Garth Jennings is better known to most folks as one half (along with Nick Goldsmith) of the music video and commercial directing duo, Hammer & Tongs. Best known for their work on music videos for Blur (“Coffee & TV”) and Supergrass (“Pumping on Your Stereo”), Hammer & Tongs have moved on to directing movies, their debut being the 2005 film version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and it was followed a couple of years later with low key charmer, Son Of Rambow. The phrase “hammer and tongs” means “with great energy and force”, often phrased “to go at it with hammer and tongs”. The origins of this phrase is from blacksmithing, where tongs are used during forging to hold the hot iron as it is hammered into shape.
Garth Jennings directed the first video from Radiohead‘s brand new album “The King Of Limbs” and the result is strangely compelling with Tom Yorke front and center throughout, in some vaudeville-like performance. Check it out.