Song · The King of Limbs era (2011)
Staircase
The studio version on sale is the take Radiohead filmed for Live from the Basement, two drummers and all.
2011
basement material
It came out of the sessions for The King of Limbs, but not onto the album. It was ready for Live from the Basement, the session where they played the album and what lay beyond it, and Clive Deamer of Portishead came in to drum beside Phil Selway. The song is built for the pair of them, interlocking patterns with Deamer on a sampling pad as well as his kit, and Thom Yorke's falsetto over the top from behind a synthesiser. It sits closer to what the band would do live in 2012 than to anything on the album.
They put a clip of it online on 21 June 2011, ahead of the broadcast, with a note from Selway.
And no, you're not seeing double. The doppelganger drummers are myself and Clive Deamer.
phil selway · dead air space, 21 june 2011
Three days later it was in the set at Glastonbury, where Radiohead played the Park Stage on 24 June billed only as special guests, and in September they played it on Saturday Night Live, Yorke restless at a keyboard.
19 dec 2011
released with “the daily mail”
“Staircase” and “The Daily Mail” went out together on 19 December 2011, both lifted from that session; the band posted them on YouTube and put them on sale as downloads. The San Antonio Current's reviewer gave the pair four and a half stars, and wished this one had been on the album.
2012
the screens
The 2012 tour accounts for 40 of its 45 nights, the last of them Melbourne on 16 November 2012. That tour hung a field of LED screens over the band, moved and re-angled for every song. At Coachella on 14 April 2012, Laura Studarus of Under the Radar watched them ripple blue-green like water for “Weird Fishes”, and for “Staircase” tilt and light up one after another, as if climbing.
the session
From the Basement.· Radioheadwatch on youtube →
the record(1)
on stage(8)
Live history
| Times played | 45 shows |
|---|---|
| Live debut | Friday 24 June 2011 · Pilton |
| Last played | Friday 16 November 2012 · Melbourne |
Nights played include broadcasts; opened and closed count gigs only. A cancelled night has no setlist. All setlist stats →
sources9
- “Check out: Radiohead, ‘The Daily Mail’ and ‘Staircase’”, Consequence of Sound, 19 December 2011.
- Ed O'Brien, Zane Lowe Sessions, BBC Radio 1, 13 December 2011.
- The Quietus, “LISTEN: New Radiohead”, 21 June 2011, for Selway's note; Spin, 21 June 2011, for Yorke at a synthesiser.
- NME and DIY, 24–25 June 2011, for Glastonbury.
- Spin, 25 September 2011, for Saturday Night Live.
- Laura Studarus, “Coachella Recap Day 2”, Under the Radar, April 2012, for the screens.
- Review of “The Daily Mail” and “Staircase”, San Antonio Current, December 2011, for Deamer's sampling pad and the verdict.
- The site's news story on the leak of “Putting Ketchup in the Fridge”, 22 December 2011, for the YouTube posting.
- Performance dates from this site's own setlist archive.