..and a weirdo

The Devil's Kitchen lays into Mr Thom Yorke of Radiohead here.

Now I quite like Radiohead, partly as I am a bit of a miserable sod sometimes. I even don't mind them now, when they have ceased even trying to write songs - I find the ambient drum beats topped off with incoherent wailing comforting in an odd sort of a way. It is a bit like whale-song; albeit a whale coked off his tits and trying to sing along with the music in an obscure dance club.

But DK is absolutely right to lay into Thom Yorke. Firstly, Yorke makes claims but cannot back them up (since he thinks it is OK to do this I have no intention of backing this claim up). Secondly, he is highly critical of capitalism, but I have never heard what his alternative is (in fact, in some respects I am sad that the Soviet Union has fallen as it denies us the response of "well piss off back to Russia then Thom"). And there can be few people who had benefitted more from capitalism than Yorke and other multi-million pound rock stars. Thom, the only reason why you can spend all day making obtuse pseudo-songs and pontificating like an ill-educated member of Militant Tendency is because the good people at your capitalist record company (if memory serves Radiohead were signed to EMI) press your songs onto environmentally unfriendly discs and sell them - at a profit to them and you - to the general public.

Even worse though is the arrogance of Thom Yorke. Thom, I don't think that George W. Bush is qualified to talk about politics and he has been at the head of the world's most powerful state since 2001. So there is no way that I would think that a rock star who displays the same emotional misanthrophy as Morrissey (but without the caustic wit) would be qualified to talk about politics. And it gets even worse - I can remember reading an interview with Thom Yorke in the NME a few years back (sorry, I don't have the time to research a link but it was about the time Amnesiac was released) where he said that he was afraid that MI5 was following him, and may even be willing to kill him.

Thom, MI5 have better things to do with their time than follow you. They are probably more focussed on the religious fundamentalists with the bulky rucksacks and the intention to commit mass murder. This time last year we were vividly shown who the real enemies of the state are. And guess what? They didn't turn out to be rock stars. MI5 will ignore you, Thom, because you are irrelevant - the only damage you do to society is to mildly irritate those of us who are not naive enough to take your facile falsies at face value.