Waste 7

Hello! Welcome to Waste 7 - this time with even more useless information than normal...

The Radiohead European Bonanza... We emerged pale and blinking into the spring sun from a 3 month recording stint in a dark London studio, and took off to Seville for 3 days (as you do) to rehearse for our impending European tour, and to colour our cheeks with a drop of Spanish air.
So, armed with a gaggle of new songs to unleash onto unsuspecting fans, the intrepid five worked their way upwards through Spain, Italy, Switzerland and Germany, ending up back in dear old blighty for 3 UK gigs in Manchester, Wolverhampton and London, supported wonderfully by The Julie Dolphin.
We had some of our most memorable gigs on this tour, particularly the shows in Barcelona and Wolves; two of our favourite gigs ever, completely out of control, technology breaking down left and right, in short, the ideal Radiohead show. Thanks for creating such a good atmosphere.
Unfortunately we couldn't play at Biella due to the dodgy right-wing Italian government forcing a last minute cancellation with some feeble excuse about emergency exits; more likely they were worried that people were in danger of having a good time. Suddenly Radiohead are a radical political force, infiltrating a government near you soon. We took solace in a three day break, soaking up the profoundly beautiful Florence, and mixing with daft tourists with trainers that light up in the dark.

And so to Germany's Rock in Riem/Rock am Ring Festivals where Thom was rather impressed to find himself quite literally rubbing shoulders with two old pros from the biz, Neil Finn from Crowded house and Peter Gabriel, as they stood together side-stage to watch the Smashing Pumpkins. He was less impressed however, with our 1Oam slot, not even time for tea and cocoa pops to loosen up those vocal chords. Our exhaustion was compounded by nervousness on our return to the UK at the prospect of headlining our first UK gigs for a goodly while and of how the UK press would receive us. The warmth ot the audiences soon made us forget all our worries, and we thoroughly enjoyed the whole UK leg.

Radiohead Guide to Lauding it up... With another few months touring under our belt we got global, playing to packed audiences in Japan, Hong Kong, and 'semi-packed' in Australia and New Zealand. Sorry to anyone who couldn't get into the shows due to the Over 18 rules, we try our best but sometimes it's hard to find venues without age restrictions.
Our first stop was Tokyo where we were met with untold warmth and hospitality, a plethora of letters (we'll try and reply to as many as we can), and beautiful presents. Nobody was more impressed with Japan than Thom. He was lost in an ideal world where he towered over people and clothes fitted him. He also developed a total fascination for Japanese TV, filming it for many an insomniacal hour. Nursing a string of Saki hangovers, Ed O'Brien became Edo Brien as the Japanese fans got confused as to where to stick the 'O'. We also did well with 'Itch', the Japanese 'mini album' of B-sides to accompany the tour.

After the near-death experience of arriving in Hong Kong (Who's idea was it to put an airport there?), we became VJs for a day on VTV, Asia's MTV, avenging crap VJ's the world over and getting to play all our favourite stuff; sadly we weren't much better.
Ever onward to Australia and more decadent behaviour awaited us in the form of champagne breakfasts on a cruise around Sydney harbour (...disgusting isn't it?) Next we'll be capsizing yachts like Monsieur Le Bon. Australia bore witness to a magnificent display from the newly-formed Radiohead Nocturnal Synchronised Scuba Diving Team from Ed, Phil and crew (sounds like an idea for a new Olympic 'sport'). On arrival in New Zealand Colin got 'rumbled by the Feds' (ooer) when Customs caught him in possession of an offensive citrus fruit (Rock 'n Roll!), and confiscated his tangerine.
Johnny had a bit of a shock whilst showing our lighting engineer his repertoire of fish impressions (you have to make your own entertainment on the road ). After performing one of his favourites, the trout, the room kept flapping around even when he'd stopped; we were witnessing an earthquake. Undaunted, we visited some of New Zealand's beautiful scenery, including Kari Kari where The Piano was filmed, and where Thom plans to become a hermit.

Hippy Birthday Colin
Adomed in tie-dye, beads and sun-block for those sensitive areas, we toddled off Somerset-bound to chill out at Glasters on the 25th anniversary of Colin's birth; a rousing chorus of the aptly named song, 'Happy Birthday To You' was sung to Colin by a vast crowd, almost enough people to blow the candles out on his cake. Thom, resplendent in his 'Mighty Atom' T-Shirt faced more people than you could shake several sticks at, enough to warrant a butterfly-settling scrumpy by the cider bus before-hand. Not usually festival goers, we were very pleasantly surprised by the peaceful and harmonious atmosphere (if one can still say that after the shooting incident) The warmth of the audience made us feel really at home, and assuming festivals will still be legal, we'd like to go every year from now on. Other festivals on the cards are Poland's Sopok Festival 25th August and Reading Festival on the 27th August.

In danger of missing the World Cup, we're being sent off into the studio this week to put the finishing touches to album No. 2, but true to form, we'll be kicking off on tour again, but this time it's in our home strip. So if you want to cheer us on, we'll be playing with The Julie Dolphin at the following grounds:

SEPTEMBER: Tues 27th - Glasgow Plaza, Wed 28 th - Newcastle Uni, Thurs 29 th - Leeds
Metropolitan Uni, Fri 30th - Sheffield Uni Refectory, OCTOBER: Sun 2nd - Leicester De Montfort
Uni, Mon 3rd - Cambridge Junction, Tues 4th - Porsmouth Pyramid, Thurs 6th - Exeter Uni
Lemon Grove, Fri 7th - Brighton Centre, East Wing, Sat 8th - London Shepherds Bush Empire.

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