Category: Radiohead

As we reported yesterday, Radiohead will be performing “15 Step” alongside the USC Marching Band tomorrow night for the Grammys. EW.com’s Pop Watch has a recap of how today’s rehearsal went. The photo above is from the same rehearsal.

When I walked in at 9 a.m., there were already tubas glinting under the shiny, American Idol-style metal gridwork of the space stage, the thunder of the rhythm section bouncing around like buckshot. They did a rough run-through with crew and directors clustered on stage, after which Yorke politely asked, “Can you make my voice sound a little less shiny? I like the idea that I’ve got to belt it out over these guys, you see.” Between takes, he beatboxed a bit into the mic; the band kids sat on the risers and mostly just grinned in disbelief. Yorke wandered down to the lip of the orchestra pit and asked a nearby stage manager, “Is it okay if I stand here?” Sure, said the guy, “but just so you know” — he gestured to the floor beneath Thom’s feet — “this is a wall that comes out of the ground.” Thom took a step back. “All right! Here we go! Standby!” said another stage manager, and the wall did indeed come up. The band members stirred with excitement. A stand-in who was not Gwyneth Paltrow began reading the intro off the teleprompter, and by the time she got to “Nominated tonight for Album of the Year…” the wall had lowered again to reveal Thom making a my-head-is-exploding gesture to Johnny, I assume because even Thom Yorke still gets jazzed about the Grammys. And then a snare drummer in the front row counted things off, the bass players raised their sticks, and the awesomeness began.

Read more…
You can view more photos of Radiohead’s rehearsal here. The L.A. Times has additional coverage as well.
In other news, there’s an amazing exclusive interview with Thom Yorke for you to read here.

Say what?

Radiohead will be performing live on Sunday night’s Grammy Awards with the University of Southern California Trojan Marching Band, LA Times’ Pop and Hiss reports. An anonymous source says the band will open the show with “15 Step,” from In Rainbows.

The USC Marching Band, aka The Spirit of Troy, has appeared in many movies and performed marching band versions of rock songs before. Most notably of late is their recent halftime performance of Avenged Sevenfold’s “Almost Easy” at the Rose Bowl. The USC marching band has also performed on the Grammy Awards before, supporting Outkast’s Andre 3000, singing “Hey Ya!” in 2004.

This has apparently been confirmed by a member of the USC Marching Band, who said they had been practicing all week.
(via TwentyFourBit)

Radiohead has been added to the list of performers at this year’s Grammy Awards, scheduled for February 8th in Los Angeles. This is the band’s first ever performance at the Grammys, as well as their first live televised performance in the US since 2000.

The band is nominated for 5 Grammys this year, including best album for In Rainbows.

Radiohead joins a list of other artists slated to perform, including Paul McCartney, Justin Timberlake, T.I., Kanye West, Jay Z, Coldplay, and many more.