Radiohead's farewell to R.E.M. in Hartford makes the Melody Maker cover

Melody Maker puts Radiohead on its cover this week, with Andrew Mueller's account of their last night supporting R.E.M. in America, at the Meadows in Hartford, Connecticut, on Sunday 1 October. Mike Mills had warned them to expect a farewell joke, so the band planned one of their own. Colin Greenwood wanted the crew in the lighting gantries to drop 500 ping-pong balls on R.E.M. during their last song. Thom Yorke objected.

My question is where the fing hell we're going to find 500 ping-pong balls at short notice in this fing place on a Sunday afternoon.

Thom Yorke¹

Plan B was for the five to fly across the stage on harnesses, beside the giant red lampshades in R.E.M.'s set, during “It's the End of the World as We Know It”. R.E.M.'s tour manager would not allow it. Storming the stage in lampshades was dropped too, after Phil Selway tried one on and could not see. In the end Yorke left a thank-you drawing among the sheets on Michael Stipe's lyric stand, and Bill Berry came to say goodbye in a purple Radiohead tour T-shirt. It has been Yorke's year for meeting his heroes, Colin says; Elvis Costello introduced himself at a show in Italy.

R.E.M. got their joke in anyway. In Mueller's own longer version of the piece, Mills sends a radio-controlled car at Ed O'Brien during Radiohead's set, which they close with “Nobody Does It Better”, dedicated to R.E.M. Expecting a prank, the band fled the stage, and R.E.M. came out with champagne to toast them before they were fetched back. Radiohead had an hour's soundcheck every night of the tour, and in Hartford they teased snatches of “Radio Free Europe”.

The next night Radiohead played a secret show) at the Mercury Lounge on East Houston Street in New York. At soundcheck they played “Sulk” when Mueller asked for it.

Back home, the band's UK tour, opening in Glasgow on 31 October, has sold out. Yorke and Jonny Greenwood play an acoustic set on XFM) tonight, with Gary Crowley asking the questions. The paper's news page reports that the band lost all their equipment on the first date of their American tour with Soul Asylum, and cancelled the first week of shows before re-equipping.

The Bends, Mueller writes, is selling far less than the two million of Pablo Honey. Yorke reckons that is probably a compliment, and O'Brien borrows from Spinal Tap to say their appeal is becoming more selective. Yorke tells Mueller we decided that the next record should be a celebration. Because that really would be a challenge for Radiohead.¹