{"id":94994,"date":"2025-05-12T09:34:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T09:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/94994\/"},"modified":"2025-05-12T09:34:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T09:34:09","slug":"why-thom-yorke-hated-these-radiohead-gigs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/94994\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Thom Yorke hated these Radiohead gigs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Thom<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ YouTube Still)<\/p>\n

Radiohead were never meant to be Radiohead<\/a>. The Abingdon indie icons have always been a somewhat baffling prospect. A rigidly progressive, headstrong band, one that will do nothing but their own thing, yet they followed up Oasis as Britain\u2019s biggest and most exciting rock band with their late 1990s breakthrough. They\u2019ve spent the decades since doing the absolute least commercial things possible, up to and including releasing a whole album for free, and their momentum has only grown from there. <\/p>\n

And yet, a big part of them still feels like the same brooding, scowling indie kids who made Creep\u2014the ones from that infamous MTV Beach House segment where Thom Yorke screamed himself hoarse into the camera before throwing himself into a pool and nearly drowning. They\u2019ve released just one album in the past 15 years, followed by another record inspired by a tree.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s baffling that other artists spend their entire lives courting a fraction of the spotlight that Radiohead has. They contort and shape their personalities for the sake of mass communication yet never reach it. Perhaps they can take solace that if they\u2019re anything like Yorke and co, they\u2019d probably hate it. In an interview with Brian Draper conducted in 2004, Yorke himself talked about how much he hated all the attention. <\/p>\n

With a highly uncharaceristic level of honesty, Yorke says, \u201cI had a time after OK Computer when we were doing these big gigs and people were constantly saying, \u2018Isn\u2019t this great?\u2019 and talking to you in a certain way blah blah blah blah and I would be standing on stage doing these big shows and all I wanted to do was just walk off, say goodbye to everybody and never see them again.\u201d <\/p>\n

Why did Radiohead hate their level of fame? <\/p>\n

On the one hand, it\u2019s easy to sneer at this. For all their critical and commercial success, alongside their almost unrivalled level of cultural clout, there has always been something easy to mock <\/a>about the band. Perhaps this is par for the course for a group who let their school bully join them on drums. <\/p>\n

There has always been something of the overgrown teenager vibe to them, especially if you\u2019re not enamoured with the music. However, the period of time Yorke is talking about is actually depicted on film. Grant Gee directed the documentary Meeting People Is Easy while the band were touring OK Computer and, to be fair to the lad, it does look like an extended form of mental torture. <\/p>\n

Endless, entirely performative interviews; the everlasting cycle of motorway, service station, motorway, venue, concert; a growing hatred for the people you share every waking moment with\u2014it bursts the bubble on the very idea of the glamorous rock \u2018n\u2019 roll lifestyle. However, Yorke does have the self-awareness to know that he sounds selfish talking about it now. He is also keen to stress that he doesn\u2019t let it affect the quality of the shows themselves anymore. <\/p>\n

He says, \u201cI think it\u2019s the responsibility of everyone at the show for the show to be good. If the audience have come with a bad attitude, then it\u2019s going to be a shitty gig. It\u2019s a participatory thing: everybody has their role to play.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n

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