Song · Hail to the Thief era (2003–04)
Where Bluebirds Fly
The tape Radiohead walked on to through 2003, before it was ever played live.
2003
the b-side
It came out behind “There There” in 2003, and Xfm played it in May alongside the other B-side, “Paperbag Writer”. It is rattling and electronic, and its title borrows the bluebirds from “Over the Rainbow”, a song it sounds nothing like. In 2004 it was the last track on Com Lag (2plus2isfive), the collection of the Hail to the Thief B-sides.
Its real job on tour was to play while the lights went down, as “Fitter Happier” and “Meeting in the Aisle” had before it. From the 2002 dates in Spain and Portugal and right through the Hail to the Thief tour, Coachella in May 2004 included, it was what the band walked on to. A tape is not a performance, so none of those nights are counted here.
mar 2005
the royal festival hall
It was finally played on two nights in March 2005, when Jonny Greenwood was asked to close the South Bank's Ether festival with two evenings at the Royal Festival Hall. He arranged it for the London Sinfonietta and members of the Nazareth Orchestra, a visiting Arabic orchestra, and played the ondes Martenot behind Thom Yorke, with the singer Lubna Salame beside Yorke, singing without words. It closed the set twice.
That June BBC Radio 3's Hear and Now broadcast four of Greenwood's pieces from those nights, and it was one of the two he had written with Yorke; “Arpeggi” was the other.
on stage
Live at Ether Festival 2005.· OMGreenBearwatch on youtube →
the record(1)
on stage(1)
Live history
| Times played | 2 shows |
|---|---|
| Live debut | Sunday 27 March 2005 · London |
| Last played | Monday 28 March 2005 · London |
| Closed the night | 2 times |
Nights played include broadcasts; opened and closed count gigs only. A cancelled night has no setlist. All setlist stats →
sources6
- Wikipedia, “There There” and “Com Lag”, for the release.
- The site's own catalogue note, based on fan archives, for the walk-on tape.
- The site's news archive, 28 May 2003, for Xfm.
- The site's news archive, 2 May 2004, for the Coachella walk-on, and 5 April 2004, for Com Lag.
- NME, report on the Royal Festival Hall concert, 27 March 2005, and Stephen Pritchard, “Don't box them in”, The Observer, 3 April 2005, for the arrangement, the Nazareth Orchestra and Lubna Salame.
- The site's news archive, 27 June 2005, for the Ether pieces and the Radio 3 broadcast.