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Phil Selway goes public about 11 years as a Samaritans volunteer
Phil Selway has spoken in public for the first time about his 11 years as a Samaritans volunteer, at the launch of the charity's Come Up campaign at the Atlantic Bar in London's West End last week. Come Up is aimed at people aged 15 to 24, and asks them to get in touch with the Samaritans when life feels unbearable.
Melody Maker asked him whether there was an irony in a member of Radiohead, with songs like theirs, working to relieve despair. We see Radiohead's songs not so much as depressing, but as uplifting. Cathartic.
1 Then he corrected himself mid-sentence to say it is Thom Yorke, not the band, who takes on those subjects. Going through those feelings, he said, can lead somewhere more positive, and he hopes that is what callers find.
Volunteers are meant to stay anonymous, and until now Selway had never talked publicly about the decade or so he has given the charity. He still answers the phones on regular shifts. He describes the work as listening without judging. The caller is always in control and can end the call at any point, and the volunteer keeps their own opinions out of it. We try to empathise with callers, and we try to guide rather than direct.
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NME says the Samaritans have been the one thing in his life that stayed the same through those 11 years, and that he is the first musician to back one of their campaigns. The charity says it asked him because Radiohead's songs reach disaffected young people. Lise Colyer of the Samaritans told the paper they feared the young pictured their volunteers as 45-year-olds in twin sets and pearls. At the launch the Samaritans gave the figure that two young people in the UK take their own lives every day.
The campaign is timed for the festival season, and the Samaritans' festival branch will be at most of the summer's big events. Selway will also visit schools to talk about the work, which he says he would miss if he stopped. Talking through emotional problems and feelings, whatever they are, is a major step in taking some control over them.
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