Wow. Is it really just over thirty years (spring 1993*) since I appeared as an extra in the Radiohead video ‘Pop Is Dead’? Yup, I’m that shaggy-haired guy (I had hair in those days) on the right, below.
My friend Jenny and I heard about the shoot, through our friend Hugh, and went along to take part – on some hills just outside Oxford. I suppose I had the necessary indie-kid look at the time, because I was picked to be one of the six ‘coffin-bearers’ of singer Thom Yorke.
Afterwards, I got to sit in the post-shoot food tent and have dinner with the band. They were all very nice and down-to-earth and friendly – and, a couple of weeks later, they kindly posted me a large signed poster, as a thank you for taking part.
I’d like to say we’ve stayed in touch in the three decades since then, but sadly that’s not the case…
During dinner, I remember Thom Yorke was talking about the budget of the shoot… low for a music video: just £3000. Apparently, this was half the budget of Suede’s video for ‘Animal Nitrate’ (£6000) and, unless I’m remembering wrongly, Thom seemed pleased about this. It was early days for the band, back then, so maybe they weren’t rolling in money.
Anyway, according to Wiki, nowadays Radiohead don’t have such fond memories of ‘Pop is Dead.’ Guitarist Ed O’Brien has called the track ‘a hideous mistake.’ And the video’s been taken off YouTube. So maybe, with hindsight, the band now think spending even £3000 on it was £3000 too much. I guess we’ll never know.
* This entry was originally written in Spring 2023.
P. D. Clifton 
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