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Radiohead release “Follow Me Around”, with Guy Pearce in the video
Radiohead have released “Follow Me Around”, a song from the OK Computer years that had never had an official release, with a video. The studio recording is track five of Kid Amnesiae, the third disc of KID A MNESIA, which XL Recordings releases on 5 November. It is the second song out from the set, after “If You Say the Word” in September.
In the video, directed by Us, a camera chases Guy Pearce around a cramped flat. Pearce gave it away on Twitter two days early, on 30 October, in a post about finding a free toaster by the side of the road that still worked.
It's also not every day you get to be in a Radiohead video clip. Both happened a few weeks ago.
Guy Pearce1
The band often played the song at soundchecks on the OK Computer tour, and fans took to it there. Until now the nearest thing to a recording was a soundcheck in Meeting People Is Easy, filmed at Crossing Hall in Fukuoka on 21 January 1998; the band posted that footage on 31 October.
They took it into the Kid A sessions. On 28 July 1999 Ed O'Brien wrote in his online diary that we discussed 'Follow Me Around' and how we would like to approach it, rather than just start playing and thereby fall into old habits
1, and by December they were working on it in Pro Tools. Pieces of its words went up on the band's website over the years, tied to “Kid A” and “Where I End and You Begin”, and some are in the hidden booklet of Kid A.
Its first full concert performance came in the encore at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto on 17 October 2000, Thom Yorke playing it acoustically, after fans had campaigned for it on a fan site named after the song. After that it came back a handful of times, a verse at a time in 2001 and in full on the Hail to the Thief tour of 2003. The last time was in Macerata in August 2017, where Yorke and Jonny Greenwood played it in a new arrangement at a benefit for the Marche towns hit by the 2016 earthquakes.
“Follow Me Around” on stage, 1998 to 2017
| Date | City | Venue | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21 January 1998 | Fukuoka | Crossing Hall | Soundcheck, filmed for Meeting People Is Easy |
| 17 October 2000 | Toronto | Air Canada Centre | First concert performance, in the encore |
| 29 June 2001 | Santa Barbara | Santa Barbara Bowl | One verse |
| 7 August 2001 | New York | Madison Square Garden | One verse |
| 31 August 2003 | Auburn, Washington | White River Amphitheatre | Yorke alone, in the second encore |
| 1 September 2003 | Seattle | 107.7 The End studio | Yorke alone, radio session |
| 22 September 2003 | San Francisco | Metreon | – |
| 29 September 2003 | Los Angeles | Capitol Records Tower (KROQ) | KROQ radio session |
| 21 November 2003 | Manchester | BBC studios | BBC television session |
| 27 November 2003 | London | Earls Court | – |
| 8 December 2003 | London | Maida Vale Studios | Maida Vale radio session |
| 29 June 2006 | Los Angeles | Greek Theatre | Part of the song |
| 19 July 2009 | Southwold | Latitude festival | Yorke solo |
| 20 August 2017 | Macerata | Sferisterio | Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, new arrangement |
the video
Follow Me Around · The official promo film.· Radioheadwatch on youtube →