Radiohead LP9 Anticipation, Fangirling and random Cheesecake Thread (Do not read if you hate Radiohead or us)

OK, I apologise.

There's nothing wrong with obsessive fandom, female or otherwise.

lol

I know it'd be gauche to complain about ticket prices in that Other Place when everyone is maxing out their credit cards flying around the world to go to every single date on a world tour, but... I dunno, pretty much the only places I ever go to gigs any more are the SBC and the Barbican where I get itchy about £20 to £30 tickets because I'm used to paying less than £10 to go to Sonic Cathedral or whatever, but at least I'm guaranteed a good view and a nice place to sit unlike a stadium gig

BUT BUT BUT. I guess, this is what I was talking with Emsk about on the train, about the stratospheric cost of tickets due to legal, band-approved secondary ticket markets and compared to that, RH are doing some kind of ethical thing in terms of not doing that, but still.

I'm going to make a list of things I could be doing with my £65 instead of going to see Radiohead in a fucking arena and buying them each another house and sending their kids to boarding school.

1) Immersive Cornish Language weekend in Newquay
2) tickets for me, and a friend, to the entire weekend of the WOW (Women of the World) Festival
3) A month of gigs at the Brixton Windmill
4) Dinner for 4, plus 2 bottles of wine at the Tooting Thali house of my choice
5) Hire a marquee at the Streatham Festival and sell postcards and prints of local landmarks

I know, I know, this is old man shaking his cane at the clouds territory considering it's actually pretty freaking REASONABLE for a stadium gig and all, but still. Just head-shakey at the winner-takes-all set up of costing for concert tickets for the umpteenth millionth time.

Meeting In The Aisle and A.S.O. Orgy are two of my favourite B-Sides, digging the new set-list!

Yeah, the setlists on this tour are absolutely incredible, some real gems in there. But, just... not £65 incredible, when I can get them for free on YouTube (sorry, I know Mr Yorke has been complaining about that, but y'know, I'm sure I'll buy the £65 biodegradable box set filled with Stanley Donwood art, when that comes out.)

It's 'lack of corporate sponsorship' isn't it?

The choice is between 'putting a few Barclaycard posters up to save punters a fiver (or more?)' and, um, not.

Or, of course, scrimping on the light show.

Or, all of the above.

They are their own corporation at this point! I'm not even talking about their personal wealth (£45 million or whatever it was quoted at) but the more I read from srs fans, the more I'm interested about finding out about the structure of wholly owned subsidiaries like W.A.S.T.E. and Sandbag and the like. I mean, not in a "try and catch them out" sort of sense, or even in a "money where your mouths are" sense but, like - trying to see how it all works out.

And in terms of corporate sponsorship - playing the American Airlines Arena and the Hewlett Packard Pavillion (because the sponsorship often goes on the venue itself, as tour support for bands usually comes from labels) is hardly scrimping, y'know?

I don't think they're being breadheads about this. Bands like U2 take corporate sponsorship (at least in part) to subsidise a batch of cheap tickets but that's not Radiohead's style. And given that concerts are where bands make their money now I can't quibble too much with their pricing. That said, £65 for a lot of Kings of Limb material is not for me. Are there really no cheaper ones?

It's not that I think they're being breadheads. It's just that... I'm unemployed; I can't afford a £65 ticket. (And I wouldn't go to an arena show anyway.)

Given the scale of their touring, is or isn't £65 a reasonable price or not? OK, sustainable recycled low-energy lighting rigs don't design and build themselves. Is this what it all costs? When a tour isn't subsidised and given tour supports? (I don't imagine XL has the budget EMI did. Also, RH choose their own support acts, rather than relying on buy-ons, all that kind of thing adds up.)

But this is when I wish Emsk would get on this thread to talk about the whole ticket pricing scandal, because I'm not an expert on this, and she is. But it seems like RH are doing something on this tour to try to address secondary reselling - but at the cost of many fans not being able to trade tickets among themselves to make sure that messageboard type srs fans all got to see as many shows as they could.

I'm not criticising pe se, I just don't know how this part works, and I wish that I did.

Also, it's not just TKOL era stuff, they are really bringing out some serious fan service in terms of the beloved and rare B-sides and older material they've been playing.

Yeah I don't know how it works either. I guess I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. Still cheaper than the demented prices the Cure charged at the Albert Hall recently - that was a shocker.

Well, I just recently spent £55 each (that's four) on tickets (not thickets you rubbish typing person me) for the Hyde Park Blur/Specials/NewOrder/SomeoneElse gig.

Which seemed a lot also, but nowadays we don't do gigs so hey.

Regarding the 'scrimping', I was more about cutting down on the overheads (lights, um, what else, I dunno, support bands? Stop larfing..) rather than 'not playing the arena that has been renamed in favour of some rub lager or summat..'

I guess it's because nowadays a new band would find it impossible to do anything without 'corporation-ness' getting involved somewhere, as you say all the venues are tied in to a greater or lesser extent.

I went o_0 at the Blur gig prices, but given it's a full day out, which is almost like 1 day of a festival, with 3 headliners I'd be willing to pay £20 a piece for, that's fair enough.

But £65 to see Radiohead and - Caribou? Who I've seen at Sonic Cathedral for a fiver or whatever? - at the O2 Centre? Obviously I am not going, and the cheesecakers probably think I'm a "filler fan" for even complaining.

That was the thinking, yes.

I can't think who my OMGMUSTGO band would be nowadays (spoiled, perhaps, as my one *was* the Velvet Underground, who promptly reformed and played my 'local' midsized venue (The Forum) for 'notstupidlyexpensive' ).

I don't even begrudge the Stone Roses for charging very-silly money, I don't even know why.

I cannot think of a single band that I would pay £65 to see, just them. Not Aphex Twin, not Radiohead, not Spacemen 3 back from the grave with Jason back on guitar. Obviously I paid a lot more than that to see My Bloody Valentine reform, but that was for a whole festival with a billion other bands I loved!

So I guess that's me out of the running entirely.

The £65 (and over) list would end up having to be 'historic' in some sense.

VU, The Jam, The Beatles (I know, I know...), and I suppose if someone had offered me 2 Led Zep tickets I might have considered even though I'm totally meh about them.

Yeah, I'm getting ripped a new one for even remarking that £65 might be eye-watering for some, on a ~srs Radiohead fan messageboard~, but, still. I find it excessive.

It was a point of mild annoyance, knowing "I will never get to see RH live again" because I can't handle stadium shows, at all, even under the best circumstances. But having changed to "I couldn't actually afford to see RH, even if I wanted to" has kicked that over into actual irritation.

But this is my endless dilemma on the interweb. That on ILX, I'm a crazy lunatic fringe over the edge fan ~of artists I love~ while on the actual forums for ~fans of that artist~ I'm y'know, ~not serious enough~.

nagl for fans to be judging other fans re: how much money they can spare for gig tickets - I know the vibe is meant to be "beg, steal or borrow" for true believers but if you're in a situation where £65 is too much then it's too much and that's that.

xp The Stone Roses are a special case imo. They all need the money and they never sold that much back in the day relative to their rep so good luck to them. Same goes for most reunion tours - this is their retirement fund.

Well, yeah. Obviously, I won't be complaining if they get added to the Hyde Park gig, but I would be surprised, obv.

It gets harder for bands to keep rational about how much is "too much", particularly when tickets sell out in seconds anyway. I mean, they invened the 'deluxe LP box' format, and now every act with a certain vanity level is doing them (Badly Drawn Boy? I mean, is that a landfill happening soon?)

Also, when Jagger (he's called that now, yeah?) said about the 'box-set' of "Exile" that "it's not that expensive" I thought to myself "that means £100 is not going to be enough" and yep.

I hate to say it, but there's definitely a class aspect at work here. That I'm not prepared to begrudge the Stone Roses or any other band that got shafted by their label back in the day, the ability to provide for their families. But I don't get that vibe with RH at all, I get the vibe of still quite well off professionals shovelling loot into their ISAs after they've already paid off the mortgages on the mansions, while still making quite cushy upper middle class salaries from their record sales and merchandising. Which might be unfair, but it is what it is. And that the reason that Radiohead get shit from the NME about ticket prices, while, using the example that was brought up - Peter Gabriel doesn't - is because I don't exactly see Peter Gabriel DJ-ing at Occupy LSX and giving lip service to bringing down the 1% he is a part of while charging those nosebleed ticket prices.

But. It makes me a Bad Fan to say this, I do recognise that.

Oh, Radiohead, I hate myself for loving you, part 3,867.

WCC - I feel you on the disappointment wrt the 02 corporate experience/resistance to having to participate in the gig-as-multimedia-attention-deficit-playground potential nightmare. Like anybody, I hate feeling like an old-fart personally, but damn.

I'm gonna throw a "WE CAN'T AFFORD TO GO TO RADIOHEAD" party and play all the albums (and singles, including B-sides) in order and eat cheesecake all night long.

Meanwhile, the Big Huge NYT Magazine story on Mr. J. Greenwood:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/magazine/jonny-greenwood-radioheads-runaway-guitarist.html

And this Alvernia Studios place he's recording at is tripping me out big time. Designed by H. R. Giger!

http://www.alvernia.com

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/07/entertainment/la-ca-krakow-20110807

Or rather inspired by Giger, but good grief that is nuts.

That Alvernia website is truly amazing as fuck. O_O thankin' you for alerting me to this.

I mean the whole thing is incredible of course. But so is the website - seems like you could spend hours just clicking through the virtual tour.

http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0mf2ms59P1r89qoso1_500.gif

efffffffffffffffffffing stop that.

Jaysus. HE CAN SEE MY SOUL.

I'm trying to cut down on my Thom Yorke obsession because I'm convinced that Radiohead trigger my OCD like all hell but when he looooks liiiikkkee that... EEEEEEEE.

(I'm sorry, Melissa, I really tried this time. But I just don't think there *is* a RH fan community that doesn't make me hate them/them hate me, and me hate myself for trying and failing, and hate the band and mine own fandom in the process.)

heyoooo

i got a copy of the in rainbows ltd ed box for a tenner. great, but it is missing the first cd. is it the same as the normal release one if i want to replace it?

(looking to stick it on ebay obv, already own the normal release.)

(to clarify, own it on vinyl, and thus can't tell if the cds look the same.)

Not that kind of Radiohead fan, sorry. I can tell you what haircut Thom Yorke has had every year since 1993, but I'm hopeless with discographies and back catalogue.

(I am *always* the wrong kind of RH fan, for everyone.)

Contentwise, yes.

Appearancewise, possibly not: They signed to XL for the eventual shop release. Doubtless that logo will be on the normal release version.

Still, you might find it goes reasonably well without it.

lol :D

cheers mark. the xl logo isnt on disc 2, guess i'll have to spy a copy of the normal release to see if it is there.

It seems I am just too ambivalent about mine own Radiohead fandom, and ~real Radiohead fans~ will always sniff that out, and removing me is for the good of the community.

I am always too divisive, often without even meaning to be, and I never do well on single-topic forums to start with.

Perspective.

(no mystery)

"I can tell you what haircut Thom Yorke has had every year since 1993"
like watching people solve rubik's cubes in 30 seconds, i would very much like a demonstration of this.

I will probably forget a couple of head-shaves and other tragic haircuts in here but..

-There was the On A Friday schoolboy fringe in 86
-Then the blond chin-length bowl cut through most of art school
-1992 he did a headshave
-1993 the bleached yellow extensions arrived
-1994 the extensions got teased up, then Jonny cut them off for that photoshoot
-1995 short, spikey hair, first bleached then red
-1996 - red, Johnny Rotten stylee
-1997 - dyed black
-1998 - shaved, bald patches appear
-1999 - that Ed Grimley sticky uppy bit appeared
-2000 - natural hair colour returns, the beard appears
-2001 - Bernard Sumner sticky uppy hair
-Beard comes and goes for a while
Oh fuck it, I'm going by albums now
2002/3 Hail To The Thief era:
-the Art Mullet
-the Hitler Hairdo fringe to cover bald patch
In Rainbows era:
-the Hedgehog
-the longer Hedgehog
-the "Is he going to cut that thing?"
-Full hobo beard in effect
Solo shows:
-Oh wait, it's kind of a bowl cut
-Meg Ryan Aging Rocker hair
-"I wear headbands now, headbands are cool"
-Wow, That's Some Mullet, Thom
The King of Limbs era:
-Long, shaggy unshaped hair
-Hair gets kind of trimmed up to resemble, um, the haircut he had at art school actually
-That fucken ponytail
-???????

I'm sure I'm missing some, without checking pictures archives online and I may have a couple of dates wrong in the early 00s. The only ones I really hated were the shaved head, obv, and the dyed black hair. The cutest was definitely longer hedgehog to bowl cut. I think the haircut he had at the Latitude festival/Cambridge shows was the cutest he's ever had in his life. (Many people disagree.)

!!! that was !!!

It's kind of "!!!" to me that I've been lusting after Thom Yorke for nearly 20 years. That's like, half my life.

::deep shame::

"Freak monkeys with mediocre tunes."

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/8919071/Radiohead+nice+thom+haircut.jpg

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/westboro_baptist_church_protest_radiohead_show.html

WTF is wrong with me. There are two, count em TWO Radiohead related events in London tonight, and I'm not going to either one of them.

I think The Fandom has done in my fandom. I hate that.