A story that went viral over the weekend mocking Radiohead fans who mistook the tuning of a guitar as a new song from the band was all a hoax.
While Radiohead did make headlines for their performance at Glastonbury Festival, fans were not treated to new material — real or imagined.
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A screencap of an online news report that appeared to be from the BBC made the rounds online following the band’s performance at the music festival Friday.
“Radiohead crowd left red-faced after applauding three minute guitar tuning, mistaking it for new song,” read the headline.
The story went on to report that “tens of thousands” of the band’s fans had “embarrassed themselves,” detailing a tweet from a crowd member hailing the band’s new track.
“One fan described it as ‘minimalist, but also complex, emotionally raw, but still able to push the boundaries of what music can be,'” the report claimed.
However amusing, the report has been debunked.
For one thing, no BBC report can be found online referencing the guitar-tuning gaffe.
The source of the report’s screencap appears to be @ArenaFlowers, a London florist shop.
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The same account posted two other bogus screencaps during the festival about its headliners: One reporting that Ed Sheeran was set “to play every Glastonbury stage simultaneously using a series of mirrors,” and another that Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl had lost his “‘nicest guy in rock’ title after Beck helps fan move sofa.”
The Glastonbury crowd might not have been fooled by the performers tuning up, but it has happened before. In 1971, Ravi Shankar famously received applause from a crowd after tuning up his sitar.
“If you appreciate the tuning so much, I hope you will enjoy the playing more,” Shankar told the crowd.
While the Radiohead story appears to be a comical ploy by the flower company to garner attention, consumers need to be savvy when it comes to spotting what is real and what is fake news. You can read more about how to spot fake news here.
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