Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke was beginning to tire of the world’s gaze by the time the Oxford rockers released No Surprises in January 1998. A swaying, lullaby-ish ballad, it was the fourth and final single from their third album OK Computer and the band, and Yorke in particular, wanted to make a mark with its video, determined not to make anything that could be deemed predictable.
A lot of the suggestions put forward from prospective directors at the time didn’t capture Yorke’s imagination, pitching clips along the lines of what he described as “man walks along the street, no expression on his face, things fly past, things blow up, carries on walking”, Yorke rejecting them on account of them not conveying the troubled nature of the song. It was director Grant Gee, on the road with the band filming the documentary that would become Meeting People Is Easy, who came up with the right concept.
