Radiohead take over an hour-long Colbert Report

The Colbert Report ran for an hour on Monday 26 September instead of its usual half, billed as the first hour-long edition the Comedy Central show has done, and Stephen Colbert gave most of it to Radiohead. They played four songs on air, recorded two more for the programme's website and sat through two interviews with Colbert in character as a loud, pro-business pundit.

The show rarely books live music; its guests are mostly authors, politicians and activists. When the booking was announced on 19 September, Colbert answered in character. I look forward to meeting the Radioheads and leveraging their anti-corporate indie cred to raise brand awareness for my sponsors.⁷ The show came two days after the band played “Lotus Flower” and “Staircase” on Saturday Night Live, and two days before the first of two Roseland Ballroom concerts in New York, whose tickets went on sale at 10am on the morning of the broadcast.

The songs on air were “Bloom” and “Little By Little” from The King of Limbs, “The National Anthem” from Kid A, and “The Daily Mail”, still unreleased, which the band first played together in concert at Glastonbury in June after Thom Yorke had played it alone. “Codex” and “Morning Mr Magpie” went online only. A brass section played on four of the six.

Colbert ribbed the band about being British, being independent, corporations, global warming and a Christmas album. Asked why Americans like them, Yorke said they had no idea. Colbert put it down to leftover Beatlemania, and Yorke said they were still waiting for the greeting off the plane with all the crowds and shit³. When Colbert decided they were no lovable moptops but had a ragged indie quality, Yorke burst out laughing, and Jonny Greenwood, behind him, could barely sit up.

The interviews were sponsored by Dr Pepper, and when Colbert broke off to plug the “Dr Pepper Zone”, Yorke came back with a joke about the rinse fluid dentists use. The second interview, with Yorke and Ed O'Brien alone, turned to global warming. At one point Colbert asked Yorke his age. He hesitated, said 42, and was told to grow up.

The songs