ON THE ROAD. . .NOT: If you’ve...

ON THE ROAD. . .NOT: If you’ve been waiting for the R.E.M. world tour, sorry, but you just missed it. The Georgia band’s first “tour” in more than three years consisted solely of its appearance at the recent MTV Video Music Awards at the Universal Amphitheatre. The band even joked about having jackets made up reading “R.E.M. World Tour 1993, Sept. 2, Los Angeles.”

But a real tour might be in the offing for late next year. Though singer Michael Stipe said backstage at the MTV celebration that there was only a “very, very slight chance that we’ll tour before the end of the millennium,” the band’s co-manager, Bertis Downs, says that there is already some talk of hitting the road after the release of the band’s next album, expected next summer or fall.

“They’re definitely not ruling out touring again after the next record,” says Downs, which is about as optimistic a statement as R.E.M. fans can expect at this point.

For now, the four R.E.M. members are on vacation through the rest of ‘93, but will get together after New Year’s Day to begin writing the follow-up to last year’s “Automatic for the People” album.