Thom Yorke admits he first believed the case for war in Iraq

The Age has printed Andrew Mueller's feature from Radiohead's tour bus, first run in The Independent, ahead of the band's two nights at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne on Monday and Tuesday. The ride is from July 2003, London to Paris at the start of that summer's European festival run. In it Thom Yorke owns up to having been taken in over Iraq. You'd think I'd know better.¹

Aboard the new black bus are Yorke, Ed O'Brien, Nigel Godrich, the tour manager Hilda and one of the crew; the others are meeting them in Paris. Yorke makes instant coffee. O'Brien, at 198 cm too tall for a bunk, eyes the double bed at the back, then thinks better of it when Yorke, who fits a bunk fine, looks up.

Mueller has met Yorke several times in eight years, and this time he is chatty and amused, wary of a formal interview only because the talk keeps turning to the state of the world.

Yorke says Hail to the Thief is not a dig at America and points somewhere different depending on the day. He feared personal attacks and threats if they used it, but the other title, The Gloaming, was too gloomy, and he does a church organ to show why.

The songs had other titles too. “No No No No No No No”, for “A Punchup at a Wedding”, would have made a good album title, he says, and his favourite is “Little Man Being Erased”, for “Go to Sleep”.

Asked whether being a rich rock star makes it harder to sing about powerlessness, Yorke says it makes it easier, since there is more time to worry. Somebody has to put the jester's hat on and make a tit of himself¹.