Song · OK Computer era (1996–98)
Meeting in the Aisle
Phil Selway, a Samaritans volunteer, once had young film-makers set short films about mental health to this instrumental.
1997
programmed
It came out on the first CD of the “Karma Police” single in August 1997, then on Airbag / How Am I Driving?, and twenty years later on OKNOTOK. There are no words and no verse or chorus, only programmed beats and string-like textures; the 2003 version of this site credited the programming to Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker.
Ed O'Brien was already pointing at it. Announcing the fan-club night at the London Astoria that September, he told NME the band had been writing on the road in North America, and that “Meeting in the Aisle” was heading somewhere they had never been. On the evidence of Kid A, he was right.
1997–2012
the walk-on tape
From November 1997, and through the 1998 dates of the OK Computer tour, it was the tape the band walked on to, in the slot “Fitter Happier” had held before. At the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco in April 1998, Eric Hellweg wrote in Rolling Stone, they came on to it and went into “Airbag” without a word. A tape is not a performance, so those nights are not counted here.
The band first played it themselves in Miami on 27 February 2012, a few songs into the set, and kept it for four nights that year, the last in Paris on 11 October 2012.
2003
need to talk
In March 2003 the band gave it, free, to Need To Talk, an MTV campaign run with Samaritans and Mind Out for Mental Health. Young British film-makers were asked for films of 30 to 60 seconds on the phrase “need to talk”, set to the track, and 57 came in. Phil Selway, who had been taking Samaritans calls since he was a student in Liverpool, did the asking.
When the biggest killer of young men in the UK is themselves, anything the band can do to draw attention to the issue of emotional health is worthwhile.
phil selway · ananova, 23 march 2003
on stage
Live, 2012.· MoiLikehomewatch on youtube →
the record(1)
on stage(2)
Live history
| Times played | 4 shows |
|---|---|
| Live debut | Monday 27 February 2012 · Miami |
| Last played | Thursday 11 October 2012 · Paris |
Nights played include broadcasts; opened and closed count gigs only. A cancelled night has no setlist. All setlist stats →
Tabs (1)
sources8
- Wikipedia, “Karma Police” and “Airbag / How Am I Driving?”, for the releases.
- The site's own catalogue note, based on Discogs and Last.fm.
- The 2003 treefingers.com lyric page (
_legacy/lyrics/songs/meeting_in_the_aisle.txt), for the programmers and the walk-on tape. - “Radiohead's fans-tastic day”, NME, 30 August 1997, for O'Brien on the song.
- Eric Hellweg, “Live Report: Radiohead”, Rolling Stone, 3 April 1998, for the walk-on in San Francisco.
- “Radiohead donate track for mental health project”, Ananova, 23 March 2003, for Need To Talk and Selway's words.
- Sophie Petit-Zeman, “Rhythm and blues”, The Guardian, 3 June 2003, for Selway's years with Samaritans and the 57 films.
- The site's live archive, for the tape nights and the 2012 performances.