Oct 25, 2024 06:41 PM IST
When Thom Yorke from Radiohead heard that fans were speculating the band’s reunion, here’s what he had to say
In a recent interview with Australia’s Double J, Thom Yorke from Radiohead, the band behind Creep, addressed speculation surrounding new Radiohead music in the future. The conversation stemmed from his recent collaboration with guitarist Jonny Greenwood in their project The Smile. “I am not aware of it and don’t really give a flying fu**,” Yorke said. “No offence to anyone and thanks for caring. But I think we’ve earned the right to do what makes sense to us without having to explain ourselves or be answerable to anyone else’s historical idea of what we should be doing.”
The 56-year-old vocalist further emphasised that he doesn’t really feel the pressure to match Radiohead’s decades long legacy. “I don’t think we feel the need to live up to anything. That feels like a non-problem. We are in this privileged position where we are still able to make music because of Radiohead, so no complaints,” he said.
Radiohead’s last studio album, A Moon Shaped Pool, was released in 2016, followed by a 20th-anniversary reissue of OK Computer in 2017 and the Kid A Mnesia compilation in 2021. Since then, Yorke has been concentrating on The Smile, a band he formed with Greenwood and drummer Tom Skinner.
Here’s what netizens had to say
While many netizens were upset at the fact that there was going to be no reunion, most chalk up his words to the fact that he’s old and rather grumpy. “He’s been grumpy since the 90s,” said a fan rather humorously. “He’s old and grumpy, he’ll come round,” said another. In a surprising turn of events, other fans seemed proud of his explicit language. “The man is about to embark on a brief solo tour and has released two albums with the Smile in one year and you ask about Radiohead? Yeah I’d be annoyed,” said one. “He makes a good case and is completely right. He has earned the right to do what he wants to do. I also get the expectations and pressure that the band must feel for every album. The Smile albums have all been excellent and I am thankful we are still getting music from Thom and Jonny,” was another’s matching opinion.
While Yorke insists there are no reunion plans, bassist Colin Greenwood revealed to NME that the band had a brief reunion this past summer. “We got together in the summer just for a couple of days and just ran through all the songs and picked up where we left off in 2018. It was really fun and nice to see everyone. We were going to do three or four days but knocked it on the head after two because it was fine and we could still do it. My brother [Jonny Greenwood] said that we’d just need a couple of weeks rehearsal and we could go on the road, no problem.”
As for the band, a while ago Radiohead announced that they will be collaborating on a new stage production — Hamlet Hail to the Thief. The play will feature re-worked music from Radiohead’s 2003 LP, Hail to the Thief.
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