RAdiohead

fuck Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke too, vile human beings

Palestinians call for boycotting, peacefully disrupting, and creatively protesting @thesmiletheband's concerts following its failure to distance itself from band member @JnnyG's shameful artwashing of Israel’s genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/u8sfaGs1zD

— PACBI - BDS movement (@PACBI) June 7, 2024

"this is an interesting and intimidating challenge .. !
adapting the original music of Hail to The Thief for live performance with the actors on stage to tell this story that is forever being told,
using its familiarity and sounds,
pulling them into and out of context..
seeing what chimes with the underlying grief and paranoia of Hamlet,
using the music as a "presence" in the room,
watching how it collides with the action and the text.
Ghosting one against the other."
- Thom

Thom has worked with designer & director Christine Jones and director & choreographer Steven Hoggett to create a new adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet.

The songs from Hail To The Thief have been deconstructed and remoulded into a score to serve the play, to be performed by live musicians and cast members.

The world premiere takes place at Aviva Studios, Manchester, home of Factory International from 27th April - 18th May 2025, before moving to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon from 4th - 28th June 2025.

i don't have the energy to type booo in all caps, so this is a low energy boooo. booooo

i do hope the hamlet version of hail to the thief includes a full solo from jonny on Go to Sleep, always thought it was a bummer that it cuts off so early

stepdad works at the RSC in Stratford, this explains why he was asking me about HTTT in the summer.

xp I kind of agree but also one of my favorite song tricks is when something really cool happens just before the song fades out. Maybe I'm a bit of a masochist in that respect. Anyway this Hamlet thing sounds dumb as hell

Why do The Smile exist? Jonny Greenwood has done brilliant work as a composer for films. Thom Yorke has his solo work and Atoms For Peace. Is it just a way to play concerts without being asked to sing “Karma Police”

7 months pass

with all due respect, the clear answer is that phil and ed were sacked several years ago; colin is gently bunny hopping on his toes to a beat in a pasture

https://i.imgur.com/wQiQa3w.jpeg

with all due respect, the clear answer is that phil and ed were sacked several years ago; colin is gently bunny hopping on his toes to a beat in a pasture

― z_tbd

and i mean thank fucking god for that

thom yorke and jonny greenwood are doing their thing being professional rock musicians (who probably insist they're not rock musicians) to a mid-sized fanbase and hopefully we will never have to deal with the spectacle of "One of the biggest rock bands in the world is back, and this time they're genocidaires!"

i watched _twilight_ for the first time yesterday (no i will neither explain nor justify having done this) and the most cringe thing about it for me was when "15 step" came on over the closing credits

and to be clear _twilight_ was _profoundly cringe_. that's not necessarily a criticism.

fine with me, I was able to just buy fourth-row seats to see The Smile last year whereas during Radiohead's heyday that kinda spot would've cost about eight hours of sitting outside a gate.

boooooo

Love Zero Sum off the new Smile album. My TikTok feed is full of people trying to play that guitar part.

“Zero Sum “and “Eyes and Mouth” might be my favorite Smile songs yet. The new record is definitely a step up from Wall of Eyes.

“zero sum” and “eyes and mouth” are indeed great. i def gravitate more to the rockers and freakouts on smile songs, ones where jonny locks in with the drums for one of his twisty riffs. thom’s melodies don’t grab me so much anymore and his lyrics have grown so inscrutable that i just tune them out. it’s easier to ignore that stuff when the compositions are good, less so on the slower songs

Def their best one, the first I've felt compelled to go back to multiple times

definitely getting some laffs at po-faced Thommy Boy scatting "Windows 95, Windows 95" on Zero Sum

I saw Thom on the first date of his solo tour last week, was very good. Started with Weird Fish, ended with Karma Police with a whole load of Radiohead and solo stuff and one (I think) Atoms for Peace song and one Smile song.

feel like the kerfuffle over the guy interrupting Thom's show to yell at him about Palestine was a bad look for everyone involved. certainly correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think anyone in the band has done or said anything blatlantly pro-Israel aside from playing some gig(s) over there like seven years ago. at the same time, Thom's response to the protestor was extremely some loser shit, telling him not to be a coward and come up stage. like, say what you want about the guy, but he certainly wasn't being a coward, surrounded by thousands of people telling him to shut the fuck up. certainly the best way to have handled this was a simple comment in the moment or even afterwards making it clear that they stand with Palestine and fuck Bibi and all that. getting his back up and then walking off was a total bitch move by Thom, maybe there's more to this than I know but I certainly wouldn't think he or anyone else in Radiohead would be supportive of the Israel position here.

dont read up on jonny and jonny’s wife then. or what jonny has been up to over in israel either

I was gonna say

I interpreted Don't Get Me Started as being a winge about his predicament

well please enlighten me, what has he and his wife been up to? I know she's Israeli, that's all I know.

zero excuse at this point, fuck these guys

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/thom-yorke-breaks-silence-on-israel-controversy-126675/

"we're not retarded, you know"

fuck off

if you would have told me like, I dunno, when did Thrift Shop come out, that Macklemore and Dave Matthews would lap Thom Yorke (and frankly most of our faves) politically in 2024, I would have looked at you like you grew another ear

That article was from 7 years ago, but there's no indication that they've changed their minds. In my imagination Johnny supports his wife and Thom supports Johnny, idk it's depressing to me.

Jonny Greenwood's wife wrote a column back in June for Haaretz, which is worth reading. Link: https://archive.is/UrQ2N

I am wary of rushing to paint every Israeli citizen as being pro-war/pro-apartheid, and I am (even as a BDS supporter myself) wary of castigating those who do not support the boycott as being necessarily pro-genocide.

i’m thinking of her insanely racist and unhinged anti vax tweets mostly

mmmm. some sorts of silence speak volumes.

what israel is doing to the palestinian people is genocide. full stop. i'm not completely informed on how greenwood, yorke, and katan feel about the genocide of the palestinian people. i haven't heard them mention any of the things the israeli government is doing to the palestinian people.

what's happening to the palestinian people is _far_ more dire and critical than my personal concerns. having said that, greenwood and katan give every indication of holding "gender critical" views. i would gladly give them the benefit of the doubt, were either of them able to say two words: "trans rights". i'm unaware of either of them ever saying those words.

when i was younger i loved radiohead. greenwood is an amazing arranger. a lot of radiohead's work is pretty personally meaningful to me.

it's not in my best interest to give them the benefit of the doubt, unfortunately. :(

god, and angela morley's scott walker arrangements are such a big influence on him as an arranger too, aren't they? almost as much as alice coltrane's arranging.

yeah I was as big a fan of Radiohead as any other 38 year old so the gradual revelation of their actual politics over the past decade does hurt

yeah that haaretz article is really terrible, basically implies everything bad that happens to Israel is because of anti semitism. just a very bad argument and perspective, definitely not dispositive of any criticism made of the band here

thanks for reading the article uptown churl, i honestly didn't have the stomach so i didn't want to make any judgements. the thing i see a lot of when people defend israel's actions is that they don't actually _talk_ about or acknowledge what israel is actually doing. classic "whataboutism" ("tu quoque" is latin and sounds really pretentious). this litany of things jewish people have suffered (not just israeli citizens, but jewish people at large), talk of palestinians denying the holocaust, of saying that israel has no right to exist - plenty of that but no overt acknowledgement of what the israeli government is doing to the palestinian people. "i want peace". yes, yes, and all lives matter, sure.

that said, i _am_ inclined to be dispository. the stuff katan says is far more extreme and overtly bigoted than anything i've heard from greenwood or yorke. katan is not a member of radiohead, and i am _very hesitant_ to judge people based on who they associate with. i don't judge greenwood or yorke based on katan's statements. my judgement is based on the way katan's statements seem to have influenced greenwood's actions. stuff like liking "gender critical" tweets and then claiming it was an "accident" when called on it. this is a pretty established pattern followed by people who are working to, uh, "come out", if you will, as gender critical. yorke, honestly, i don't judge to the same extent as i judge greenwood. in musical terms, they're just kind of a package deal, and have been since radiohead started. that said, i'm _not_ closely knowledgeable about all the details of yorke and greenwood's behavior. at some point i did the "dead to me" thing and haven't followed them closely since.

the other thing i want to make clear is that this is a _personal decision_. i think "cancelling" and "cancel culture" is, to be blunt, stupid. i've stopped listening to radiohead, but not as a _moral act_ or a _political act_. when i listen to their music, which i find beautiful and great, i can't help but think about their beliefs, about what they would like to see happen to people i care about. that feels bad. i wish i could listen to their music the way i used to, without those dark thoughts coming into my mind. i can't. i tell other people about jonny and thom's actions, about the beliefs they are _very likely_ to have, not because i want to see them "cancelled", but because i believe that... it's important for people to know. i don't want people to stop listening to radiohead. i don't want people to _denounce_ radiohead. i do want... people to have to reckon with it. so i am willing to be the bearer of bad news. i do find it important to speak up. i feel like i _have_ to.

i'm certainly not in a position to judge anybody else for listening to and enjoying the music of radiohead, for listening to and enjoying the music of the smile, of jonny greenwood, of thom yorke. i listen to led zeppelin. i love led zeppelin. i know what jimmy page has done. i know he hasn't been held accountable for it. maybe it would be more "moral" of me, whatever that means, if i quit listening to their music. i still listen to it, i still enjoy it. jimmy page is a rapist, he's committed at least one brutal rape, and he hasn't been held accountable for it. and he should be. but i still listen to led zeppelin, so i'm not going to say, ever, that people shouldn't listen to radiohead. they're a great band who made great music. i just wish i could enjoy it like i used to.

https://store.wasteheadquarters.com/products/peace-studies-black-hoodie-tyk

https://store.wasteheadquarters.com/cdn/shop/files/Peace_Studies_hood.png?v=1729586556&width=713

if you would have told me like, I dunno, when did Thrift Shop come out, that Macklemore and Dave Matthews would lap Thom Yorke

This is not remotely surprising. Matthews family was anti-apartheid and he came to the US to avoid military service or something where the best case scenario for Yorke always seemed like “right wing of Labour.”

Did it? I'm not a fan so can't claim deep knowledge but he seemed to hate the right wing of labour when Blair was in charge.

Actually think yelling at someone about dead children in the middle of their show isn't the right way to solve the horror of the situation, controversial an opinion as that may be. Not sure he's the most eloquent spokesperson either so I can totally understand preferring to keep quiet and write and sing songs and I reckon he's earned that by now. Plus surely anyone who thinks he is a keen genocide supporter is being disingenuous honestly - I don't think you can get less ambiguous than Tiptoe off that last Smile record, but maybe the problem is that doesn't fit easily into a TikTok soundbite or however people consume music these days?

Yeah dude should have picked one of the many right ways to solve the horror of the situation available to common citizens.

Yeah you're right let's bully the depressive artists and songwriters of this world, at the moment this world definitely needs more hate poured into it.

A single dude shouting atva successful musician in an arena where everybody is a fan of said artist is not in any way shape or form bullying.

he has been one of the most politically vocal rock stars of his generation, yet on this issue he has chosen to say absolutely nothing apart from one blanket "let's have a ceasefire and Hamas release the hostages" and continued opposition to BDS. For anyone who became a fan around HTTT this must feel like a betrayal.

Yeah you're right let's bully the depressive artists and songwriters of this world

Did you sign up here just to log in and be the Thom defender? Who will stand up for the millionaire rock stars?

Sorry, as a father there is no way I would respond well to be accused of murdering children in that situation, it's horrific and yeah it is absolutely an intimidating and bullying way of getting your point across. How does anything ever improve in that situation?

I was around during HTTT sure, Thom never made a public statement about the Darfur genocide in 2003 either but I am not going to go to his shows and call him out for it.

You cannot intimidate or bully soneone in a situation where the entire room is against you and the target of your ire holds all power, get real.

It is obviously an upsetting thing to hear yes, it is indeed upsetting that our govts make us complicit in the slaughter of children, not really the fault of the person pointing this out tho.

Did you sign up here just to

23 years ago.

i will defend part time posters

matt, first learn what bullying is (hint: it involves power dynamics) and then we can talk

Of course, maybe not the dictionary definition of bullying but there is something intimidating in "If you don't do X then you are Y" that I recognise that bullies have used against my kids, provoking someone then filming and broadcasting it on social media. It just feels so sad that with the rise of the fascists and the Right at the moment that it's the musicians and artists singing peaceful protest songs that we are trying our best to tear to pieces because they're the easiest targets. Of course I expect nobody to agree it just all feels so hopeless.

That's also just not true tho, there are regular gigantic protests around the world, good work is being done in pushing companies to divest, direct action against arms manufacturers, etc. The Radiohead concert incident is barely a blip on the radar of the larger struggle, ofc if you're a fan you're gonna hear about it more than the other stuff.

As for disrupting cultural events, it's not like that's some new social media thing, this has been a protest strategy for many many decades. Having been present at events that got disrupted in this manner, I can tell you that the immediate reaction from the rest of the audience is immediate animosity, and physical violence as a reaction is not unheard of. So it really rubs me the wrong way to describe it as bullying, it's a very brave thing to do, you are exposing yourself to the disapproval of the majority and I don't think some likes on social media assuage how terrifying that is.

matt, I'm sure Thom Yorke felt intimidated when he said "come onstage and say it" and then proceeded to storm offstage in a cowardly huff

fuck off already seriously

like, "peaceful protest songs", give me a fucking break!!! have you ever heard the expression "actions speak louder than words"