Radiohead mellow but don't mention Mariah
 | | Radiohead | On the face of it, one wouldn't expect to find much in common between British indie rockers Radiohead - who shot to fame 10 years ago with the hit Creep - and temperamental diva Mariah Carey. But that's where Sydney comes in. When the Oxford quintet was last touring Australia, they were locked out of their dressing room by the at-times troubled crooner.
Carey was playing at the Sydney Entertainment Centre the night after Radiohead - but had procured the dressing room ahead of time and wouldn't allow them in. "She could have been in there," said bass guitarist Colin Greenwood, "and that would have been good - if she was locked in."
But a repeat of the Carey disaster is not likely for the band, who have just touched down for their third Australian tour. They will play in Sydney this weekend and Melbourne early next week. Almost a year after the release of their latest album, Hail to the Thief, all five band members are new fathers. Lead singer Thom Yorke's first child was born in 2001, and other band members quickly followed suit.
Already well-versed in Australian cuisine, Greenwood sees his dawning maturity in terms of "a fine old Margaret River cheese". "Yes, we're maturing, like old cheeses, left on a shelf where someone comes along and takes a pole out to see how mouldy you've got."
But while having children has mellowed the band members personally - they are famous for their at-times paranoid self-introspection - it has not changed their political message. "It doesn't mean you can be any less emotional about the future, or any less angry about things like climate change or Iraq or Afghanistan," Greenwood said.
The band said times had changed for them since their early days, when they had to do "cheesy things" like sitting in nightclubs in San Francisco having their photograph taken for punters who had no idea who they were. The band is unlikely to have the same problem in Australia - where all four shows are sold out. (The Australian - Mariah Connection)
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