'A Way With Words'
Harry Styles, presenting to the Radiohead singer, also reveals he lost his virginity to "the intro" of the band's "Talk Show Host"
Thom Yorke debuted a new song titled “Space Walk” Thursday at the Ivor Novello Awards, where the Radiohead singer received the prestigious Academy Fellowship.
The singer was handed the award by surprise presenter Harry Styles, who revealed that he lost his virginity while listening to Radiohead’s “Talk Show Host”; Styles then quipped, “the intro of ‘Talk Show Host.'” “Thom Yorke has always had a way with words,” Styles said, adding that Radiohead is his “favorite band.”
Yorke then performed his solo piano track “Space Walk” as well as an acoustic rendition of Radiohead’s “Jigsaw Falling Into Place.”
In his own acceptance speech (via NME), Yorke chided the current state of the music industry and its over-reliance on streaming services and playlists.
“A lot of lip service is paid to new music with self-serving playlists, and to the idea of a vital music scene,” Yorke said. “But there is a refusal to offer even a semblance of a sustainable revenue source for the majority of musicians. And they continue the nasty fucking opaque accounting tricks that major labels were doing in the Nineties.”
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Yorke continued, “So I guess I’d like to provide a quick reminder to the top of the industry and streaming services: Pull your finger out. Where are you gonna get your next juicy back catalogues from, eh? This industry will die and arseholes with it, if all you do is devalue the next generation of artists and their fans. Just remember: without us, you ain’t shit!”
Earlier this year, Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien (accidentally?) let slip that Yorke would likely release a solo album in 2026 following a three-LP run with the Smile; it’s unclear whether “Space Walk” is destined for that upcoming album, Yorke’s first solo LP since 2019’s Anima.