A friend told me, “Looks like Radiohead are coming to Japan next year.”
Best news I’d heard in a while.
Later, I saw that ticket sales had opened and applied without a second thought. Hopefully I’ll get one.
Please. Let it happen.
Memories of Radiohead.
I must have been sixteen or seventeen when I discovered Radiohead’s third album, OK Computer, and started listening to it over and over again.
How did I first hear about them?
Someone at my part-time job may have recommended them to me. Or maybe I saw their name mentioned in an interview with a band I liked. I think it was one of the two.
Either way, I know I was listening to them almost every day.
At the time, I had just picked up a guitar and started playing in a band. It feels almost ridiculous for a beginner like I was to have said this, but—
“Even if I locked myself away for a hundred years, I could never write a song like this…”
I was talking about Paranoid Android.
For some reason, I still remember saying that to the bassist in my band.
And of course, I still love the song today.
Hearing Creep at Summer Sonic 2003.
A friend invited me. It was my first summer festival, and Radiohead were headlining the second day.
I can still physically remember the feeling when they suddenly started playing Creep during the encore.
The arpeggio in the intro.
That distorted guitar before the chorus.
Thom Yorke’s beautiful scream.
After the song, just before leaving the stage, Thom suddenly called out to the crowd:
“Konbanwa!”
Maybe he meant to say “Oyasumi.” Either way, even that strange little moment has stayed with me all these years.
After that, I saw them again at Saitama Super Arena in 2008, and once more at Summer Sonic in 2016.
If I get to see them next year, it will be my fourth time seeing Radiohead.
Please. Let it happen.
Hoping for a New Album.
I’m trying not to expect anything.
But of course, I do.
What if they suddenly announce a new album?
No warning. No buildup. They could just drop it out of nowhere. I’d be perfectly happy with that.
Give the forty-four-year-old me the same kind of shock I felt when I was sixteen or seventeen.
Radiohead could do it.
They could even make something that goes far beyond anything I’m imagining.
They could.
They must be able to.
Please. Let it happen.
