|
Rene Berg |
|
 Rene Berg's famous solo album, "The Leather, the Loneliness, and Your Dark
Eyes" was a sleekly produced, glammy, British pub-rock sort of affair,
aptly highlighting Rene's distinctively melodic voice, accompanied by an
impressive all-star back-up band. On drums, the always brilliant Rat
Scabies, from THE DAMNED. On bass, Paul Grey from U.F.O. and on FLASH METAL
GUITAR HEROICS, Bernie Torme, who's played with everyone-with
Phil Lewis
in TORME; with members of the
Anti-Nowhere League
on his solo album "Wild
Irish"; as well as Ozzy, Dee Snider, Ian Gillan,
Whitesnake, etc., etc.
"The Leather" was a cool and catchy, more mellow raver, sorta like in the
vein of the Suicide Twins or Fallen Angels records. Anyone who likes 70's
Brit-Pop like the Faces and Quireboys, and Stones-ey Pop balladry along the
lines of the Jacobites and Bounty Hunters is likely to dig Rene's album,
recorded some time after he came to fame like a comet- by appearing in all
those old pin-ups you remember- with Andy McCoy in the red beret, and
Terry Chimes and company, as a touring member of Hanoi Rocks. Word around
the campfire has it that various members of that band blame Rene for
Andy
McCoy having become immersed in the heroin lifestyle, so it's best not to
bring up his name around the "Muddy Twins" and company, but McCoy
seems more forgiving towards the man than his fellows. As you probably
recall, after the infamous and catastrophic, drunken car accident, that
took everyone's fave Flash Metal Drummer,
the widely cherished RAZZLE
from us, HANOI ROCKS tried to half-heartedly trudge on for a short time,
recording the television shows that were released as "ROCK'N'ROLL DIVORCE"
with Former Clash/Gen X drummer, Terry Chimes, and briefly toured Poland
with Rene Berg replacing Sami Yaffa on bass. It was clearly a rotten time
for everyone concerned, and their Polish Tour was an unhappy affair with
Yaffa's replacement reprimanded for "bad behavior" and cast to the shadows
on a short leash. I found an article on-line, where Andy and Michael
mention their horrible time touring Poland with the rowdy Rene. Andy said,
"He was a sweet enough guy, but he was never a Hanoi Rocks member. On the
last tour of Poland, he couldn't open his suitcase, so I went downstairs
to get a knife and fiddle with it, and it exploded open and about 200
pills in all different colors fell out. I'm like, oh my God, not another
one." In this issue of Classic Rock magazine, Andy later concludes, "May
He Rest In Peace".
___________________________________________________________________________________ |
|
|
I had no idea he'd led such a turbulent
existence...Found this on another Hanoi-related website: "They
decided to hire Rene Berg, who had occasionally played with Andy.
Berg turned to be a lousy choice because immediately he started to give
orders on what should be done and what the band should sound like. He also
drank too much and kept on running after little girls. Hanoi Rocks
went to Poland and there, Berg had to wear black clothes and no stage
lights were spotted on him and he was given the shortest possible bass
wire so that he couldn't move around the stage. The awful situation can be
best described by Mike's words on Rock & Roll Divorce album:
"...boring, fucking boring...". For a short period Berg was replaced by a
crew member, Timo Kaltio, but it didn't make things any
better. Soon Mike left the band and that was the end of Hanoi Rocks. " Though it appears that Hanoi Rocks guitarist NASTY SUICIDE, (ne' Jan Stefors) went on to play some more with Rene, in the SOHO VULTURES and WESTEND CENTRAL, All I personally really recalled ever hearing of RENE BERG was his "Leather, Loneliness, and Your Dark Eyes" CD that I only owned for a short time in the mid-90's, before losing all my CD's to an ex-girlfriend. |
 |
|
And of course, many of us held on
those previously mentioned, torn and frayed, old pin-ups of Hanoi Rocks ripped
and saved from the ancient pages of Kerrang!, that featured their final
eighties line-up with Berg and Chimes. While trying to discern whether or not it was Yaffa or Berg who played on "Rock'n'roll Divorce", I was shocked to stumble across a tiny obituary on Bernie Torme's website. Apparently, Rene Berg had died under mysterious circumstances in August, of last year (?) and no one seems to know much about it, other than that he was rumored to have had a drug problem, and that he was no longer on good terms with Hanoi Rocks. Lee Ratbag, from the Glitzine message board: "Nobody seems to want to let on about what finally saw him off (it seemed inappropriate to ask at the funeral); there have been a lot of claims of "overdose", but it seems unlikely to me. You don't use smack for as long as Rene did and O.D. accidentally (although oddly enough, he was never an addict - apparently, he used to give up entirely with no trouble for long periods of time, and only used it when he wanted to). I think his illness and subsequent death were just from cumulative damage from his, erm, excessive lifestyle over the last twenty-odd years. He was a big drinker more than anything, and it seems this is what did the most damage. I never knew the guy myself, but the wife held him in VERY high regard and was devastated when he died. And I have to say, "London Town" is probably the most beautifully sad song I've ever heard. The man was a songwriting genius." More from Lee about Rene's stints in various English rock groups: "The Gang Bang Band was a one-off thing put together by Buttz of the Babysitters, featuring various fixtures on the mid-80s London rock scene, including Dumpy Dunnell, various Quireboys, most of Wolfsbane, Bernie Torme, Rene Berg and Nasty Suicide. As for Soho Vultures (aka Westend Central) - the demos are out there and are well worth finding. "London Town" is fantastic, undoubtedly THE saddest song ever recorded. Shame Rene never got to record it properly, apparently he always considered it the best song he ever wrote." After poking around the internet a bit, and following up various leads via message board references to him, here and there, it became clear that hardly anyone even realized he'd passed away. Ginger from The Wildhearts said, "I didn't know that Rene had passed away. He was a really nice guy, we got along great, and I really liked him. RIP". Ratboy from Sour Jazz says he remembers seeing the IDLE FLOWERS open up for Hanoi, back in their day. BAM, from the classic Dogs D'Amour line-up and Bubble, remembers him fondly. "Sorry, I don't know any details about Rene's demise...It's a real shame, though. He was a sweet guy, and a great frontman and songwriter." Nikki Sudden said, "I remember Rene - but it was a long time ago. I'll have to think about the time and the people for a bit to bring up the details. I know that he had a fling with my friend Lizard - she'd remember more. I"ll ask Dave Kusworth tomorrow...All the same people hung out together in those days.." __________________________________________________________________________________ |
|
 |
Jyrki from Hundred Million Martians says, "I sure dug him, love the album,
love the Vultures/West End-demos, even the somewhat 80's-sounding
Idle
Flowers single. 'The Leather, The Loneliness and Your Dark Eyes', in my
opinion, ranks up there with the Demolition 23 record, and the Suicide
Twins disc, in the post-Hanoi ranks. Rene was a great singer and a
brilliant songwriter and is greatly missed-at least by me." There was a charming feature story of him by Ray Zell from Kerrang archived at Tooting Bec Press, the on-line Hanoi Rocks library. In the Zell penned Kerrang int, Monsieur Berg said, "..Back then, I was the singer/guitarist in the IDLE FLOWERS, a sortof cultish, glammy, pop rock band, very English style. |
|
And these very strange Finnish people,
called Hanoi Rocks, had just come over to tour, and somebody got us
together, because we looked like each other. Goddamit, in those days, we got beaten up for it. Now, with
Guns N Roses,
there are millions of people with that look." Darren Stockford, the sensational English rock ranter from SHE DIDN'T LIKE ROCK'N'ROLL (www.scuzz.com) responded, "Yeah, sadly, it's true. He died last summer, around August time, if I recall. I'm a big fan of his solo album, and this was definitely bad news. The subject was raised on a few email lists I was subscribed to, such as the Dogs D'Amour and Hanoi Rocks ones, but I don't think anyone came up with a cause of death." Jyrki from Hundred Million Martians adds, "Rene's life after the release of the legendary The Leather, The Loneliness and Your Dark Eyes is also a bit of mystery to everyone - at least he didn't get any new music out. I heard a few years back that he had planned to go on in music publishing, but I think that went nowhere. He was also, apparently, beaten severely a few years back (which also could very well be connected to his death) and he took a real long time to recover....A few years back, a Swedish fellow named K.J., put together a Rene Berg compilation cdr, which is excellent, including the Idle Flowers 7", West End Central/Soho Vultures demos, 2 Gangbang Band tracks and various live songs, both solo, and with the Vultures. There also surfaced a new Hanoi boot, which included 4 more demo tracks from 1985 with Rene in the band." _____________________________________________________________________________________ |
|
 |
Another of Rene's old bands, the Hollywood Killers, apparently used to
open up for the Lords Of The New Church. I contacted his former bandmate
Jim Penfold, from the Hollywood Killers, via e-mail, and got this message
back from his publicist or website guy, or mgr., or somebody: |
|
He goes on to say, "I can remember meeting
Rene in a Wine Bar in the King's Road around 1980. He was playing guitar
with a girlfriend on keyboards under the heading, The Idle Flowers.
Not only was Rene a really ultra kool, friendly guy, I
recollect he was a talented guitarist and like J.P., very psychedelic. He
got friendly with Jim and joined the HK's hybrid The Killers several years
later. I still have his Hanoi Rocks album. You can see a picture of Rene
in the HK gallery"- Richard at Sloopy Box Music Here's more from Rene's Kerrang! interview with Ray Zell. "It's English blues rock and roll. And I think I write brilliant songs, because I love writing songs, how songs should be. I like a hook, with some nice emotion in it, whether it be happy or sad. Aye, aye. I'm an old tart and a romantic. I do admit it". This is the blurb written by a friend of Rene's that was posted on the Bernie Torme website. Nearly everyone who responded to my queries into the life and death of Monsieur Berg, included a cut n paste version of it with their reply. Like I said, there's not alot out there on Rene aside from some Gang Bang reissue compilation, and "The Leather, The Loneliness, & Your Dark Eyes". Hoping someone unearths and releases more stuff, I wonder if anyone has any audio or video documents of the GANGBANG BAND, Rene's barband that also starred members of Cheap N Nasty, the Quireboys, Wolfsbane, and the Babysitters! Not alot of information's available about him, but I'm hoping this spurs more knowledgeable folks with more access to Rene's legacy to reassess his work, and ideally bring any unreleased memories or footage to light. On another msg. board, I noted that Mrs. Andy McCoy, Angela Nicoletti, said, Rene had, "the voice of an angel. May he rest in peace." _______________________________________________________________________________________ |
|
|
Rene Berg - An Obituary I've never written an obituary before and I've certainly never written one for a friend. I thought you just wrote lots of nice things about the person concerned and everyone smiled and nodded, and remembered them fondly. I have so many nice things to say about Rene, but I know it's just not going to be that easy...Just thinking of writing about him in the past tense is incredibly painful, but I'm going to try. The first time I saw Rene play in a band was in 1982. The Hollywood Killers played with Lords Of The New Church for a Radio One 'In Concert' session, in November of that year and you could just write in for free tickets, so a bunch of us did. Years later, at Rene's flat, he pulled out some promo photos of Hollywood Killers and I recognized one of them as a photo I'd got at that very show! |
 |
|
Rene appeared with a number of bands during his career, including
The
Brood, Hollywood Killers, Idle Flowers, Hanoi Rocks and Westend Central (a.k.a.
Soho Vultures) and toured, wrote and recorded with them all. One of his
personal proudest moments was appearing onstage in New York, playing with Chuck Berry! He was a fan of music, as well as a musician and as a result he never forgot that the fans are the important ones; without them you sell no records, play no gigs and make no money! Indeed, I was just a fan of Rene's before I was his friend. Some of the most wonderful memories I have are of time spent with Rene. We would sit up all night, at his flat, just talking. Mostly about rock 'n' roll, but sometimes about fishing. Quite often about the songs of his that I particularly loved; he would explain what they were about and why they meant so much to him, too. He would talk of his plans for the future, the tours and recording the other two albums he was contracted to do after the first one. He promised that my all time favourite song of his, 'London Town', would be on the second album. He was never to record another album. I remember how thrilled I was when he dedicated a song to me from the stage of The George Robey pub, during a gig. I remember how, after that gig, the jam session continued at Rene's flat. He crammed me on the sofa between himself and Nasty Suicide, and they played just about everything in the Westend Central back catalogue. Darrell Bath, seated opposite, played the blues until everyone was too tired to play anymore and the neighbours were banging on the wall! I remember the gigs, the laughs, the jam sessions and the car with no brakes! I have the beautiful, sensitive, eloquent letters Rene wrote to me. Sometimes just a few lines to let me know he was okay, if he hadn't been in touch for a while and sometimes several pages filled with all the thoughts and ideas that were going through his head at the time; how he felt, what he'd been doing, happiness and pain. They were always treasured and now they become even more precious as reminders of a much loved friend. And of course, his songs and his voice will be with me forever, in the form of his amazing music. He was a true star and a real rock 'n' roller. He had a wickedly dry sense of humour, yet he was sweet and sensitive and if he was wounded he bled. I miss him so much already, and I'll only miss him more as time goes on. It will always be an honour and a pleasure to have known him. Another beautiful human being and greatly underestimated talent, taken too soon. I hope it's true when they say your reward awaits you in the next life, because Rene's 'reward' always eluded him in this one. Goodnight my friend; now you'll be able to sleep at last. - RAZZ x ____________________________________________________________________________________ Some more: "I'm sorry to hear that you've only just learnt of Rene's passing. He passed away on July 28th, 2003 and had been ill for a while. There are no other details available as to the exact nature of his death. I attended the funeral but, sadly, no other musicians from his rock n roll life came. I tried to contact some of them myself, including Ray Zell, but nobody replied to me and nobody came to the funeral. Rene had completely cut himself off from the rock n roll scene several months before he died, and nobody even knew that he'd moved away from London, or where he went. It was only at the time of his passing that I was able to find out that he had been living in Kent, UK and had moved to be closer to his family. It's possible that there are still more distant friends, who don't yet know that he has died. I did manage to contact Bernie Torme, who played on Rene's solo album, but even he had had no contact with Rene since the record was made, although he did come to the funeral. He was very upset and didn't seem to want to talk about it much. I was so saddened by the lack of coverage of Rene's death that I wrote an obituary myself, and I shall send you a copy of it. Rene was a very dear friend to me, and I still mourn his passing as much as if it had happened just yesterday....I was in regular contact with Rene until about 18 months before he died, then he just stopped calling and writing. I continued to send letters and cards to his old address, but never received any replies. As it turned out, nobody had heard from him for quite some time, and the next thing I knew I heard a rumor he'd died. He'd been depressed and was drinking heavily, and had been in hospital a few times. The obvious OD rumours raised their head briefly, but I'm pretty certain it wasn't that. I'm guessing he just drank himself to death, but please don't quote me on that, as I really don't know for sure. I managed to track down someone who didn't want to be identified, who gave me details of the funeral but it took several days to confirm that any of the details were correct. It was a last minute 200 mile dash, to be able to attend and say goodbye to him. I only managed to confirm the details for Bernie, a day or two beforehand." -Sharon Terry Rene's friend, Sharon, responds to a few more questions: 'Did he leave behind any unreleased songs that may still somehow see the light of day?' There are almost certainly a lot of unreleased songs, but I doubt they'd ever see the light of day, now. When Rene wrote new songs, he would tape himself playing them at home and try them with different arrangements or get friends to come round and play other instruments on them to see how they'd sound. Most of the tapes were just lying around his flat, without labels or anything on them, although he always seemed to know exactly where things were and would play me different versions of songs to see which I liked best. 'Was he ever married or have any kids or anything?' Not as far as I know, although he had a long term partner,Charlotte, who he was with on and off for many years. 'What did he like to listen to? What artists did HE champion?' He loved to hear new bands and always said he was a music fan, as well as a musician. He loved all kinds of music from rock n roll to blues to classical music. He admired good musicians who wrote good songs. His tastes were wide ranging, and he was a good authority on music in general. 'How did he speak of his various bands and mates?' I never heard him say a bad word about anyone, even after others had been very cruel about him. He would always just shrug and allow them their opinions. It did hurt him when that happened, but he just refused to sink to their level. He had great respect for the other musicians he knew and was a fan of some of the people he also considered to be his good friends. 'What did he consider his musical highlights aside from being onstage with Chuck Berry?' He was always very proud of most of the things he did, musically. He was proud of his band The Idle Flowers, especially when they recorded their album. It always gave him a huge lift when a record he'd worked on, was released. On the other hand, if he'd played a bad gig and things hadn't gone to plan he could be very 'down' afterwards. He approached his music, both as a fan and a musician, with great passion and put a lot into everything he did. 'Didn't he have some relationship with the Lords Of The New Church?' I honestly don't know about this....sorry. Everyone knew everyone else on the London scene in the 80's. They went to and played at the same clubs, and shared a lot of the same fans. It's possible that Rene knew Stiv and the Lords, but I have no idea as to how well they may have known each other. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Noted Glam Rock Scholar, Carl Isonhart, had this to say: "I have been able to piece a little bit together about Rene. I have been chasing down stuff about him for a few years now, but never really got too far. I got an interesting email from Buttz (Babysitters, Last Of The Teenage Idols) about Rene that somewhat echoed the stories of Rene's troubles with drugs, but it avoided being as harsh as Mike Monroe has been about Rene. I think it boils down to Rene having been a normal guy with immense talent, but severely beaten by drugs in many ways. Some will say that he only did drugs on occasion, but when he did, he went full tilt. As for his relationship with The Damned, I am not too sure. I know that he and Ratty and Paul Grey were friends, and that they did his solo album with him. I don't know how good of friends they all were, or if it was just a gig that they did or a favor for somebody else. Hanoi Rocks was actually pretty good friends with The Damned (it may have been Razzle that was buds, honestly). Not known by too many was that the song "Boiler" was actually come about by them knowing Rat Scabies. I guess "Boiler" was a term he had coined. Can't remember where I read that. I think it was the Damned bio "The Light At The End". Yeah, Rene was an amazing talent. Even those that were not too fond of him will all sing the praises of the song "London Town". ______________________________________________________________________________________ Finally, this came from Bernie Torme, who played on Rene Berg's album: "Rene passed away in late July 2003: his funeral was August 18th I think, which I went to since I was lucky enough to hear about it before it took place. I heard from a mutual friend who had come to see us play at the Marquee when Rene's album came out: he had heard from a fan, Razz Monroe, who wrote Rene's obituary on my site. she would know more about it all than I do. There were very few people at Rene's funeral from his music days, me, Razz, and Ronnie Rocker-a sound engineer, who was a long time friend of Rene's, and mixed the sound at the Marquee gig in the early 90's when I played with Rene. I suppose no one else knew about it. It was largely a family occasion. I had pretty much lost touch with Rene after that Marquee gig in the early 90's, and had not seen or heard of him for many years. I was told he had apparently been battling with depression, and alcohol, and also drugs. I felt very bad about it all when I found out, he had moved to a town quite close to me a year before he died, and had spent a long time on and off in a hospital about 7 miles from where I lived. I never even knew he was there. While it may have made no difference, I wish I'd known and been able to visit. I really remember Rene as a real gentleman who did not get the breaks he deserved." ____________________________________________________________________________________ |
|
|
-THE BAD DETECTIVE don't know jack shit,
really, about RENE BERG, other than, he liked his album, and hopes he's
somewhere more forgiving. -live pix Razz Monroe
____________________________________________________________________________________ |
|