Up on the Ladder

Radiohead developed “Up On The Ladder” from a song played live during the early-2000s Hail to the Thief period and recorded the released studio version during the In Rainbows sessions between 2005 and 2007. The sessions took place at Halswell House, Tottenham House, the Hospital Club and the band’s Oxfordshire studio, with Nigel Godrich producing. First released in 2007 on In Rainbows Disk 2, it documented one of the long-gestating songs that had circulated among Radiohead listeners before the band’s independent In Rainbows campaign. Its placement on the bonus disc framed it as part of the wider In Rainbows archive rather than a main-album single. The track remains a notable fan-recognised outtake from Radiohead’s mid-2000s catalogue and a bridge between the Hail to the Thief live repertoire and the In Rainbows recording era. Its eventual official release gave a long-bootlegged song a fixed studio version within the band’s discography.