A Night Less Ordinary

I was watching A Life Less Ordinary the other night and remembering how it was when I first saw it. Around May 1997 I was in Oxford to meet Radiohead and to learn the story of their upcoming album OK Computer. The monthly music mags had already reviewed it and seemed to be competing with each other to load up on the highest compliments. Radiohead, who had lived their career in perpetual anxiety, giggled at the praise.

We has some refreshing drinks, we talked plenty and took an evening meal at the restaurant where Ed used to work as a waiter. Then we adjourned to Colin's house to wind down. The bass player produced a video that he'd received from director Danny Boyle - in the hope that the band might offer up something for the soundtrack. It was a rough edit, but we settled in anyway. Drinks were consumed, smoke was smoked and we realised with some consternation that chunks of the film had been removed, to dissuade potential piracy. Not that these Oxford boys would do anything remotely immoral.

But we did feel rather upset when the video finished abruptly. The ending was missing. Oh well, it wasn't enough to spoil a capital day. A week later I travelled to New York to see the band and their peers play at the Tibetan Freedom concert. Colin walked up and he presented me with a package. It was my cap and a few effects that I'd left in his house after the film night, and he'd brought them across the Atlantic in a perfect gesture of courtesy. Chap.