated with modern luxury-hotel comforts. The French fine-dining restaurant, presided over by chef Alexander Mayer, is a major draw.

Hotel de Rome

Berlin, Germany

It doesn’t get much heavier than the Hotel de Rome, a converted 19th-century bank building off the Bebelplatz in old East Berlin — its stone walls and neoclassical architecture are a perfect match for the high seriousness of the Rocco Forte house style. Serious though it may be, the hotel doesn’t lack for style; magisterial reds and blues liven a palette of stone neutrals, and the pool and spa down in the vault, fittingly, are decked out in green and gold.

The Lowry

Manchester, England, UK

Located in Manchester’s Chapel Wharf development, at the foot of Santiago Calatrava’s forked Trinity bridge, the Lowry Hotel is without a doubt the queen of the Manchester hotel scene. From the outside, the building’s bowed glass face draws attention; interiors set themselves apart with a cool and crisp, almost Scandinavian look, quite at odds with the comically plush furniture and swank boudoir atmosphere that have become the hip Brit-boutique standard.

Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park

London, England, UK

Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, like any Mandarin, sets the bar rather high: it’s astonishingly luxurious, impeccably staffed, and not at all hard on the eyes. Budget travelers steer clear, as conspicuous consumption is the order of the day — not only does Mandarin Oriental service come at a price, but the location is so near Knightsbridge’s notorious shopping that you’ll likely take home one more suitcase than you arrived with.