Lindsey on Radiohead

[michelej1]

[This gives us a fuller idea of what Lindsey had to say about them in that phone interview]
Under Cover.Com/Au

http://undercover.com.au/News-Story.aspx?id=7587

Fleetwood Mac Pass The Torch To Radiohead
by Paul Cashmere - February 12 2009
photo by Ros O'Gorman


Fleetwood Mac`s Lindsay Buckingham has described Radiohead`s performance at the Grammy Awards this week as a “passing of the torch”.


Radiohead performed ’15 Step’ at the Grammy Awards with the USC Marching Band. Fleetwood Mac used the USC Marching Band on their 1979 hit ‘Tusk’.

Ironically, the two bands were rehearsing last week at the same place. Fleetwood Mac were preparing for their US tour and Radiohead were rehearsing for the Awards show.

“Doctor Bartner is the guy who has been musical director for the USC Marching Band for about 40 years now,” Lindsay Buckingham said on media conference call this week. “He was the one we liaised with when we used them on ‘Tusk’. He was there rehearsing with Radiohead on an adjacent sound stage where we were rehearsing, over at Sony Studios. It is a small world”.

Lindsay loves what Radiohead is doing. “I told Art Bartner please go tell Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood have much their efforts have meant to me personally and thank them for their good work,” he said. “If that idea was inspired by ‘Tusk’ I would be quite complimented, as Mick should be because it was Mick’s idea to put them on the song. I look at that very much as the passing of the torch and an exchange of ideas. That is part of the greater function of music really”.

Fleetwood Mac will hit the road for the first time in 5 years on March 1.

[Nico]

He really loves Radiohead.

They came out with The Bends when I was in high school I think. And it was my favorite album for such a long time. I thought they were just amazing. It was like the alt. rock version of Mozart. And then OK Computer became a huge hit, but mainly with many in the art crowd where I used to hang on the weekends. They were so innovative and refreshingly new, cool, interesting. A lot of groups start out with many prospects and end up being stale, repetitive, and stick to the formula. What I love about Radiohead is their ability to take risks and not really give an eff. They're music is really worth it, and I totally respect Thom Yorke. I think he's one of the few modern artists/musicians out there who hasn't compromised his art, integrity, or bought into the whole media adoration of celebrity. No one really knows anything about him. He's an enigma, and he's too cool.

I think they're a band people are going to remember years from now. I don't mind Coldplay, but I hate the fact that they seem to trump Radiohead in all these award ceremony things. It's annoying mainly because people pay so much attention to that fact when the actual music is being ignored.

But I'll say it again: the music speaks for itself. I care very little about commercial success. Shoot, Paul McCartney was the most commercially successful solo Beatle, but the best stuff from his solo music can't even compare to that of the best of John's or George's. I'm sorry.

Anyway, my little rant...Lindsey has great taste in music, and I love that he's still talking about Radiohead...some people move on once the "hype" dies down, but LB knows what's great.

[michelej1]

Chicago Sun Times
http://www.suntimes.com/entertainmen...d03web.article

March 3, 2009

This year's Grammys ceremony struggled to bridge the generational gaps. Stevie Wonder performed with the Jonas Brothers. Justin Timberlake and Boyz II Men got in the way of the great Al Green. And Radiohead, well, Radiohead ripped off Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk."

"No, no, I doubt that," assures Lindsey Buckingham, chuckling.

Radiohead's performance of its song "15 Step" featured the drum corps from the USC "Spirit of Troy" Trojan Marching Band, filling the stage with bone-rattling rhythms throughout the song -- much like Fleetwood Mac's use of the same drum corps on the innovative title track to its groundbreaking 1979 double album "Tusk." But the only thing the two performances have in common, Buckingham says, is a band leader.

"We were rehearsing [for the current Fleetwood Mac tour] at Sony Studios, and on the Friday before the Grammys this guy, Dr. Art Bartner, the director of the USC band -- now as well as back in '79 -- he walks onto the sound stage and says, 'Remember me? I'm next door rehearsing with Radiohead.' I told him to tell Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood I'm a big fan. I'm sure he didn't. But I thought it was kinda cool. I don't assume they pulled the idea from 'Tusk,' but it's nice that someone I admire might be on the same wavelength."

The USC band still frequently plays "Tusk" -- and, according to a Los Angeles Times blogger, they actually played it at the rehearsal with Radiohead: "Yorke arrived looking more like a fan than a star with his scruffy leather jacket, bed-head hair and khaki-colored backpacker. He danced a little jig in the aisles as USC's Spirit of Troy warmed up with -- of course -- the Fleetwood Mac hit 'Tusk.' "

Thomas Conner