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There’s a story I once heard about Thom Yorke’s hard-working conscious getting the better of him which I think may account for the ‘Bauer Iron Erectors’ hoody he chose to wear in Radiohead’s “Scotch Mist” special new-years’ recording (Watch via YouTube). I was hoping to get the Google Whack on this one… but someone raised questions about Yorke’s blue-hooded fashion statement in this forum, nevertheless that odd company title emblazoned apon the Yorke-sters back in that video has been bugging me for a good while.

Who are ‘Bauer Iron Erectors’?

Last year, as the story goes, Thom Yorke grew tired of his unbarred creative lifestyle– it was all too ‘easy’. Getting up whatever time in the morning / early afternoon (he looks like a late riser?), skipping breakfast on occasion (going straight to the veg drawer no doubt –like some kind of cazy-talented wonky-eyed bunny), scribbling down musical notation here and there, bashing out a rare solo project in between un-hectic schedules comprised of saving the world, editing Radio 4’s Today programme and being frightened of cars… fatigued by his contentment he reached out to a friend who ran a construction site.

For two weeks last year Thom Yorke worked as a construction labourer on-site somewhere in Oxfordshire (sorry, Yell.com couldn’t help me become more specific). Who knows what he got up to, consider the lyrics of ‘In Rainbows’ - perhaps we can find some clues:

Thom the: Architectural Office Assistant

So don’t get any big ideas
they’re not going to happen
You’ll go to hell for what your dirty mind is thinking

… here Thom complains about an over-baring boss, dashing his plans he wants to kill the stuffy closed-minded architect by drowning them in their own filth. obviously.
(disclaimer: i am not talking about anyone i know… honest)

Thom the: Lighting Engineer

I am a moth
who just wants to share your light
I’m just an insect
trying to get out of the night

…with zoophilia (here imagining he IS the moth, Lighting-Engineer-Yorke alludes to his decision to install low beam lighting in-doors which do not attract the proverbial moth to the flame… he may have also installed bright outside lighting for his insect friends, allowing both humans and metaturnal animals to enjoy Edison’s invention without interference. aww

Thom the: Ironic Site Manager

Jigsaws falling into place
There is nothing to explain

… here he pokes an irreverent finger at day-to-day planning issues, scope-creep and the ongoing increase in basic material costs- although he couldn’t put it into so many words when it came to discuss the problems with his client.

Thom the: Recycling Guy (who said tenuous?)

Squeeze the tubes and empty bottles
and take a bow, take a bow, take a bow

… i think Yorke did particularly well at this job- he seems to have got compression down to a t, in-fact the lyrics to Faust ARP suggest he won an award which was presented on stage at some by-weekly construction related ceremony.

Thom the: fella about to throw the towel in on his construction site job

The walls abandon shape

… things didn’t go well on this project. apparently this was all captured on CCTV camera’s by Yorke’s boss- who had the grin of a feline.

Thom Yorke, back the in the real world (or at least the anecdotal one) did throw the towel in, after two weeks. Its a tough job smashing things up… apparently. I can’t imagine it did much for morale having a guy working on site who once wrote “I’ll build you up to pull you down”.

Bauer Iron Erectors may well have been the company he worked with last summer. I doubt it, they aren’t listed online and searching for Iron Erectors in Oxfordshire is a simple task; there’s only 2 competing companies. I think the company is fictitious- perhaps the made-up name Yorke gives to himself when he plays in his back garden… sitting on one of those pedal-JCBs *brumm brumming* like a loon, he hauls piles of staples from one edge of the patio to the other, on occasion he creates a tower- only to tear it down seconds later, that’s when he’s not caring for moths who are scared of the dark.

It only hit me today, how bloody-brilliant the ablum ‘In Rainbows’ is. Watch their performance video Scotch Mist for a sample, you’ll see that Blue hoody 10mins in.