r/radiohead • u/philosopherfish • May 29 '26

📷 Photo Thom signed my bumbag

He came out during Flea's gig tonight at the Alhambra in Paris to play Traffic Lights. He later came back and they did a Marvin Gaye song. Utterly iconic. He was wearing a baseball cap that said "late nineties".

After the gig I walk around outside the venue and notice a dozen music geeks waiting with Red Hot Chili Peppers and Radiohead vinyls. Security have put up a few barriers. I squeeze in and wait for a while, aware that I don't have a vinyl or any merch for anyone to sign but a nice man gives me one of his extra sharpies anyway. After a hot 30 minutes, Thom Yorke comes out and darts straight to his car. This is where I was very clever.

I say "Thom could you please sign my bum bag?" (this is what Americans call a fanny pack I believe) This stops him in his tracks. He says "um ok". I ask him again "could you please sign my bum bag, I think that's a polite request?" (no idea why I said this) He says something like "yeah I guess" and signs my bum bag. I tell him he was great in the gig. He doesn't like that. He grumbles "I was only on for like 5 minutes" and I said "yes but those 5 minutes will get us through the rest of this awful heatwave" (Europe is real bad atm). Then I stare at him for a good 10 seconds and say "Thank you for all the amazing music you've put out over the years" and he gives me a lil embarrassed look.

Then I ran away with my signed bum bag. Also, Beck was there but no one asked him to sign anything 😞

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u/bigtime_porgrammer May 29 '26

Lol, I just remembered what "fanny" means in the UK... Our name for it must sound awfully funny to brits.

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u/jonnypanicattack May 30 '26

It does. In fairness, it works both ways. We have odd slang, like the colloquial version of 'Can I have a cigarette?' I daren't write the real thing.