REM guitarist 'thought he was in Disneyland'

The REM guitarist Peter Buck told a jury yesterday that he had no recollection of rampaging through an aircraft cabin when he woke up in a police cell at Heathrow airport. He said his last memory was taking a sleeping tablet some time after flying out of Seattle.

Describing the moment when he came round, Mr Buck said: "I recall ... there were bright lights overhead. I wasn't really awake. I had this fear I had had a heart attack and was in a weird hospital in Disneyland. I don't mean I was seeing characters or anything like that. I was just struggling to get conscious."

When the reality dawned on him he said he was horrified. "It was like something out of a novel," Mr Buck said. "I can't begin to describe the feelings I had."

Looking at the inked tips of his fingers, from his fingerprints being taken, he experienced a sense of terror and shame. "To me it was just incomprehensible," he said. "I have never been in trouble before ... I will go miles away to avoid confrontation. I really don't like it." he said.

The trial at Isleworth Crown Court in west London has been told that Mr Buck behaved like a "drunken lout" on the transatlantic flight after consuming 15 glasses of wine in three hours, assaulting staff, overturning a trolley and smashing crockery. He attempted to steal a cutlery knife, terrifying one stewardess who thought he would try to stab someone. He also had to be pulled away from an exit door after announcing he wanted to "go home".

The court was told his behaviour was so bad that the captain of the British Airways Boeing 747 was forced to leave the flight deck and consider diverting the plane.

Mr Buck, 45, told the court yesterday that he could only remember having at most three and a half glasses of wine before and during the flight.

The musician, who lives with his wife and seven-year-old twin daughters in Seattle, denies one charge of being drunk on the aircraft, two counts of common assault involving the cabin services director, Mario Agius, and a stewardess, Holly Ward, and one of criminal damage.

Mr Buck formed REM with Michael Stipe, Mike Mills and Bill Berry in 1979, and the demands of performing around the world meant that he travelled on hundreds of flights, he told the jury.

Shortly before his trip to London in April last year, when the band appeared at a Nelson Mandela tribute concert in Trafalgar Square in aid of the Prince's Trust, a friend advised him on the benefits of a sleeping pill called Ambiem and gave him a small bottle. He said he had a couple of sips of red wine before boarding the plane. Later he took one of the tablets with another glass of wine.

The court also heard from the captain of the aircraft, Tom Payne. Capt Payne said that about six hours into the flight, he handed Mr Buck a warning. "But when I served the document he took it, tore it into pieces and dropped them on the floor," he said.

Other witnesses have told the jury that the musician said "You're just a f...ing captain and I'm REM", but Capt Payne said Mr Buck's speech was so slurred he did not understand him.

He decided to continue to Heathrow where police boarded the aircraft and arrested the guitarist.

The trial continues.