Stepping away from his 'Together, Together' residency for the evening on 21st May,
Harry Styles took to the stage at the 2026 Ivor Novello Awards to welcome
Thom Yorke into the Fellowship of the Ivors Academy, using his speech to detail
Radiohead's deep impact on his own artistry.
Among the more unexpected confessions of the night, Styles revealed that the intro to 'Talk Show Host', taken from '
The Bends', soundtracked his first sexual experience. He framed the admission within a wider tribute to Yorke's craft, hailing his ability to take "feelings of anxiety and alienation and [turn] them into atmospheres, anthems, and hearts," and describing him as a figure who sits "atop this magical music mountain that we're all attempting to climb."
Reflecting on what Radiohead's catalogue has meant to him, Styles said: "Thom's work is music that is felt. It's always been somewhat of a religious experience to me — religious in the sense that the understanding seemed to go both ways. I always felt I could uniquely understand the writer of these songs, and at last someone was capturing what it feels like at times to be human."
Drawing a line between Yorke's writing and his own catalogue, the singer added that his music "has influenced my belief in the purpose of the arts in our world today… Without 'Exit Music (For a Film),' there would be no 'Watermelon Sugar.' Oh, imagine that. A world without that song. Doesn't bear thinking about."
Styles also shared the story of their first encounter, which took place on a cobbled street in Rome the morning after he had told a friend it might be wiser never to meet his hero. "I'd always been worried that he might be mean to me, and that emotionally I would never recover," he said. "The next day, A Moon Shaped Pool playing in my headphones, I found myself alone with him on a quiet cobbled street."
The exchange itself, he recounted, was brief: "'Hello, Mr. Yorke,' I said. 'Oh, it's you. Hello,' he replied."
"I was overwhelmed during our conversations. Our time with giants is not to be squandered," he continued. "The weight of the moments with the men who have made us is to be noticed. He was light, he was friendly, and he was kind. In a world where outside noise tends to leak into our awareness without permission, among our resented desire to please, a small kindness extended to you by a hero can be enough to release you. I beamed, and I've been beaming ever since. The wizard was also a human."
After accepting the honour, Yorke used his own speech to call on music executives to back emerging artists. He premiered a new track reportedly called 'Space Walk' and offered up an acoustic rendition of Radiohead's '
Jigsaw Falling into Place'.
