Future Flares Festival: Exit Music

work-in-progress by Pinchbeck and Smith

There’s no alarm and no surprises. It’s just us. And them. And this. And now. Breathe, keep breathing. Don't lose your nerve. I can't do this alone.

Pinchbeck & Smith have been here before. They’re in the dressing room, anxious about what happens next. They’re talking. They’re not talking. They’re OK-NOT-OK. These long-time collaborators turn their bond over Radiohead into a story that jumps like a needle between 1997 and now, orbiting the connected histories of OK Computer and the Mir Space Station. Exit Music explores male friendship as the two performers collide sci-fi with vinyl, archival research and acoustic guitar, to make a melancholy montage that hopes for a better future while reliving a haunted past. Today, Pinchbeck & Smith escape, as they support one another through fears about ageing, loss, alien abduction and stage fright – with a 5% chance of catastrophic failure.

Supported by Performance Research Group, Future Flares Festival, Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Lincoln.