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Jonny Greenwood Radiohead The Bends

Flashback: Street Spirit 1996

While we’re in the flashback mood, here’s a video of Radiohead performing “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” at Pinkpop in 1996. Some of you may not be aware of this, but Jonny plays the guitar and keyboard at the same time during this song, which is shown towards the end of the video. Enjoy!

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Radiohead Thom Yorke

Radiohead to cover Peter Gabriel’s “Wallflower”

Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel

Around the 13:20 mark of his latest podcast, Peter Gabriel reveals that Radiohead will be covering his 1982 song “Wallflower” as part of a song exchange for his forthcoming covers album. He, in return, will be covering “Street Spirit.”

“Thom… want to do a version of ‘Wallflower, which I’m very curious to hear. I think it was an important track for him when he was 14,” Gabriel explained. “So, that will be a treat also for next year.”

Released on the Gabriel’s 1982 self-titled fourth studio album, “Wallflower” was inspired by Human Rights issues in South America, namely torture in Chile. Gabriel didn’t give any indication when or where Radiohead’s cover will be available, but did use the podcast to offer a brief version of his own rendition of “Street Spirit”. (The podcast is posted below; that part is toward the end).

Gabriel’s 3rd Scratch My Back podcast

(via Consequence of Sound)

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Radiohead

YouTube Friday: All about Thom

Since Thom’s album leaked this week, we thought we devote today’s YouTube Friday to some classic Thom videos found on YouTube.

The first one is a recent one, videotaped from the May 18th show in London. Apparently some heckler was in the crowd and told Thom to get off stage.

Oh wow.. remember when Thom collaborated with Drugstore on that song “El President”? His voice sounds great in this song. Remember the rumor that he and Drugstore lead singer Isabel were going to be naked in mud bound together for the video? We reported about it in 1998 and the rumor was squashed by Isabel shortly thereafter. Anyway, here’s the video they decided to do:


Next up: We don’t know what this is…

Back at one of the Tibetan Freedom Concerts (1998?), Radiohead and R.E.M. decided to swap singers for one song each. Michael Stipe sang “Lucky” with Radiohead and Thom sang “Be Mine” with R.E.M. This clip is from a R.E.M. documentary and shows Thom’s rehearsal.

Ahhh.. the golden years. We’re not just talking about Thom’s hair here either. We leave you with Thom’s 12 string performance of “Street Spirit”. Enjoy!

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Radiohead The Bends

Street Spirit #5

Radiohead’s video for “Street Spirit” was recently named #5 in VH1’s “Best Ever Video” list. Video and music industry experts spent months pondering their choices before deciding on the final 100. Here is the top ten:

The industry’s top 10 was as follows:
1. Fatboy Slim — Weapon of Choice
2. Beastie Boys — Sabotage
3. Jamiroquai — Virtual Insanity
4. Blur — Coffee & TV
5. Radiohead — Street Spirit
6. Michael Jackson — Thriller
7. Bjork — It’s Oh So Quiet
8. Madonna — Vogue
9. Robbie Williams — She’s the One
10. Peter Gabriel — Sledgehammer

(thanks to Sara & Daniel)

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Amnesiac Colin Greenwood Kid A Radiohead Thom Yorke

News for July 31, 2000

Album #5 Details

Radiohead are releasing a new album in March of 2001. According to a source close to the band, the album is pretty much done. According to another source close to the label, the songs that will appear on the follow up are more accessible (ie: closer to radio hits then anything appearing on “Kid A”) to fans and the public.

Again, nothing has been officially confirmed by the band. Stay tuned for more info…

The Meaning of Kid A?

Thom mentioned yesterday on the official message board that they named album #4 Kid A in dedication to the first human clone, which he suspects has already happened.

Other speculation is that the album was named after the children card game, Kid A in Alphabet Land.

[Thanks to Orion]

Radiohead included in Buy-cott

Following Colin’s vocal support on issues like Napster and like technology, Radiohead has been added to Napster’s “Buy-Cott” campaign, encouraging consumers to buy CD’s from Napster-friendly artists and bands.

You can view the list at www.napster.com/buycott.html

[thanks to Micken and Erkki]

Paul Oakenfold’s Remix of “Street Spirit”

You can listen to a mp3 of Paul Oakenfold’s live remix of “Street Spirit” by clicking this link. www.sandham.net/radiohead-vs-wonky-streetspirit.mp3 (6 Megs)

Thom’s page updated

Check out www.radiohead.com/thom.html and see Thom’s updated page. It looks like he put a picture of some fans in Berlin.

Categories
Jonny Greenwood Radiohead The Bends Thom Yorke

News for July 17, 2000

Oakenfold Remixes “Street Spirit”

Dance music legend Paul Oakenfold remixed Radiohead’s “Street Spirit” last Thursday night while spinning in Manhattan’s Roseland Ballroom. Here’s is a clip from a recent Sonicnet article:

“The highest and most telling point in Oakenfold’s set came as the diminutive but dapper Brit dropped an intense, pounding remix of Radiohead’s “Street Spirit” into the mix, which in its original form is one of the band’s softest and sparsest songs. The move worked the crowd into a wild frenzy. So much for Thom Yorke’s introspection, they were in the hands of a DJ tonight.”

You can read the full article here.

[thanks to SteveEYE]

Net the Debt Day

Thom updated his page at the official site again with this message:

“visit http://www.dropthedebt.org
tell all your friends/ websites etcetera to visit dropthedebt this friday 21st of july until then please carry on passing the word about the e-mail petition to the G7.
thankyou”

This is from the Drop the Debt page:

“In 1998 and 1999, Jubilee 2000 held massive, peaceful human chains around the meetings of the G7, over 50,000 people calling on the G7 leaders to drop the debt. This year the world leaders have found an island hideaway far from anywhere in Okinawa, Japan, to try and escape from Jubilee 2000’s demands. So this time, we will surround them on-line, linking up in a virtual human chain around the world which the leaders cannot ignore. On this site, you can link up with what’s happening in Okinawa and the leaders’ response to your campaigning. We are going to invite Bill Clinton and his G7 colleagues to come on this site on July 21, and tell you what they are going to do to drop the debt.”

Also, Jonny’s page was updated.

True Love Waits

At Ease has a “True Love Waits” performed in Tel Aviv on mp3 and real audio! Go and listen! What a great song!

Speaking of “True Love Waits”, you may remember a link put up last week to a video of Thom performing “True Love Waits” in Belgium in 1995. Nico, the guy who put up that video, had some interesting points that I thought I would share:

“We all know that the song was played for the first time in Belgium in 1995 and throughout the years the song has flown all around the Internet. We had confirmation on July 6 that this song was not going to be on the new album, right? The day after, I put a video of the song that was played in 1995 on my website and the day after that, there was a link to my site on almost every major Radiohead website (the sites that Radiohead themselves recommend to have the latest news, meaning Planet Telex, Green Plastic, etc…).

The day after that, my server exploded after receiving about 15,000 people wanting to download the video…

The day after that, the song was played by Thom in Israel in front of an audience for the first time in 5 years…

So is this a coincidence? I say Fuck No!”

Regardless as to what prompted Thom to play “True Love Waits”, the song is incredible and we can only hope that this song will make it on a future album or as a b-side! Please!