As anyone who’s seen the 1998 Radiohead tour documentary Meeting People Is Easy will know, being in or around the band as their masterpiece third record OK Computer became huge was not a lot of fun. And calling it a masterpiece was also a big no-no – oops! For the band’s frontman Thom Yorke, the harsh glare of the spotlight became too much and what should have been a victory lap around the globe became a gruelling, arduous schlep.
Meeting People Is Easy is full of clips of an exhausted Yorke hauling himself through promotional duties, and one of those interviews is available to watch in full. It’s taken from backstage at New York’s famous Radio City Music Hall, where Radiohead were playing later that evening, and sees Yorke sit down for a chinwag with MTV’s Matt Pinfield. It’s a curious watch, full of interesting tidbits, Yorke doing his best to be polite whilst looking like he’d rather be anywhere else, Pinfield trying to keep the whole thing jovial.
