Words you seldom hear at U2 concerts (or, indeed anywhere else): “If only Bono spent a bit less time in the recording studio and a bit more time on the international stage talking about global injustice, ah, bejaysus wouldn’t the world be a better place?”
After last weekend, right-thinking Radiohead fans may find themselves in a similar pickle. Is it possible – as Wagner fans seem to manage well enough – to divorce the man’s politics from his art? Or will all future attempts to enjoy The Bends, OK Computer and In Rainbows be quite ruined by the memory of the toecurling, Climate Change special edition of the Observer magazine, guest edited by Radiohead’s singer/songwriter Thom Yorke?
I’m thinking particularly of the five-page interview-cum-love-in, conducted at the Dorchester hotel, in which a star-struck Yorke gets the chance to meet one of his greatest idols Red Ken Livingstone.
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