Former Pink Floyd musician Roger Waters has hit out at Thom Yorke, describing him as a “timid little bloke.”
Rogers has criticised Yorke and Radiohead multiple times previously. Last December, Waters attacked Yorke and Jonny Greenwood for their stance on Israel-Palestine.
The Pink Floyd co-founder has been a vocal supporter of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement since 2011, and has spoken out in the past against Radiohead’s decision to play a gig in Tel Aviv in 2017.
The Radiohead frontman would later respond to the controversy around the Israel show by stating: “Playing in a country isn’t the same as endorsing its government. We don’t endorse Netanyahu any more than Trump.”
Now, Waters has hit out again at Yorke when speaking on The Katie Halper Show. He was asked about the Radiohead frontman but told the host “not go there,” before changing his mind.
He went on: “He’s a timid little bloke. I think he’s unpleasant company.”
He added, “I wrote him many letters you know.” He was asked if Yorke ever responded, to which he revealed, “Yes, he did. He did respond. It’s all going in my memoir. He got very very snarky and he was trying to be fun[ny].”
Yorke recently shared a lengthy post explaining his stance on the conflict between Israel and Palestine.
He took to social media on May 30 to speak out on the ongoing conflict in the Middle East after he clashed with a protester during a solo show last October and left the stage abruptly when the person in the crowd interrupted his set.
“Some guy shouting at me from the dark last year when I was picking up a guitar to sing the final song alone in front of 9000 people in Melbourne didn’t really seem like the best moment to discuss the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza,” Yorke began. “Afterwards I remained in shock that my supposed silence was somehow being taken as complicity, and I struggled to find an adequate way to respond to this and to carry on with the rest of the shows on the tour.”
“That silence, my attempt to show respect for all those who are suffering and those who have died, and to not trivialise it in a few words, has allowed other opportunistic groups to use intimidation and defamation to fill in the blanks, and I regret giving them this chance. This has had a heavy toll on my mental health,” he continued, before stating that his music should be enough of an indication to prove he “could not possibly support any form of extremism or dehumanisation of others”.
He said Netanyahu was “totally out of control” and the “international community should put all the pressure it can on them to cease”, while arguing that “the unquestioning Free Palestine refrain that surrounds us all does not answer the simple question of why the hostages still have not all been returned? For what possible reason?”
Last year, guitarist Ed O’Brien also addressed the conflict, writing: “Like so many of you I have found the events of October 7 and what has followed too awful for words.. anything that I have tried to write feels so utterly inadequate. Ceasefire now. Return the hostages.”
Last month (September 3), the band confirmed a run of UK and European live shows for November and December, their first dates in over seven years. They will play multiple dates each in Madrid, Bologna, London’s O2, Copenhagen and Berlin.
The group’s most recent live performance took place on August 1, 2018 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. It marked the end of their ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’ tour in support of their 2017 album of the same name – which they have yet to follow up.
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