Radiohead's monitor engineer on Thom Yorke's green earpieces

David “Tree” Tordoff, who has mixed Radiohead's stage monitors for much of the last six years, explains how the band hear themselves in a feature on in-ear monitoring in Mix's January 2002 issue.

I know the first ones Thom ever ordered, he said, 'Oh, can I have them in green?' He doesn't care if people see them.

David Tordoff¹

On the latest tour Yorke and Phil Selway were on in-ears and the rest of the band used floor wedges, all supplied by Firehouse Productions. Yorke in fact uses both. His voice goes to his ears, while the drums and some other instruments come from the wedges. There are certain things he doesn't want to hear right in his ears, like Jonny Greenwood for example!¹

Getting Yorke's earpiece right took years. He wanted two drivers, something softer than acrylic and a larger mould, because he gets hot on stage and a small one works loose. No maker offered all three until Bryan at Firehouse suggested the firm's own dual-driver 6500s, still acrylic but with a softer, smoother finish, and Yorke was happy with them. Selway's mixes also drive a shaker fitted to his drum stool.

Ed O'Brien wore in-ears for a year, at a time when he was anxious about singing backing vocals behind Yorke, and Tordoff says they did a lot for his confidence. He gave them up because he could no longer hear his guitar amplifier properly, and the guitar, Tordoff says, is his main job in the band.