Reminder: Radiohead on Later…200

Posted on January 31st, 2008.

As reported earlier, Radiohead are set to appear on the 200th episode of ‘Later…with Jools Holland’ tomorrow (February 1st).

On the anniversary episode, Radiohead will kick off the show with ‘Bodysnatchers’ from new album ‘In Rainbows’. The Telegraph reports: Later, while Blige exercises her staggering vocal range on a bump-and-grind ballad called Feel Like a Woman, Radiohead’s two guitarists, bassist and drummer huddle together, whispering, pointing and, at one point, rather dismissively shaking their heads. Thom Yorke dances by his microphone, burning off nervous energy.

The Times recall an episode of ‘Later…’ when Radiohead were on in 2003: Radiohead opened with There There. After Thom Yorke steered the song to a marauding, magnificent conclusion, the cameras swung round to Corgan’s band - all of whom appeared to be willing the ground to swallow them up. In the make-up room half an hour before this week’s show begins, Yorke laughs off the notion that he may have helped inadvertently to trigger the demise of Zwan. “The format is designed to do that to you,” he says. “I went on a couple of years ago and did The Clock [from his solo album The Eraser]. Again, I was absolutely shitting myself. Directly after me, Red Hot Chilli Peppers came on and launched into Dani California. The moment the chorus started up and Flea hit the bass distortion pedal it was like a bomb going off.”

If it’s somehow surprising to discover the extent to which Radiohead’s frontman is a Red Hot Chilli Peppers fan, that pales in comparison to the shapes that Yorke goes on to throw when the hip-hop soul queen Mary J.Blige unleashes a pneumatically powerful performance of Work That.

Radiohead will be playing Bodysnatchers, 15 Step and Arpeggi. Not to be broadcast, but played for the studio audience: House of Cards. A video of that track is available at the Later… website. And here’s a video of a tour of the Later… studio floor with Radiohead’s setup for Friday’s show.

Later 200 with Jools Holland is broadcast Friday night on BBC 2 (11.35pm - UK Time).