Song · The King of Limbs era (2011)
The Daily Mail
It went nowhere for years under working titles like “A Pig's Ear”, then was arranged for brass in a week.
2004–2010
a pig's ear
It had been around since about 2004 or 2005 under working titles that included “A Pig's Ear”, and went nowhere. Thom Yorke first played it alone at the piano at the Cambridge Corn Exchange on 25 February 2010, at a benefit for the Green Party's candidate Tony Juniper, the same night “Give Up the Ghost” was first heard.
2011
from the basement
When the band decided to perform it for The King of Limbs: Live from the Basement, they finished the arrangement inside a week, with a brass section scored by Jonny Greenwood and Clive Deamer on second drums. It starts as a bruised piano ballad and ends somewhere much louder, and Marc Hogan, in Vulture, heard the fury carry it all the way to a swagger.
The target is in the title. The chorus feeds its listener to the hounds, and then to the Daily Mail.
Its first night in the archive is Radiohead's surprise set on the Park Stage at Glastonbury on 24 June 2011, where Yorke dedicated it to liberal-minded Britons, and they played it on The Colbert Report that September. On 19 December 2011 it came out as a download with “Staircase”, both in the versions from the Basement session.
2012–2025
a word about the paper
It was in the set 34 times on the 2012 tour and only now and then after that, and its longest silence ran from Pittsburgh on 26 July 2018 to Madrid on 5 November 2025.
In Tampa Yorke dedicated it to the bankers who profit from other people's despair, in Rome to Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's former prime minister, and in Detroit in 2018 he asked whether America had a paper like it.
At the O2 in London in October 2012, the day after his 44th birthday, he stopped at the start of the song because he was laughing, and then offered his verdict on the paper, “a quality newspaper”.
the session
From the Basement.· Radioheadwatch on youtube →
the record(1)
on stage(9)
Live history
| Times played | 50 shows · 1 of them Thom Yorke solo show |
|---|---|
| Live debut | Friday 24 June 2011 · Pilton |
| Last played | Saturday 22 November 2025 · London |
| Longest absence | 7 years · back on Wednesday 5 November 2025 · Madrid |
Thom Yorke, solo 26 October 2024 Auckland
Nights played include broadcasts; opened and closed count gigs only. A cancelled night has no setlist. Thom Yorke’s solo nights are counted and marked as his; the openers, closers, longest absence and chart are Radiohead’s own. All setlist stats →
sources13
- Ed O'Brien, Zane Lowe Sessions, BBC Radio 1, 13 December 2011.
- “Radiohead take festive pop at the Daily Mail”, The Independent, 14 December 2011.
- “Check out: Radiohead, ‘The Daily Mail’ and ‘Staircase’”, Consequence of Sound, 19 December 2011.
- Marc Hogan, “I might be wrong: every Radiohead song, ranked”, Vulture, 28 March 2019.
- “Thom Yorke debuts three new tracks at Green Party benefit gig”, NME, 26 February 2010, and Scott Colothan, Gigwise, 26 February 2010, for Cambridge.
- Beats Per Minute and NME, 24–25 June 2011, for the Glastonbury dedication.
- “Radiohead Releading New Tracks Dec 19” (as printed), Glide, 12 December 2011, for The Colbert Report.
- Scott Bernstein, “Radiohead Switches Up Setlist in Tampa”, Glide, 1 March 2012, for the bankers.
- Arianna Marsico, Mescalina, 1 October 2012, for Rome.
- Il Fatto Quotidiano, 24 September 2012, for the dedication to Berlusconi.
- Jeff Elbel, live review, The Big Takeover, 23 July 2018, for Detroit.
- Kitty Empire, review of Radiohead at the O2 Arena, The Observer, 14 October 2012, for the laughter.
- Performance dates from this site's own setlist archive.