If you were one of the lucky ones who witnessed Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood perform 15 Step with the USC Marching Band at this year’s Grammy Awards, you witnessed sheer music genius. It was undoubtedly one of the boldest and most riveting performances I’ve seen in quite a while. I found a Youtube video documenting a bit of the preparation, rehearsal, and backstage goings-on that went into this wonderful performance. It’s pretty interesting. Also included after the jump is a video of the performance itself from the Grammys.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GZAKlU8VXU[/youtube]
Source: MusicRadar.com
When Radiohead performed their song 15 Step with the renowned USC Trojan Marching Band at last month’s 51st Grammy Awards, it was a seamless display of musical virtuosity and mad creativity.
Getting there wasn’t so easy, however. For two weeks Radiohead and the Trojans hunkered down and got their act together. And now you can watch the process in this fascinating video below.
Watch as the drumline is put through their paces by arranger David Campbell. A little later there’s a full band rehearsal overseen by Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich. Watching Thom Yorke and guitarist Jonny Greenwood work things out with such a large emsemble is absolutely riveting.
And then there’s the giddy, breathless night of the awards. The clips include charming bits of the Trojans backstage, brimming with excitement, waiting to go on stage to show the world what they’ve got. (They even do a mic rehearsal of Tusk, which the USC Marching Band from 30 years ago performed with Fleetwood Mac!)
Enjoy.
[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5175317999285072447[/googlevideo]
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Great find, great post! That really was a stellar performance and a genius idea by Radiohead. They pulled off using marching band/drumline sounds without giving the song much of a marching band feel and it was very well executed. I will say that they’re not the first to use a drumline. The James Madison University Drumline (which I used to play on) played with Keith Urban a couple years back (and a couple years after my time unfortunately). I think he used different bands as he traveled from city to city. Not a great video, but here’s a glimpse at least:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omKta_0vV7c
Cool idea from the start and Radiohead really took it to the next level and made it work!