Song · Hail to the Thief era (2003–04)
There There
Two drummers, and a mix that made Thom Yorke cry with relief.
Hail to the Thiefalbum- 2003released
- 5:23length
2000–02
can, and a lot of drums
They had it as far back as the Kid A sessions. What it became owes most to Can, with the Pixies and Siouxsie and the Banshees in there too: layered percussion, O'Brien and Jonny Greenwood both on drums, everything climbing towards one loud release.
The full title is “There, There (The Boney King of Nowhere.)”, after a character in Bagpuss, which Yorke was watching with his young son. The words, he said, are “supposed to be comforting: ‘It's alright, you're just imagining it.’”
2002
the version they lost
They recorded it at Ocean Way in Los Angeles and hated it.
Sometimes it doesn't work at all, because you haven't got the real volume of a live concert… That just doesn't really work coming out of speakers in your front room… It just sounded a bit like we were trying to make a worthy ‘live band playing together’ recording.
jonny greenwood
Yorke thought the song was gone. They went home and cut another version in their own Oxfordshire studio with Godrich, and when Yorke heard the mix he wept.
And one day you walk into the studio and there it is. But you've not been standing there with a hammer and trying to beat it out of the desk or your guitar, it's not necessary. It's just there one day.
thom yorke
The demo ended up as the B-side of “2 + 2 = 5”.
21 may 2003
the single
It led Hail to the Thief, released in Britain on 26 May 2003. Number four in Britain, number one in Canada and Portugal, top ten in Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Norway and Scotland, 14 on the US Modern Rock chart.
Yorke asked Oliver Postgate, who made Bagpuss, to do the video; Postgate was retired and said no. Chris Hopewell got the job instead, with instructions pointing at the Brothers Grimm and Jan Švankmajer. Hopewell described his own result as “fifties East European genre animation, overlaboured and naive”. It premiered on the Times Square Jumbotron on 20 May 2003 and ran hourly on MTV2 that day, and won Best Art Direction at the VMAs. In 2020 Jonny Greenwood named it the band's best video.
Rolling Stone placed it 196th among the greatest songs of the 21st century in 2025, and a live version is on the archive release Hail to the Thief (Live Recordings 2003–2009).
2000–2025
the way in
It was first played in London on 10 February 2000, three years before the record, and then 72 times in 2003. Of the archive's 297 nights, fifty-nine have opened with it.
the video
The promo, directed by Chris Hopewell.· Radioheadwatch on youtube →
takes(3)
Live history
| Times played | 297 shows |
|---|---|
| Live debut | Thursday 10 February 2000 · London |
| Last played | Tuesday 16 December 2025 · Copenhagen |
| Opened the night | 59 times |
| Closed the night | 9 times |
| Longest absence | 7 years · back on Tuesday 4 November 2025 · Madrid |
First played live in 2000, 3 years before it was released.
Nights played include broadcasts; opened and closed count gigs only. A cancelled night has no setlist. All setlist stats →
sources8
- “Radiohead Hail to the Thief” interview CD, 2003.
- John Robinson, “Bagpuss, ex-lax, and the angriest thing we've ever written”, 10 May 2003.
- Michael Odell, “Silence! Genius at work”, July 2003.
- Craig McLean, “OK, no computers”, The Daily Telegraph, 16 May 2003.
- “Thom Yorke on Hail to the Thief”, Xfm London, 2 July 2003.
- Brad Osborn, Everything in its Right Place: Analyzing Radiohead, Oxford University Press.
- Jazz Monroe, Pitchfork, 13 August 2025, on the live album.
- Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 19 August 2025.