Saturday, January 19, 2008

2008-01-17 | Zane Lowe | Radio 1 Podcast










































































































Annie: Hello. I’m Annie Mac. Ed and Thom from Radiohead to cover Zane’s show on Thursday. There were some very, very good records. Here’s the hottest ones.
Ed: Should we say who we are? In case someone’s driving down the M5 wondering what the hell’s going on.
Thom: Oh, yeah.[with sexy voice]
Ed: We are from Radiohead. I’m Ed.
Thom: I’m Thom.
Ed: Hello.
Thom: Hello [laughs].
[MIA - 'Paper Planes' (XL) plays]
[The Bug - 'Poison Dart' (South Rakkas Remix) (Ninja Tune) plays]
Thom: Oh yes. Good evening. [with sexy voice]
Ed: Nice.
Thom: Yes.
Ed: What was that?
Thom: That was um—the South Rawkus crew remix of the Bug tune “Poison Dart”. I like that tune.
Ed: And the first track was what? That was M.I.A.?
Thom: That was M.I.A.
Ed: Yeah.
Thom and Ed: “Paper Planes”.
Thom: Sampled.
Ed: Sampling The Clash, of course, all you listeners will know.
Thom: That’s right.
Ed: “Straight to Hell”. Classic track.
Thom: Will be able to keep this accent all the way through?
[Ed laughs]
[Thom laughs]
Ed: That’s Thom.
Thom: Alright. So 81199. Send the lovin’, yeah.
Ed: For the texts.
Thom: And um…
Ed: What we got next? We got—we’re gonna play a few tunes tonight.
Thom: Are we dropping the accent now?
Ed: Yeah. Officially, we’re going back to Oxford. Strictly Oxford.
Thom: I like it.
Ed: Okay.
Ed: Strictly Oxford. The next track on our airwaves will be uh—Kings of Leon: “Charmer”.
Thom: You like the Kings of Leon, don’t you?
Ed: I bored your senses about this being the best band in the world at the moment. And they are.
Thom: Here we go.
[Kings of Leon - 'Charmer' (Sony)]
Thom: Nice!
Ed: You like that?
Thom: Yeah! It’s like The Pixies.
Ed: Yeah, man. It’s good.
Thom: And uh—speaking of that era—what we got next, boy?
Ed: We’ve got Sonic Youth.
Thom: Uh.
Ed: “Youth vs. Fascism”. Off one of my favourite Sonic Youth records.
Thom: Me too.
Ed: Dirty.
Thom: Yeah.
Ed: 1992.
Thom: With the dirty word taken out.
Ed: I saw them live on this tour. One of the best gigs in my life. Brixton Academy. Sonic Youth, and Pavement opening for them.
Thom: Wow! Cool.
Ed: Good night.
Thom: Good night.
[Sonic Youth - 'Youth Against Fascism' (DGC) plays]
[!!! - 'Heart Of Hearts' (Warp)]
Thom: Wow!!
Ed: Wow!
[Thom and Ed laugh]
Thom: It’s like ‘Give up and go home’, ain’t it, really?
Ed: Should we say who we are? In case, you know, someone’s driving down the M5 wondering…
Thom: Oh, yeah.
Ed: … what the hell’s going on. We are from Radiohead.
Thom: Yes, good evening.
Ed: My name is Ed.
Thom: I’m Thom.
Ed: And we’ve got some… What have we got here?
Thom: I don’t know. What’ve we got?
Ed: We got some texts. We’d like to read out texts... in our way. There’s one from Ken: ‘Hi guys. I just wanted to say thank you so much for yesterday’s gig and making the effort and arrangements to move it from Rough Trade. Was fantastic.’ Thank you, Ken, for being there. We had a ball.
Thom: ‘A guy I work with says his wife Joannie is teaching you harp. True?’ Nope. ‘Hey Radiohead people, looking forward to your show. Good luck, Rebecca Sinclair in Scotland. Thanks, Rebecca.’ ‘Radiohead plz-plz-plz-plz-plz, Roger the trucker’.
Ed: On the M5. He’s on board.
Thom: ‘Love, Warrior Queen. Mmm.’ That’s someone called ‘mmm’. Ah, the rest are on the floor.
Ed: ‘Big love. Big love to everyone in the studio. Cracking start to the show.’
Thom: Aye!
[Ed and Thom laugh]
Ed: You’re too kind, ?.
Thom: What’re we doing now?
Ed: What have we got, Annie?
Thom: Oh! By the way, this is Burial in the background.
Annie: Nice.
Thom: Not that Burial should be in the background. It’s just that Radio 1 should be playing it all the time. [laughs]
Annie: [laughs] So we’re going to play it all the time…
Thom: Well, actually that might not work too well. Anyway…
Annie: Every time you speak… That’s good enough.
Thom: Anyway, where are we now? [laughs]
Annie: I wanted to say there’s a chat room. If anyone wants to…
Thom: Yes.
Annie: … go in there. Bbc.co.uk/radio1. And also, every track that Thom and Ed pick is going up online as well, so you can read what we are playing in the show tonight. Um—I’ve got… I don’t know how you pronounce this. Chuck-chuck-chuck.
Thom: Yeah, I think…
Annie: How do you say it?
Thom: I think that’s right, apparently. Yeah. Or… you can… exclaim three times, because it’s an exclamation mark three times there, then you ? That’s the link.
Annie: Should we play it?
Thom: Yeah.
Annie: Okay.
[!!! - 'Heart Of Hearts' (Warp)]
Thom: There you go. That’s “Heart of Hearts”. Screaming hit.
Ed: Was it a hit? It was.
Thom: Was it?
Ed: I don’t know.
Thom: I don’t know. I don’t care that much.
Annie: I don't think it was a chart hit, exactly.
Thom: Oh.
Annie: Like a Top 10.
Thom: Really?
Annie: But it did do well.
Thom: Oh, good! Excellent.
Annie: Uh-huh.
Thom: Deserves to.
Ed: Yeah.
Thom: Right now… Where are we? Uh—I got more bits of paper. Mmm—‘My dad saw you in Oxford the other day, Thom.’ How unusual.
[Annie and Ed laugh]
Ed: We’re gonna—we’re gonna phone Colin and Phillip, and Jonny…
Annie: [undecipherable] band. Brilliant.
Ed: …at some stage through the show. And we’re not gonna tell them—none of them know who’s going to be phoned first. So um—I think that might be quite fun.
Thom: Hello, boys, if you’re watching, which I’m sure you’re probably not doing.
Ed: Yeah. I think one of you is going out to dinner.
Thom: Mm, alright. Um—okay. So um—what’re we doing next? Oh, yeah. Okay! So we’ll keep it brief. Another track. This is… whatchoo got? Predictably enough, Modeselektor. Um—always going on about them.
Ed: Always going on! [laughs]
Thom: I [undecipherable]. [laughs] They don’t know it. But zey are German. Zey are loopy-loo. And this is “Dark Side of the Sun” as clean as it’s gonna get ‘coz the original’s well dirty. Turn up the bass in your car.
[Modeselektor - 'The Dark Side Of The Sun' (BPitch) plays]
Thom: Yey!
Annie: I love that! That was amazing!
Thom: It’s amazing, man! I think it’s so dark!
[Annie laughs]
Annie: Who’s the rapper on it?
Thom: Um—I would have to look that up, which…
Annie: We’ll look it up.
Thom: We’ll get them to send in that one.
Annie: Yeah.
Thom: Yeah. Um—what’re we doing now, boi?
Ed: We’ve got a few texts, haven’t we?
Thom: Yeah.
Ed: ‘Thom and Ed, I love you. If you read this text, my life will be complete. Radiohead is the reason why I write music. Yours sincerely, E.H.’
Thom: Ah… Well, there you are, you’re complete! No more holes.
[Annie laughs]
Thom: Ah, ‘Hey Radiohead! Loved your gig. Plz…’ Oh, ‘please read it out’. Um—okay, whatever. ‘Tom, Manchester.’ Your turn.
Ed: ‘Dear Thom and Ed, please leave Zane a playlist, as his shows are never this good or contentious.’
Thom: Ooh!
[Annie laughs]
Ed: ‘Squeeze in some Polyphonic Spree for me please.’
Thom: Oof! Ah, whatever. [mumbles]
Annie: I was excited there before Polyphonic Spree.
Thom: Yeah. Badly wrong there.
[Annie laughs]
Ed: Um—‘I queued outside yesterday, but unfortunately couldn’t get in’ [undecipherable] ‘Thanks again for webcasting. Any chance you would do something similar in London again?’
Thom: Do you know how many people watched that gig last night, Edward?
Annie: How many?
Thom: Thank you. Uh—ten and a half thousand online.
Annie: Wow!
Thom: Which is mental, ‘cause you should’ve seen the set-up. [laughs]
[Ed laughs]
Annie: And that’s just live. Who knows how many people watched afterwards.
Thom: Yeah. Nigel, our producer, was um—backstage, um—mixing the visuals.
Ed: Yeah.
Thom: It was really good.
Annie: At what point did you decide to upscale the venue? Was there intense talks ‘What are we going to do?’?
Thom: We do have to ask the police that.
Ed: Yes. The police came down because uh—basically there were too many people turned up…
Annie: Yeah.
Ed: …And they were worried about all the people who couldn’t get in. So they said we couldn’t do it in Rough Trade. The original idea was to do it in the shop, Rough Trade.
Annie: Yeah.
Ed: And uh—so, we—they wouldn’t permit us to do the gig there, so 93 Feet East, which is across the way in Brick Lane…
Annie: Yes.
Ed: … some of you will know, was uh—was having a quiet night, and the owners let us play and uh…
Thom: We broke down the gear [undecipherable]. Uh…
Ed: We didn’t.
Thom: We didn’t.
[Thom and Ed laugh]
Thom: We went off and have food, didn’t we?
[Ed and Annie laugh]
Thom: But our crew…
Annie: Yeah.
Thom: …broke down all the gear, the p.a., the lights… everything. And moved it to the venue four hours um—from start to finish, which was…
Ed: Yeah.
Thom: … the most amazing thing. That’s a difficult thing to do if you don’t know.
That’s very hard. Um—and yeah, it was a really, really good night and got home at four in the morning.
Annie: First thing you’ve played in a while as a band?
Ed: Yep.
Thom: Yes.
Ed: About two years.
Thom: I guess so.
Ed: First time we’ve done a small gig like that—shameless that we are—for about…
Thom: Are we shameless?
[Annie laughs]
Ed: Well, it’s a bit shameful not to do the old club show. I think the last time we did it was uh—we did… Around the time of OK Computer we did two shows at the Oxford Zodiac, and we did a matinée performance for the under 16’s.
Annie: Really?
Ed: You probably don’t remember that, do you?
Thom: I don’t remember.
[Ed and Annie laugh]
Ed: He never remembers anything we’ve done. [laughs] And we did a show. And that was the last time we sort of done a club show, so… It was good. It was—it was uh—yeah, it was fun. It was a lot of fun actually.
Thom: Anyway, move it on.
Ed: Yes.
Thom: Where are we going now?
Annie: C’mon!
Ed: We’re gonna go to a band called Os Mutantes, and a track called “A Menina Menina”[sic], which is um…
Thom: Can you do that again? 'Coz that was really good.
Ed: Os Mutantes “A Mina e Menina” [sic]. And they’re a Brazilian band and they were part of the ‘tropicalista’ movement, which was around—which is—it was this music cultural scene that emerged in 1968 against the dictatorship in Brazil, and uh—there were all these… I’m going to play a couple of other tracks by Caetano Veloso and Gal Costa, and there was Roberto Gil. And what they basically did was they fused um, you know, they took from The Beatles and the Stones and all the psychedelic music around that time, and fused it with a samba and Brazilian folk music, and they put it in this melting pot with these, sort of, overtly political lyrics, which had to be censored. But they kind of put it in under the radar. They got it under the radar. And some of the best music, um, you will ever hear, is his. If anyone’s interested—if you like the tracks I play—there’s a compilation on Soul Jazz Records called Tropalista [sic]…
Thom: Trprl…
Ed: Tropicalista*, and it’s a really good introduction to this whole kind of genre of music.
Thom: I think I’ve got that, yeah.
Ed: Yeah. Os Mutantes.
[Os Mutantes - 'A Minha Menina' (.) plays]

*Note: Ed was probably referring to Tropicália, and not Tropicalista (which is the movement).

Ed: What’d you think?
Thom: That’s pretty good, yeah. I know.
Ed: Yeah.
Thom: I like the fuzz on it
Ed: It’s straight out of Stones, isn’t it?
Thom: Hmm…
Ed: That fuzz guitar.
Thom: Yeah, yeah.
Ed: “Satisfaction”. Appropriated.
Thom: Yeah.
Ed: Uh—where are we going next?
Thom: Well, um…
Ed: Hottest record.
Thom: Annie says hottie… hottest record, yes?
Annie: Yes.
Ed: Hottest Record.
Annie: Hottest Record is next.
Thom: We had a bit of a discussion about that, and ended up with…
[Annie laughs]
Thom: Um…
Ed: Glass Vegas.
Thom: Oh no! No, no!
Ed: What’re we doing? Burial?
Thom: Bur…
Ed: Ah, cool.
Thom: Yes.
Annie: Well, you know what? You can have one each! Because you…
Thom: Yeah.
Annie: … you don’t have to agree on everything.
Ed: Yeah, yeah, you go first.
Annie: Thom, you go first, and then we’ll go with Ed’s hottest record after that.
Thom: Okay. That’s very diplomatic. ‘Cause otherwise there might’ve been blood.
Ed and Thom: [no idea how to transcribe that]
Thom: Okay, so… We’re gonna do um—I’m gonna choose a Burial tune because it’s Burial, and he’s the man, and… Although, actually, nobody knows who he is.
Annie: Is he—is he…
Thom: Except our mate Kieran. [laughs]
Annie: …is he a proper mystery man?
[Thom laughs]
Annie: Is anyone? ‘Cause I don’t know anyone who knows who he is.
Thom: Oh, but I do…
Annie: Do you?
Ed: Yeah!
Thom: [funniest thing ever, but how do I transcribe it?! :lol: ]
Ed: Kieran knows him, doesn’t he?
Thom: Kieran Hebden. Anyway… No, now he’s going to get followed around, after…
[Annie laughs]
Thom: Ah, ah, okay, so… Um—the one we’re choosing is “Archangel”. Apparently, there was a debate about this on the Radio 1 playlist. Is that right?
Annie: Yes, I think it was.
Thom: It was.
Annie: I think it was brought up, anyway.
Thom: Brought up. Okay. Well, I’m bringing it up again just, you know…
Annie: Okay.
Thom: … just for the sake of it.
Annie: Here we go.
[Burial - 'Archangel' (Hyperdub) plays] [Thom says something while the song is playing, but I didn’t get it]
Thom: Hoo!
[Thom, Annie and Ed laugh]
Annie: Thom Yorke was dancing in the studio…
Thom: Yeah, and then I…
Annie: Forgot that he was a D.J.
Thom: … fell through the floor.
[Annie laughs]
Thom: Um—okay, so… so uh—actually I’ve got Burial again. See that’s poor taste, so maybe we should just fade that out…
Annie: Should we fade that out?
Thom: Yeah.
Annie: ‘Cause I’ve got another instrumental.
Thom: Right, so…
Ed: We love that.
Thom: Okay, good, we love that.
Annie: Okay, tell us why you chose that one, Thom.
Thom: Um—because um—it’s uh—ufff—to me, it sounds a lot like um—2007-2008. That’s what 2007-2008 sounds like. And um—and it’s… dark as, um—and I don’t agree… Who’s saying that this [undecipherable]?
Annie: Oh, I was telling Thom that Hadouken came in last week and said—talked about Burial. They also played a Burial track. But they said they thought it was the first dubstep coffee table album.
Thom: Wrong, man! That’s so wrong! That’s not… Anyway… I um—I don’t really know what it is necessarily.
Ed: I’ll tell you why I like it. ‘Cause it’s so visual.
Thom: Yeah…
Ed: When you get a really good record like this—like Untrue is—and it’s so, it’s like a soundtrack that you can put it on and it can accompany, you know—you’re walking—
wherever you are. It feels very urban. It’s not one for the countryside. Maybe it is…
Annie: Yeah, I think it’s… I don’t know.
Thom: Yeah. I—I mean, well… I live further out than you, mate. Um—and uh—it definitely works in… down in the countryside in the dark.
Ed: Okay.
Thom: Yeah.
Ed: I can see that.
Annie: Would you, Thom—would you say it’s indicative of dubstep, that sound? ‘Cause I’m sure there’s a lot of people…
Thom: No, because…
Annie: … that don’t know what dubstep is.
Thom: No, Burial’s just cu—what’s the word? Cust, cut his own little niche.
Annie: Yeah.
Thom: [undecipherable] Um—no dubstep’s generally is um—is a much more—well, I guess it’s a purer thing, a lot of people would say it’s purer than that, you know? But…
Annie: It doesn’t usually have a vocal, really.
Thom: Mm, yeah… Um—it’s just about kicking the stick and all that stuff to me. I mean… I don’t really know what it is. I mean, I know what it is when I hear it, but um—I don’t understand why its not um—taken over. [laughs]
[Ed laughs]
Annie: I think it’s on the way, though. I think—I think, in the last six months, anyway. Thom: Right.
Annie: This album—Burial’s album—has really helped it… quite a bit.
Ed: Yeah.
Thom: Yeah, I mean, it’s great, you know? I mean, I don’t know anybody who doesn’t like it, so um… But it’s not just… As I said, it’s got this quality to it where um, you know… You know, what’s really interesting about it? It’s that it’s one of those things where he’s—someone’s working on their own a lot um—headphones, whatever… and it’s so much about actually the way people listen to music now, anyway. It’s a very…
Annie: Yeah.
Thom: … enclosed environment.
Annie: Introverted [undecipherable]
Thom: Anybody who’s listening in their car, you know, that sort of tune sounds great, because it’s got its own completely unique space. Um—you know?
Uh—so… I’ll shut up now.
Annie: [laughs] Are you enlightened, Ed?
Ed: I am enlightened. I like your—what did Wikipedia say, Annie?
Annie: Wikipedia—I looked it up today ‘cause I never really knew what dubstep was, either…
Thom: Yes.
Annie: … And I knew Thom was going to choose dubstep, so I wanted to look like I knew what I was talking about, but no, I decided to look it up, so obviously I don’t know what I’m talking about.
Ed: Yeah.
Annie: But it said in Wikipedia there’s like half—it’s like half step, as in the snare, a lot of times the drums is half step. You can disagree, obviously, Thom. And then the sub-bass kind of is twice the speed, and that makes it… it’s kind of half step and…
Thom: What it—obviously it comes from dub uh—
Annie: Dub reggae.
Thom: Yeah, like there’s one tune—that we will play later—“Disrupt”, which is actually just uh—it is like old school dub. It’s sort of done electronic.
Annie: Yeah.
Thom: As you say, the double the speed, but they keep the darkness of the original principles of dub.
Annie: Yeah.
Thom: But it’s like—it’s up, man, you know? It’s uh—it’s supposed—it’s energy thing, I suppose. They use a lot of the kick and stick thing. It’s very dry.
Annie: Yeah.
Thom: That’s why Burial is different. ‘Cause he’s not like that.
Annie: Yeah. Okay.
Thom: And that’s all I know!
Ed: Yeah.
Thom: That’s about it.
Ed: Nice.
Annie: A lesson in dubstep from Thom Yorke! What do you know? [claps]
Thom: God helps us all.
Annie: [laughs] What should we do next?
Ed: Well, you mentioned old school, so we’re gonna go real old school. Um—Sugar Bear. A track called “Don’t Scandalize Me”, which is a classic. Um—and we were sort of trying to remember when we heard it, and we were reminiscing about our brief Haçienda days. I was a student at Manchester and Thom used to come and visit me.
Annie: See, I love this! I never knew that. You were Haçienda kids.
Ed: Well, I can’t say… I wasn’t like a week-on-week devotee. But I used to go down particularly—I was there in Manchester from ’87 to ’90.
Annie: Yeah.
Ed: So the first year that I went, it was kind of—I remember The Haçienda and it was—it was very cold…
Thom: [laughs] Yeah, it was very cold!
Ed: Yeah. Very cold.
Annie: It’s just a big old warehouse.
Thom: Yeah, that’s right.
Ed: Half full, and they used to have a night called ‘Zumba Night’, that I used to go to. And I think that was on a Wednesday night. But this is one of the tracks—the best thing about The Haçienda was—and this is all pre-Summer of Love; this is before it all really kicked off…
Thom: They were wearing black flares. There were whole posses of them in black flares. That’s the thing I remember.
Ed: Yeah. Black flares. But the music was—it was the first time I heard… I remember going in there and uh—hearing this, and hearing uh—Public Enemy. I think “Rebel Without a Pause” had just been released, and hearing that. And then it was mixed in with stuff like—I dunno—the Wooden Tops, and uh—and Indie… you’d hear The Fall—they’d then play The Fall, and it was a real kind of—it was a proper-proper mix. And it was really enlightening. We come from Oxford where the clubs were, you know, you’d turn up at the door and they’d go ‘No baked beans, mate. Sorry, no baked beans. No jeans’. You know, you had to wear trousers…
Thom: You know, the queue to get into the club was a scene in itself. I remember that.
Ed: No, it was good. It was great. It was—it was an amazing education for me. I went as a total Indie kid, and I wasn’t really into soul. And I didn’t know this thing called hip-hop, but then they dropped a track like “Don’t Scandalise Me”, which you’ll obviously—you’ll either remember or hear for the first time and it samples, “Once In A Lifetime”, Talking Heads.
Thom: Toom-toom-toom. [sings]
Ed: So um—yeah. We should hear it.
Thom: Let’s do it, man. Enough talk.
[Sugar Bear - 'Dont Scandalize Me' (Solid State) plays]
Thom: Tchoon!
Annie: That was amazing!
Thom or Ed: It’s good, eh?
Ed: Sugar Bear, man. “Don’t Scandalize Me”.
Thom: Okay. Bit more rapid talking.
Ed: Yeah.
Thom: 81199. Text number. Uh—people in the chat room.
Ed: Okay.
Thom: Fake Plastic Steph, Soul Rebel, [undecipherable], Fat Ambassador, Greg the Hurd, Videotape, [undecipherable] Banner, Weird Salmons… mm… Moody Jones, Radioshed, Knotch.
Annie: [laughs] bbc.co.uk/radio1 to get in there and speak to all those people.
Ed: Got some texts. Yeah, um—‘Ed, apparently my friend sat next to you on the plane back from Scotland last year, after a gig…
Thom: [snores]
Ed: … and spilled his drink on you. He said sorry about that’.
Annie: [laughs] Do you remember that?
Ed: I know nothing!
[Thom laughs]
Ed: Honestly, that’s…
Thom: Pity the poor guy that actually happened to then.
Ed: Okay. Paul N. Derry’s on board. Nice one, Paul! ‘Thom, is it true that you didn’t bother learning to read music because there isn’t really a point?’
Thom: I couldn’t understand the principles involved. Rhythm, you see? Anyway!
[Annie laughs]
Thom: I’m smiling broadly now and I’m eighteen again.
Annie: That’s after Sugar Bear.
Ed: Nice!
Thom: Nice!
Annie: She's obviously a Haçienda girl.
Ed: ‘Hi. Please tell me you like Aphex Twin, Thom. Lee from Peterborough’.
Thom: Yes, mate.
Ed: Take a wild guess. ‘Sounding fantastic. He’s cranking it right up. Neighbours are gonna love me. Any Irish dates this year. Andy McBee, County Down.’
Thom: Yeeesss.
Ed: Oh, yes!
Annie: You could talk about the tour now maybe?
Thom: Nah, nah. That would be self-promotion. We don’t do that.
Annie: Oh, c’mon! Gotta do a bit!
Ed: Let’s just say we’re doing two shows in Malahide in June, Andy Macbee, County Down.
Annie: Brilliant!
Ed: Yeah. Uh—so where are we going next?
Thom: Music-music-music!
Ed: Music.
Annie: Back-back-back to when you were wearing flares at The Haçienda.
Ed: Ahhh! Those were the days! No, we were talking about—I mean, this is a—the next track is by uh, you know, one of the greatest bands of the last century—certainly from Manchester. Happy Mondays.
Thom: I dedicate this to my mate, Martin.
Ed: Yeah, he is Mr. Mondays.
Thom: Yeah, he… yeah.
Ed: I’d like to dedicate this to a lady in Highbury called Susan.
Thom or Ed: Ah, baby!
[Happy Mondays - 'Wrote For Luck' (Factory) plays]
Annie: It’s Thom and Ed from Radiohead. Your Djs for nine o’clock tonight.
Thom: Wow! That was my favourite so far!
Ed: That’s great, man, isn’t it?
Thom: Genius!
Ed: The Mondays—when I saw them—is when they used to end the set with that—with “Wrote For Luck”, and they used to do like a ten minute version. And the gig I particularly remember is the one they did at Gmax, which is the day before Step On was released. So, they did two shows, and I went to Sunday night. They finished with this and the smoke fills the stage; it’s like ten minutes, and there’s lights going on. And suddenly, on stage with the Mondays is every dealer in South Manchester…
[Annie laughs]
Ed: … and I go ‘Ah, there’s Alfonso! He’s from the red line in Readington(?), what’s he doing there?
[Thom laughs]
Ed: And it was amazing! It was just the most kind of euphoric kind of up gig I’ve ever been to. It’s—it was just… When the Mondays were on, they were unbelievable! I saw them when they were bad. I mean, they were bad at Glastonbury 1990. That was really… But when they were on, they were just magic!
Annie: Did you ever meet Shaun Ryder?
Thom and Ed: No!
Thom: No, we actually didn’t.
Ed: We never met them. No.
Thom: I used to play them at my club when college was on as well. [undecipherable]
Ed: Yeah!
Annie: Did you use to DJ, Thom?
Thom: But I haven’t listened to it… this particular album since I left art college.
Ed: Really? It sounds good, doesn’t it?
Thom: It’s mental, man!
[Ed laughs]
Thom: Mental!
Annie: Uh—did you use to be a DJ?
Thom: Every Friday.
Annie: Really?
Thom: Yeah, I did the university club um—I made ‘em a fortune! Never made any money. Gave me 60 quid a week, and I had to buy me records out of that!
Annie: Ah, that’s not good.
Thom: Anyway!
Annie: And that would be for the whole night’s Djing? Five, six hours?
Thom: Yeah, great ego boost, though.
Annie: Yeah.
Thom: Power!
[Annie laughs]
Thom: It was great, honestly! And people—I wasn’t exactly an expert by uh—I used to go on until 2 o’clock. We’d start at seven. And in order for people to, you know, get to play their records they'd have to, you know, they’d usually buy me a drink…
Annie: Yeah.
Thom: Unless it was a good record. And so by one o’clock I’d literally consider it a day because…
[Annie and Ed laugh]
Thom: I was smoking then as well and so I had a fag in my mouth.
Annie: Ash falling all over the vinyl. [laughs]
Thom: It was ugly. If one more person came up to me and asked for The Pogues I was going to [undecipherable]. Anyway, it was great.
[Ed and Annie laugh]
Annie: Wow! It’s 8 o’clock.
Ed: Yeah.
Annie: It’s Radio One. If you just tuned in, it’s Thom Yorke and Ed O’Brien from Radiohead, taking over from Zane’s show. Um—I’m Annie. I’m helping with the buttons.
Thom: Hi, Annie!
Annie: Hi! Ah, you’ve got some texts there.
Thom: Yes.
Ed: ‘“Archangel” by Burial is completely amazing. You’ve made my day playing that. Now make it even better by reading this out. Please. Tammy in Bath.’
Thom: You’re made up, Tammy. Uh—‘Amazing tracks. Lexis’. ‘Radiohead’s my head.. [undecipherable]’. Yes, Dan. ‘Sounded fantastic. I was cranking it right up!’ Have we already done that one?
Ed: ‘Hurray! Hurray for Tropicália! You’re right. That compilation is awesome. And thank you for In Rainbows. It’s a bit incredibly brilliant.’ Wow!
Thom: Mm, okay…
Ed: Nice. ‘How about a secret gig in the Scottish Highlands? No queue problems. Love and thanks for everything so far.’ Yeah!
Thom: Yeah!
Ed: Okay, you used to live in Scotland, didn’t you?
Thom: I did. That’s where I grew up: Fife. I used to grow up—I grew up really near where the Beta Band grew up, as well. I left… before I could meet them. I met the lot of you instead.
Ed: Now they’ve re-formed…
Ed: Are they re-formed—Beta Band? I heard they had.
Annie: I don’t know. Phil(?), have you heard about that?
Phil(?): No.
Annie: No, none of us have heard that. We could be lying, though.
Ed: Okay.
Thom: Okay, so… um—uh—we’re gonna play Aphex next… ‘cause of that earlier you’re saying, whatever… Um—“Crying In Your Face”. Aphex Twin. It is uh—genius. And a maniac and a genius.
Annie: Another elusive character. Yes.
Thom: Yeah.
Annie: Okay.
[AFX - 'Crying In Your Face' (DGC) plays]
Thom: Alright! We got some more texts.
Ed: Yees.
Thom: We like this text thing.
Ed: Yeah, it’s good.
Thom: Can you blow up that text machine?
Ed: ‘Hi, Thom!’
Thom: [undecipherable] 99.
Ed: … ‘Hi’…
Thom: [undecipherable] text machine.
Ed: … ‘Hi’…
[Annie laughs]
Ed: ‘Hi, Thom’. I’m sorry, I’m really bad at this djing thing. I keep talking over everyone.
Thom: You’re alright.
Ed: ‘Hi, Thom and Ed. I once had a conversation with Damo Suzuki from the German band, Can, and asked if he’d heard you guys. He said ‘no’, but will keep his ears open. A few months later he got in touch with me saying he’d heard “Pyramid Song” on the radio and that he loved it. Just thought you might like to know.’
Thom: Wowow.
Ed: Thank you very much.
Annie: That’s amazing!
Ed: It is very cool.
Annie: You were fans of Can?
Thom: Yeah, yes, Can. If you’re uh—if you wanna know then, yeah. Go and get some early Can. Nineteen seventy… two?
Ed: There’s a really good compilation out.
Thom: It’s the best to [undecipherable].
Ed: If you want to get introduced to them. And then you can go to the albums.
Thom: There’s a compil…
Ed: There’s a compilation out.
Thom: Is there?
Ed: Yeah.
Thom: Oh…
Ed: It goes from back in ’69 to present. I can’t remember the name. It’s just like a Can’s greatest hits, but it’s a good—it’s got like twenty-five songs on it.
Annie: Okay.
Thom: Uh…
Ed: [undecipherable]
Thom: Got more texts. ‘On a three hour drive, making a mental note of loads of new music…’ Uh—‘to go out and buy this weekend.’ Exthcellent! That’s why we’re here. [with a weird accent thing going] Um—but you can actually sort of go on the website and we’re putting it up…
Annie: Yes.
Thom: … aren’t we?
Annie: Yes, exactly.
Thom: Thank you very much. I could do this.
[Annie laughs]
Thom: Now… ‘Dear Thom and Ed, what is your favourite sound and why?’
Ed: Wow!
Annie: I like that one.
Thom: Sound… of… Go on! You go first.
Ed: Sound of… uh—I like the sound of… I really like the sound of birds at night. When you live in a city—and you know, birds aren’t supposed to… they don’t start chirping ‘til about… until sunrise… But in London, where I live, they go all the whole night through ‘cause…
Annie: They're all ravers. They stay up all night.
Ed: Yeah, man. They’re into Burial in a big way.
[Annie laughs]
Ed: It’s that post-rave thing going on.
Annie: [undecipherable] four word in Brixton…
Ed: Yeah.
Annie: ‘Cause they’re staying up all night. [laughs]
Thom: My favourite sound is uh—my coffee machine. [laughs]
[Annie and Ed laugh]
Thom: Okay.
Ed: I’ve got a good one here! It’s ‘Hi Ed and Thom. I’m listening to you while I do the ironing. I’m…
[Annie laughs]
Ed: … on board. [laughs] From [undecipherable]
Thom: Oh, man!
Ed: Nice one, man. Good luck.
Thom: Lower the tone. Okay…
Ed: Yeah.
Thom: Next um—Bass Clef. This is allegedly dubstep. Um—yeah. Thanks.
[Bass Clef - 'Ballad of The Broken' (.) plays]
[XTC - 'Sgt Rock (Is Going To Help Me)' (Virgin) plays]
Ed: Nice! XTC. “Sgt Rock (Is Going to Help Me)”. I like…
Annie: [laughs] It’s new wave, right? Right?
Ed: Yeah.
Annie: New wave music, is it?
Ed: That’s like seminal music for—for me, and I guess for all of us. We’re big XTC fans. And that must’ve come out in about 1980. And that whole post-punk new wave era was just, you know… so happening.
Annie: Yeah.
Ed: And uh…
Annie: Are they British?
Ed: Yeah, they’re from Swindon. And we’re from Oxford.
Thom: Yeah.
Ed: There’s a big rivalry.
Annie: Oh, really? Oxford and Swindon?
Ed: Along the A420.
[Annie laughs]
Ed: People there will know what I’m talking about.
Annie: Ah, it’s quarter past eight. We have 45 minutes. It’s gone quite fast!
Ed: Yeah.
Annie: Gone really fast. We have a lot more music to play.
Ed: Yeah.
Annie: Um—what do you think we should do next?
Thom: Uh—holy fu-holy…
Annie: Holy fu-? Holy uh?
Thom: Holy uh.
Annie: Right. This is… What is this track?
Thom: This is called “Lovely Allen”, and this is um—for when you get up uh-uh. Hello! This is for when you get up in the morning. ‘Hi there, kids! Yes, it’s a beautiful day!’ That sorta tune.
Annie: Okay.
[Holy F*** - 'Lovely Allen' (Young Turks) plays]
Ed: Nice!
Thom: ‘Hi! First, my husband’s just come in and asked me why it’s taking so long to do uh—to pack up? And they caught me out dancing to your show. Keep up the good tunes, especially as you’re playing my teen idols XTC. From Allison in Leicestershire.’ I was obviously doing that in a hurry.
[Annie laughs]
Thom: Um—but… uh—‘Guys, this is just awesome. I’m trying to leave my car to get some shopping, but I’m sitting in Tesco’s carpark glued to the tune. I’m gonna starve to death at this rate down in whereall!’ ‘Shaving my legs to the rhythm of that song.’ We were just consulting and hoping that wasn’t Bass Cleft…
[Annie laughs]
Thom: … ‘coz there’d be blood everywhere.
[Annie and Ed laugh]
Thom: ‘It would make my night if you read this out. Gem, in Portsmouth.’ Congratulations, Gem. You’re—good luck with your legs. Uh…
[Annie laughs]
Ed: Can we send her a goody bag or something? Just so we can send [undecipherable].
Thom: Uh—plasters, you mean. You got any Radio 1 plasters?
Annie: Radio 1 stickers?
Thom: Yeah.
Ed: Yeah.
Thom: Razor blades? Nooo!
Annie: That was some song, anyway. Tell you what, you'd be conquering the world, putting that on first thing in the morning.
Thom: Yeah, man.
Ed: That’s amazing.
Annie: Holy *uck. “Lovely Allen”. Not heard that before.
Thom: Yeah.
Annie: Amazing.
Ed: That’s brilliant, isn’t it?
Thom: It’s really, really good. Excellent.
Ed: Yes.
Thom: Who's feeding back? It ain't me
Ed: Is that me?
Ed: Probably. You accused me of feeding back last night twice on stage.
Thom: That's right
[Annie laughs]
Ed: And neither one of the times was it me. It was bloody bass frequencies going. I'm an easy target, you see.
I’d only arrived.
Thom: He’s got all these pedals and stuff!
[Ed and Annie laugh]
Thom: I’m only allowed two pedals. Anyway…
Ed: Anyway. Aside from…
Annie: Do you fight over how many pedals you’ve got?
Thom: Well, he wins.
Ed: No, we don’t. Whenever anyone comes in with a really nice new guitar, there’s that kinda look between the guitarists. ‘Mmm, that’s really nice!’
Annie: Yeah.
Ed: ‘Hey, can I have one of those? Your new—your new Jazzmaster?’
Thom: Yeah, yeah.
Ed: Or ‘if you don’t want that, I wouldn’t mind having that’.
[Thom and Annie laugh]
Thom: Get it! ‘Coz I’ll use it!
[Thom, Ed and Annie laugh]
Ed: Exactly.
Thom: Where are we going next?
Ed: We’re going to—we’re going back to Brazil. Let’s just imagine yourself uh—it’s warm—it’s a warm evening. Sipping a caipirinha uh—in uh—next to the sea or whatever.
Thom: You’re not in Tesco’s carpark.
Ed: [laughs] You’re not.
[Annie laughs]
Ed: This is a guy called Jorge Ben, who’s from that era but he’s a bit early—he’s not strictly part of the tropicalista movement, but he was a huge influence, apparently, on them. And this track is called “Umba-bara-uma” and it’s just—it’s funky as hell.
Annie: I hope I’ve got the right one.
[Jorge Ben - 'Umba-bara-uma' (Philips) starts playing]
Ed: You have.
Annie: Brilliant.
Thom: Oh, yeah! I know this!
Ed: Yeah.
[Jorge Ben - 'Umba-bara-uma' (Philips) plays]
Annie: I want a cocktail.
Ed: Nice!
Thom: Ah, someone mentioned margaritas. Oh! It’s not fair, man!
Annie: [laughs] C’mon, you’re Thom Yorke from Radiohead! Can’t you just…?
Thom: Yes. Staff!
[Thom and Annie laugh]
Thom: Right. Were are we—okay, we’ve got a couple of texts. We’re addicted to the text thing so… Whoever these people are they’re all… Ah, ‘We have a cat called Thom, and a cat called Ed.’
Annie: Oh, no way.
Thom: ‘But we draw the line at Colin.’
[Ed and Annie laugh]
Thom: ‘Thanks, Radiohead, for all the lovely music. Nick and Johnny at [undecipherable]’.
[Ed and Annie laugh]
Thom: Bummer, man!
Ed: Oh, man!
Thom: Sorry, Colin!
Ed: Thom!
Thom: Reminds me we haven’t called him.
Ed: Thom!
Annie: Yeah, we should call him.
Ed: ‘Thom, can you say hi to my daughter, Lily? I named my son after you and he’s in bed and asleep. Lily is 3 and should be in bed. Thanks, Gary.’
Thom: Oh… the three year olds.
[Ed and Annie laugh]
Thom: Right then! What are we doing now, boss?
Ed: Where are we? Where are we going?
Annie: Any more texts, man?
Thom: Oh-uh-um-uh-uh-um-uh. No!
Annie: Okay! Um—Zane Lowe just called. He’s listening live from New Zealand.
Ed: Hi, Zane!
Annie: He said we sound really heavy.
Thom: Yeah?
Annie: Yeah.
Thom: Does that mean good, or just means we’re just being turgid?
Annie: It’s a really positive thing. It’s a big, big, good thing.
Thom: Oh, good. Alright.
Annie: Um-uh—well, we’ve got about half an hour left. Do you wanna call your bandmates? Maybe one of them?
Ed: [undecipherable] text in.
Annie: Do an eeny-meeny-miny-moe? [undecipherable] into a grimace.
Thom: If it was me, no! But, you know…
Annie: Do you reckon any of them are actually listening?
Ed: No.
Thom: No.
Annie: No.
Thom: Um-um, so… uh—I think we should play some music, man! That’s why we’re here!
Ed: Alright. Okay.
Thom: That’s what the people are getting off on.
Ed: Alright.
Annie or Thom: Don’t you think?
Ed: We’ll go. Alright.
Thom: Oh, God! I’m in trouble now!
[Annie laughs]
Ed: There might be an incident. [undecipherable] reconvene for rehearsal.
Thom: Okay. We’ll ring them all. We’ve got four minutes. We can ring them all and get them all on the line.
Ed: Okay. Can we conference call?
Annie: Yeah. Can. Easy.
Ed: Let’s get everyone on.
Thom: Then we’re gonna pay [undecipherable]
Ed: Because we need to ask the question whether we’re rehearsing next week.
Thom: Alright.
Annie: That’s good.
Ed: Let’s get them all on board.
Thom: We’ll ring them up then. But, in the meantime…
Annie: Someone texted and asked me do either of you like Detroit techno, right?
Thom: Yeah, that’s right.
Ed: Colin does.
Annie: [undecipherable] Have you got the name?
Thom: Ah, I could do this for a living! ‘Do either of you like Detroit techno artists like Derrick May, Meg(?) Michael, Jeff Mills?’ Actually, yes, boss! We do. From Radiohead Jed in Birmingham. Yeah, Colin is the Detroit freak. So for Colin, the poor cat… who isn’t a cat.
[Annie laughs]
Thom: This is um—actually one he made for me ages ago. He’s got the vinyl somewhere. This is called Craig and Laurent Garnier, “Demented”. It’s very old and very good.
Annie: The man who will never be a cat.
Thom: Yeah.
[Carl Craig - 'Demented (Laurent Garnier Edit)' (Planet E) plays]
Ed: Hello!
[Annie laughs]
Thom: So. Why?
Phil: Hello there!
Ed: Hey! It’s Phil!
Phil: Ah! Good evening.
Ed: How are ya?
Phil: I’m very well, thank you. Very well, indeed.
Jonny: Actually, you forgot to tell me to turn my radio down.
Thom: Get on, Jonny. So you’ve turned it all up, haven’t you?
Jonny: I was about to, yeah, to see what happens. [laughs]
Annie: There’s gonna be major feedback, Jonny.
Jonny: Oh, there's just loads of delays
[Ed laughs]
Annie: I love the fact Jonny’s experimenting down the phone [undecipherable] [laughs]
Jonny: [undecipherable]
Ed: Of course he is! [laughs]
Jonny: It was great [undecipherable]
Thom: Mm—yeah…
Jonny: You’re sounding good.
Thom: Yeah, well thanks. But we’ve done it now, haven’t we?
Ed: Yeah, um—do we have a rehearsal next week?
Thom: Oh, yeah.
Jonny: Um—yeah, well we’re [undecipherable], aren’t we?
Ed: Yeah: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Thom: Oh, yeah! We’ve got… Jools Holland. Tell him!
[Annie and Ed laugh]
Thom: Jools Holland, don’t we? That’s important.
Jonny: Yeah, we have.
Thom: Yeah, we’d better get our thing together then.
Jonny: Yeah, yeah…
Thom: Yeah…
[Annie laughs]
Thom: Yeah…
Ed: How’re you feeling today af-…
Jonny: [undecipherable] get started again.
Ed: How’re you feeling today after last night?
Jonny: Oh, it was great! Wasn’t it?
Ed: Yeah. A little bit stiff?
Jonny: A lot of people couldn’t get in, which is… a bit embarrassing, but…
Annie: But you had the webcast, so that was nice.
Thom: Yeah, did you hear how many were on the webcast?
Jonny: No.
Thom: Ten and a half thousand people were watching it live.
Jonny: No way!
Thom: Yes way!
Jonny: It’s amazing!
Thom: Yeah, it’s nuts, init? I didn’t…
Phil: I’ve been watching you on the webcam and Ed’s looking pretty good, obviously, Thom.
Thom: Oh no!
Annie: I was gonna say, you two have both been listening and watching and supporting your band members?
Thom: If I’d known I would’ve dressed up!
[Annie laughs]
Jonny: Yeah! [undecipherable] with the name Colin for a cat.
Thom: Now, speaking of… speaking of Colin. We did ring Colin, but he’s enjoying the show so much that he said ‘Nah, I just wanna listen’.
[Jonny laughs]
Thom: But uh—just to make you feel…
Annie: [makes chicken noises]
Thom: … just to make you feel better, there’s a text coming in saying um—‘We’re getting a cat called Colin’. From Ross. There you go, [undecipherable].
Jonny: Uh…
Annie: Uh…
Phil: Oh, that’s nice. What about Phillip?
Thom: Um—oh, yeah…
[Annie laughs]
Ed: Yeah, can someone out there please name their…
Phil: [undecipherable] stately Doverman, myself actually, I think.
[Thom, Ed and Annie laugh]
Thom: Really?
Ed: A Doverman or a Rhodesian red back.
[Phil laughs]
Annie: So have you two been enjoying the music choices then? Do you approve?
Jonny: It’s been great! Loved the Sonic Youth and the Burial tracks.
Annie: Yeah.
Thom: That’s pretty cool!
Phil(?): Yeah… The um—who is it?—Os Mutantes?
Ed: Yeah.
Jonny: Fantastic! Great track!
Ed: I’ll do you a little compilation.
Phil(?): Oh, you’re too kind!
Thom: We’re probably going to fit in an Iron and Wine track for the end of the night so…
Ed: Yeah. We’ve got an Iron and Wine track because you…
Phil: Oh, can we? It’s a request spot now, is it?
Thom: No, no, no, no, no. You have to be here for that.
Jonny or Phil: Well put it on and get [undecipherable]
Thom: Yeah, c’mon, Ed.
Ed: Would you like… I’ve always wanted to say this: Would you like to say hello to anyone?
[Annie laughs]
Jonny: Can I say hello to my Thom and Ed?
Ed: Yeah. [laughs]
Jonny: Okay. Alright, Phil.
Ed: Phillip?
Phil: Okay, maybe Colin.
[Ed and Annie laugh]
Thom: C’mon, Ed!
Jonny: See you Tuesday.
Ed: Alright. Are we done? See you Tuesday.
Annie: Thank you very much for the [undecipherable]
Thom: Bye!
Annie: Bye!
Jonny: Bye!
Ed: Bye!
Annie: What’s next, Thom?
Thom: “Happy Happy” by Tomas Anderson!
Annie: Wicked.
Ed: Nice!
[Tomas Anderson - 'Happy Happy' (Bpitch) plays]
Thom: ‘I have a cat called Colin. Lumpy Colin, to be exact.’
[Thom, Ed and Annie laugh]
Thom: KJ(?) Electronic Theatre. ‘I used to have a rat named Colin. I also have a Jonny and an Ed. No Thom. Sorry, Thom.’ Where’s Phil in all of this?!
[Annie laughs]
Ed: Yeah, c’mon!
Thom: [undecipherable] Phil! No!
Ed: Name your Rhodesian red back after Phillip. [laughs]
Someone said, ‘My Rhodesian red back is called Elsa, but I will call her Phillip from now on.
Ed: Yey! Huzzah!
Annie: It’s from Adrian, in deepest, darkest Welsh wet Wales.
Ed: Nice!
Thom: What a confused dog.
[Ed and Annie laugh]
Thom: ‘Oh, that last song was splendid! Thanks for the great music. If you wish, I can send you some raspberry jam that I made.’ Oh thank you so much! …Anna.
[Annie laughs]
Ed: Who was that?
Thom: That was “Happy Happy” by Tomas Anderson! He’s in Bpitch b-b-b Bpitch Control.
Ed: Nice.
Thom: Very good.
Ed: We got—next we’ve got “New Rose” by The Damned. A classic track, Phillip reliably informed me the other day this is the first punk single, and it still sounds amazing.
[The Damned - 'New Rose' (Stiff) plays]
[Asian Dub Foundation - 'Naxalite' (London) plays]
Ed: ‘I’ve just found a big spider in my bed so I named it Phillip.’
[Annie laughs]
Ed: ‘He wants you to play Iron and Wine. T.J. in Devon.’
Thom: ‘I’ve got a Jack Russell called Phillip. Don’t worry, Phil. Go Radiohead! Eddie from Workington.’
Ed: ‘My brother is named Phil. Does that count? Elodie.’
Thom: ‘Hello. I just bought a bunch of cool Phils. See you in tour, guys. Mark in ds-ds-d.’
Ed: ‘Brilliant song choices. Your mine and my dad’s favourite band.’
Thom: ‘We’ve…
Ed: [undecipherable]’
Thom: ‘We’ve got a ferret called Phillip. Love Tom and Claire in Yorkshire.’
[Ed laughs]
Ed: Phil, does that satisfy you now?
Annie: Ah now, this’ll make him happy. ‘My son has an imaginary friend called Phil. It’s from Jay in Cantebury.’
[Thom mumbles]
Ed: There you go. Previous track was “Naxalite” by ADF, one of the finest bands…
Thom: Uh-huh.
Ed: …of the last fifteen years. Yes.
Thom: And now we’re gonna do…?
Ed: Now we’re gonna do uh-uh—it’s a track by a band called Iron and Wine, and the track’s called “The Devil Never Sleeps”. Phil put me onto—put us onto this, and I think it’s a great album. It’s off “The Shepherd’s Son”, one of my albums of last year.
[Iron And Wine - 'The Devil Never Sleeps' (Sub Pop) plays]
Thom: Woah! There’s a nice feed in that.
Ed: Do you like that?
Thom: Yeah!
Annie: It’s a song [undecipherable]
Thom: It’s a nice tune.
Ed: It’s good, innit?
Thom: More texts! We like this.
Ed: ‘I used to hear you practicing when I stopped at the traffic lights in Clifton Hamden. Said you would never be successful.’
[Annie laughs]
Ed: [undecipherable] That was a long time ago.
Thom: It was a long time ago.
Ed: ‘Mark in Clifton.’ [laughs]
Thom: This is the best radio since John Peel.’ Woah, ooh…
Ed and Annie: Ahhhh…
Thom: ‘This mad, tremendous variety is like back into my life. Keep it up, fellas. See you in Glasgow.’ I can’t read. Sorry.
Ed: ‘Guys, please give me a sound bite quote to put in my dissertation. Maybe I’ll footnote it Radiohead [undecipherable] the author. It’s about pornography.’
Thom: Pffft!
Ed: ‘What do you think about it? Mike in Oxford.’
Thom: I know nothing about that.
Ed: One for you, Thom.
Thom: What?!
[Annie laughs]
Ed: One for you. [laughs]
Thom: [laughs] You’re dead, man! [laughs] It’s just coming out, man!
Ed: I know. That did come out. I’m not insinuating anything. ‘[undecipherable] in my room eating grapes. Loving the tunnage. Stop being so bloody bare.’
Thom: Yeah. Konono No1 next.
Annie: Yeah.
Thom: This’ll confuse you.
Annie: Straight into it.
[Ed laughs]
[Konono No1 - 'Lufuala Ndonga' (Hyperdub) plays]
Ed: I’m feeling that… big time!
[Annie laughs]
Thom: That’s tran-… that’s special trance uh—music, apparently. I don’t know nothing about this stuff. [undecipherable]
Annie: African trance or something?
Thom: Yeah—but… yeah. But to me it’s like, this big hit you’re listening to is like, well… this is rave, man.
Annie: Yeah.
Thom: They even got the whistles.
Annie: [laughs] Yeah.
Thom: Though they’re doing it on bits of tin and bits of metal and homemade gear. I mean, it’s mental. Completely mental. [undecipherable]
Annie: Konono No1?
Thom: Yeah.
Annie: Yeah.
Ed: What’s the compilation called? Do you remember? Is it Congatronics or something?
Thom: Congatronics; there’s a series of it.
Ed: Yeah.
Thom: Congatronics Konono No.1 is the best. I think. Okay, so we’re coming out to the end. Bummer, man!
Annie: Did you have a good time? Enjoy this?
Thom: Can we do this again, please?
Annie: I’m sure Zane will only be too happy to let you do it, yeah.
Thom: Yeah, thank you. We gotta thank Zane…
Ed: Yeah, thanks, man. Hope you’re having a great time in New Zealand.
Annie: He’s back on Monday, on Radio 1.
Thom: Wow!
Ed: Have a good flight. We hope it’s all good.
Annie: [undecipherable] show. [laughs]
Ed: Yes.
Thom: Um-uh—thanks everyone for listening and sending in those really loony texts.
[Ed and Annie laugh]
Ed: And thanks, Annie!
Thom: Thanks, Annie.
Ed: Cheers!
Annie: You did really good. What should we end on?
Thom: We gotta end on the Grizzly Bear tune called “He Hit Me”. It’s beautiful, man!
Annie: Okay. Thank you, Thom and Ed.
Thom: Good night, everyone.
[Grizzly Bear - 'He Hit Me (It Felt Like A Kiss)' (Warp) plays]