Thom Yorke writes up Radiohead's first eleven days with R.E.M.

Thom Yorke's diary of Radiohead's first 11 days supporting R.E.M. in Europe runs in the October issue of Q, with photographs by the band. In Oslo he played everyone a new song in the dressing room, which was really a toilet. It was called “No Surprises, Please”, and Colin Greenwood went nuts. The same night the band played “Lucky”. Yorke thought it the best they had ever played it, and had the shivers almost all the way through.

Before the first show, at Milton Keynes Bowl, Michael Stipe came in to say hello.

Hi, I'm Michael. I'm really glad you could do this. I'm a very big fan.

Michael Stipe¹

Yorke, who says he never believed in hero worship, admits he was fighting for breath. The next day the band were in London for one day of the three-day shoot for the “Just” video. Its director, Jamie Thraves, brought his idea on a single sheet of A4. A man collapses in the street, and captions appear as if the song were being translated.

At R.E.M.'s record-company party in Berlin, held in an old army barracks, it dawned on him.

This is R.E.M. and they really like us. No, I mean they REALLY like us.

Thom Yorke¹

On the flight to Oslo, R.E.M.'s Mike Mills showed him a note from Bill Clinton sympathising over Mills's recent stomach trouble. Watching R.E.M. play, Yorke picks out “Strange Currencies”, “Finest Worksong” and a brand-new song, “The Undertow”, as what keeps them real inside an operation that size, and he wonders how long Radiohead can last.

In Stockholm a few people who had come just for Radiohead hugged him, and he stopped avoiding Stipe. They played with Kinder toys and talked about the time Stipe met Patti Smith. The next day R.E.M. left on the Rolling Stones' private jet while Radiohead sat at the airport, Yorke answering fan letters from the satchel he carries. In Sicily they were still stuck in traffic a minute before they were due on, with Stipe telling him to breathe.

Israel, Yorke writes, is where “Creep” first broke, more than two years ago and well before America, and where he was first mobbed. The next day brought a press conference and a few acoustic songs from Yorke and Jonny Greenwood at the army's radio station. That evening a fan in a restaurant asked for Yorke's autograph instead of Stipe's. He hid behind a napkin.

The one show in Israel, at Ramat Gan outside Tel Aviv, came on 9 August. Yorke had sunstroke from the beach, and Stipe gave him and Jonny what he called an organic pick-me-up (not speed, Stipe said). It kicked in during the set.

I feel like I've been plugged straight into the mains.

Thom Yorke¹

Walking off, he could hardly move. The diary ends with Jonny telling him he was off to Lebanon in a jeep.

The diary's eleven days