The year 1993 was not a hugely happy one for . The Oxford five-piece had released their debut album early in the year, a middling introduction to a band that would go on to reshape rock music but also one that contained a huge US hit in the anguished . Radiohead were now having to hawk that song across America, becoming more and more disgruntled at the idea they were a one-hit wonder and that they were being pigeon-holed by a song they were quickly going off.
The unease seemed to reach a peak at one such promotional stop-off their label had ill-advisedly pencilled in at MTV Beach House. I mean, it’s called MTV Beach House – it doesn’t exactly scream Radiohead, does it? Footage from the event is an awkward (and awkwardly hilarious) watch. There is a look of disdain on the face of frontman Thom Yorke, at the time sporting bleached peroxide hair, as him and his band amble through a solid version of , their insides dying.
But it’s during the next song, single , that everything really starts to unravel, Yorke delivering the most unhinged performance of his entire career. The first sign that all is not well is when Yorke changes the line “Maybe I could become Jim Morrison” to “Maybe I could become Jim Morrison – fat, ugly, dead”, his voices growing more crazed until he looks into the camera and unleashes a horrifying scream. And then another.
And then one more, the camera operator getting right up in his nostril when the most sensible thing to do would be to call .