Michael Stipe recalls a Radiohead crowd shouting one line of “No Surprises”

Michael Stipe tells Interview magazine, in its December/January issue, about a televised Radiohead show at the Beacon Theatre in New York, with tickets sold for two dollars. Radiohead crowds usually sing every word, he says, sometimes drowning Thom Yorke out, but this one stayed hushed through the set. Then, during “No Surprises”, the whole room shouted the line about the government not speaking for us, and fell silent again straight after.

Stipe was there with Q-Tip, and both sat open-mouthed. At the bar afterwards they asked Yorke whether he had noticed.

I almost fell over. I almost couldn't sing the next line of the song.

Thom Yorke¹