Choppé sur atease:
W: OK, so thanks for taking the time, first of all...
Ed: It's a pleasure.
W: So, I've been doing this website for two years now, and there have been some questions accumulating, you know - it's a website that focuses on the songs and the sessions...
Ed: OK.
W: ...how they develop...
Ed: Sure.
W: ...because most of the songs have very interesting histories.
Ed: Yeah.
W: If you think of something like Nude, and things like that. That's interesting, and so people are curious about it. So, first of all: this is the last gig of the tour?
Ed: Yeah.
W: And of the European tour...how was it for you, so far?
Ed: It's good! Yeah, we've been doing it for about four weeks in Europe, and about three weeks before that in America, and it always...we're ready for a break, you know. It's been full-on.
W: Favourite gigs?
Ed: Last night in Arras was really good...Roskilde...
W: The festivals?
Ed: Yeah. Roskilde was good, Bercy was great, Nimes was great, Victoria Park...Glasgow was great, Manchester. Italy, second night in Milan was good. I really enjoyed Hurricane; Hurricane and Southside, they were good. We enjoyed doing those. They've all been...I mean, Werchter was probably the low point...
W: Why was that?
Ed: Sometimes it just doesn't click, and... it was still OK, but it wasn't great. Few technical problems, and stuff like that.
W: And now you have two weeks off?
Ed: Two and a half and then we're over to America.
W: America, and then a whole month off?
Ed: Yeah.
W: And Japan dates, a few Japan dates?
Ed: Yeah, that's right.
W: And then this tour, In Rainbows, is finished?
Ed: Yeah, yeah. Apart from we're looking to go to South America next year.
W: Yeah, that was a big question, a lot of people have been asking about this...
Ed: We're trying to get dates. Definitely in Brazil and Argentina and Chile, and hopefully in Mexico as well.
W: You have loads of fans there...
Ed: Yeah, and we've never been there. I've spent quite a lot of time in Brazil.
W: Yeah! I've seen that T-shirt, Copacabana...
Ed: Yeah!
W: (laughs)
Ed: And my wife's spent a lot of time in South America every year, so I think it would be a great place for us to play.
W: So this would be March, or...
Ed: Looking at March/April, somewhere around that time, yeah.
W: But nothing can be...
Ed: Nothing yet. We haven't finalised anything, we're trying to work out all the detail, 'cos it's quite tricky.
W: And Mexico as well?
Ed: Hope so, it'd be nice to go back there.
W: Yeah, that's...14 years? Or more than 14 years?
Ed: Yeah, it'll be 15 years.
W: And that was a heavy tour?
Ed: Yeah, you know...I mean, everything was pretty heavy then. (laughs)
W: But that was...I mean, the tension of...when was it, October?
Ed: Yeah.
W: '94? When making The Bends?
Ed: Yeah. It was...that whole time was painful. The record we were trying to make, where we were moving, and I think Mexico brought it all out because we were getting less sleep, we had less sleep, and we were tired. And we'd just been in Thailand...
W: Yeah...
Ed: ...and then we had 24 hours at home and then we were back out the other way, so... It was a great tour, it was really one of those memorable tours.
W: It was filmed, wasn't it? I think there was a documentary planned, but it never...
Ed: No, no...
W: There's footage on YouTube.
Ed: Really?
W: Professional footage, I think there was some kind of documentary... interviews, and they filmed at the gigs, there's an Anyone Can Play Guitar clip and stuff.
Ed: Right. OK. Well they didn't follow us around, maybe it was at one show. I don't really remember.
W: Yeah. Maybe there was some kind of documentary planned, I don't know.
Ed: No, it was never planned... if there was, it would have been like the local TV station or MTV in Mexico or whatever...
W: OK. No no, it's some EMI thing...
Ed: EMI thing?
W: Yeah. I don't know what exactly...
Ed: Well, they never followed us around. (laughs)
W: OK. (laughs) Great. Another big fan question, the Bonnaroo DVD...
Ed: Yeah.
W: Any plans?
Ed: Well it's really good, we should definitely try and bring it out sometime. And it was done by Danny Clinch (?), our friend Danny. He filmed it, he directed it. So that should definitely see the light of day.
W: Yeah, great, that would be lovely. And the other thing a lot of people asked about... I'm trying to get this stuff out of the way...
Ed: Yeah, sure.
W: ...Videotape, the debut version. At Hammersmith. That's probably the most popular incarnation...
Ed: Of the whole song?
W: Yeah.
Ed: Ha!
W: Definitely the most popular performance... because it has something: it's the debut, it opens the gig, and no-one knows the song...it's special, a special moment, and I think that comes across in the performance. And it's an amazing thing, and people have been asking... (laughs) if there's any way you can release a sample or a recording of that, or anything...
Ed: Well basically, it's probably on YouTube isn't it? Or it's on something.
W: It's strange. You have loads of people filming, but for that song there's just the end section, or something like that.
Ed: Right, OK. Oh, OK.
W: There's no footage of that. Back then, I was doing some kind of project where I was collecting those clips and piecing them together so you get multi-angle edits...
Ed: Oh wow!
W: ...of the new songs, and there are all those people at the gigs recording the audio. Because the audio of the clips is crunchy, it sounds horrible, but you can use the audio from those guys.
Ed: Right, OK.
W: It looks pretty good. It's on the website, and I wanted to do that for Videotape, and it didn't work because there was no footage of it. (laughs)
Ed: Well, I'm sure in the light of day like all these things... I mean, I don't think we have any plans to release it. I know the version you're talking of, and it didn't work in the studio. It would be one of those things that maybe somebody will flag up later on, and if we put out a bunch of stuff, compile it and put it out like that then maybe we'll do that.
W: Any plans for that?
Ed: No, no.
W: I think maybe it would be a good idea not to put too much thought into this. Like if you want to get out some electronic versions of things like that, the fans would love that. But it's a headache for the band. It's enough trouble to sort out the finished stuff... if you have to think about a tracklist of unreleased material on a boxset of stuff, that must be a nightmare.
Ed: Yeah. Well... I think there'll be a time and a place for it, it's not something that we actually think about. But there might be a time when it's relevant.
W: Because there must be loads of stuff. Do you still have those old tapes?
Ed: Yeah, we've got everything.
W: I was wondering about that, because you haven't always paid for the sessions yourself, did you? The Bends...
Ed: No, well, EMI own all of The Bends and everything up until Hail To The Thief, so...
W: But they don't have the actual session tapes in archives?
Ed: No, we've got some of them. Yeah.
W: But not all of them?
Ed: Yeah, I think we've got most of it.
W: But you couldn't release anything without...
Ed: Without their permission, no.
W: Even if it's unreleased stuff like a song that you never released on the album?
Ed: No. If it's recorded within that contractual period, it's like a period of time. It's not what you put out in that time, it's a period of time.
W: Even if you paid for the session?
Ed: But we didn't.
W: You didn't?
Ed: No.
W: The stuff you recorded at your own studio...
Ed: No. They paid for that...
W: OK. But the studio is yours, you own that?
Ed: Yeah.
W: OK, so then... new songs. Thom has been playing Super Collider...
Ed: Yeah.
W: A few times, four times, I think. And is there any band arrangement for that yet?
Ed: We did a version of it about three years ago...
W: What? (laughs) It's that old?
Ed: Yeah! It's been kicking round... we were rehearsing it in 2005 in our rehearsal studio, and we did a version of it in 2005, when we recorded on our own. Self-produced, with Graham Stuart. And it just wasn't very good. But it's a great song.
W: Was it called Super Collider then?
Ed: No, it was called Solutions.
W: Ah, yeah. Because... maybe you dreaded something like this (shows list, laughs). Because these are some titles from that blackboard. You made a mistake of posting a picture of your blackboard!
Ed: (laughs) Right, OK, yeah.
W: So we have to, just very quickly... some titles. Trills - people seem to think that's Spooks?
Ed: No.
W: It's not?
Ed: No.
W: What is it?
Ed: Trills is a piece of Jonny's that we were working on.
W: But it didn't go anywhere?
Ed: No.
W: 5ths - All I Need? No?
Ed: No.
W: Because people were thinking about fifths being involved in that song...
Ed: Yeah. No, it's not All I Need.
W: It's a different song then?
Ed: Yeah, it's a different song.
W: OK. Burn The Witch. That's already legendary, I don't know why...
Ed: Yeah, it's a great song.
W: Thom has played a few teasing chords...
Ed: Yeah.
W: And people went crazy.
Ed: Yeah. We've just got to do it justice, it's a good song.
W: Really? We have some lyrics: 'this is a low-flying panic attack', etc.
Ed: Yeah. Exactly.
W: OK. But that's something that you'll try and record for the next...
Ed: Who knows? You never know...
W: So you have no idea...?
Ed: You don't know. You don't know if it's like Nude, if it takes ten years to do. You just don't know. It's when it makes sense.
W: Yeah. Morning M'Lord... did you do that for Hail To The Thief?
Ed: Good Morning Mr Magpie.
W: Is that what it's called?
Ed: Yeah.
W: OK. Not Morning M'Lord?
Ed: Or Morning M'Lord!
W: (laughs) OK. But that was around during Hail To The Thief, wasn't it?
Ed: Yeah, it was. i think Thom did a version of it on a webcast, and we rehearsed it, and we recorded it again in that same session in October 2005.
W: Where was that session? I think it was...
Ed: Hook End.
W: No, that was August wasn't it? Six days in August...
Ed: OK. Yeah, you'd know! August. Yeah, end of August.
W: Because this blackboard is from September?
Ed: Yeah, yeah, you're right! (laughs) It is. It was the end of August.
W: That's why I'm asking because I'm trying to piece these things together to write a session history for In Rainbows...
Ed: OK. Yeah...
W: There's lots of stuff...we have bits and pieces from Dead Air Space...
Ed: OK.
W: ...and you certainly didn't post a lot. You started, in the beginning...
Ed: I know, but I just...I don't feel comfortable with it, you know. Yeah.
W: OK. A Pig's Ear was recorded there? Or Pigsee, whatever it's called...
Ed: Yeah, did a bit of that. Pig's Ear, yeah.
W: Bodies Laughing was rehearsed for the tour, in 2006...
Ed: Yeah, a bit. We didn't play...
W: It was on that tour blackboard.
Ed: Yeah, we never really got it together. It's a sort of Brazilian bossa nova kind of thing...
W: Really? (laughs)
Ed: And it was done in 2005.
W: You could play that next year...
Ed: We could do!
W: (laughs)
Ed: We could do. It might be actually the wrong thing to play in Brazil. (laughs)
W: OK. And these titles are still correct?
Ed: They're kind of... Yeah, they all move, they're a work in progress. But at one time or other, the songs would've been called that.
W: Stuff like this, Skirting On The Surface... that's old, isn't it? Skirting On The Surface goes back to OK Computer... because some lyrics appeared back then, on a website...
Ed: Right. Maybe, maybe.
W: Did you do it during Kid A?
Ed: No.
W: How old is it then?
Ed: I'm not sure.
W: OK. But it's old. (laughs) Yeah, loads of titles... Fela Kuti Thing? What's that?
Ed: That's just a jam that we did. 2005 again. Edited it together, it's like a three-minute jam.
W: OK. And Solutions was Super Collider... No Shame, what's that?
Ed: No Shame... not sure what No Shame was.
W: (laughs) You don't remember? OK. Eye Of A Needle?
Ed: No. Don't recollect that.
W: Big Cheese?
Ed: Big Cheese, know what that is.
W: And that's still something that could go somewhere?
Ed: Er... Big Cheese...was something we were possibly going to come on to. It was going to be one of those tracks that you come on to live. But it didn't work out quite.
W: For this tour, you rehearsed it?
Ed: No, we didn't rehearse it, it's the coming-on music.
W: Oh, that's the coming-on music?
Ed: It's not the coming-on music. But it could've been.
W: It was supposed to be. What is the coming-on music called?
Ed: I'm not sure.
W: It doesn't have a title?
Ed: It does, but I don't know what it is.
W: It's a piece by Jonny, or...?
Ed: No, it's something that Thom did on his laptop.
W: OK. You could release it as a B-side, like Where Bluebirds Fly or something.
Ed: We could! That's right.
W: Yeah. And I Am Walking On Stage Now was this thing in 2006... in the beginning was radio sounds and stuff like... this strange coming-on music in 2006... bits from the radio or something.
Ed: Yeah, that was just something... Jonny had some Mac software, he was mixing it live so we came on to it. And that wasn't a piece of music, it changed every night.
W: And what's I Am Walking On Stage Now? It sounds like it was supposed to be some kind of coming-on music, or...
Ed: Yeah, possibly. I can't recollect that piece of music.
W: OK. We'll put that away. (laughs) OK, good. It's just nice to know that 5ths is not All I Need...
Ed: No, it's not.
W: OK. So have lots of new songs been written as well?
Ed: Yeah, there's lots of new stuff kicking around.
W: There was a recent interview with you and Thom done on the American tour, where you said that Thom did a song called Slave? And that he sent it home to Nigel to mix it?
Ed: Mm-hmm.
W: I thought that was very strange, that you record something on tour and then it's mixed?
Ed: Yeah.
W: Is it that good?
Ed: Well, the good thing is that he was able to probably work on it on his laptop. And he could send it as an audio file, and Nigel can pick it up and mix it.
W: And that's usual procedure? No?
Ed: No, that's very unusual.
W: So, this new material... is any of that intended for a new solo album by Thom? As you say, it's a laptop thing...
Ed: It might be. I don't know, we haven't discussed... we're going to do some studio stuff and rehearsing in November.
W: In November? OK.
Ed: Yeah.
W: So not in September, there's nothing...
Ed: Well, we're in between tours. We can't really. You know, we won't have the gear. So basically come November, we'll have the gear and we'll get into our studio, do a bit of rehearsing.
W: OK. And see where it goes?
Ed: Yeah, exactly. So it's all very open at the moment.
