Radiohead

Radiohead are a British alternative rock band from Oxford and nearby Abingdon. Many fans and critics regard them as a seminal rock outfit and the natural inheritors of R.E.M. and Pink Floyd's mantle. The band consists of:

History

(1986–1990) Formation and first years

The Radiohead story began in the mid Eighties at Abingdon School, a "public," boys-only grammar school located just outside the city of Oxford. Drummer Phil Selway was a year above Thom Yorke and Ed O'Brien, bassist Colin Greenwood a year below them, and Colin's multi-instrumentalist brother Jonny a two years below him. Though the five didn't know each other that well, they began meeting up in the school's music department, which Yorke describes as "great-no one came down there, and there were these tiny rooms with soundproofed cubicles." Colin remembers Abingdon's music school as a place "where we would all run and hide away from the tedious conformity of timetables and uniforms." It wasn't long before the boys formed a more or less permanent band, playing music heavily influenced by acts like Joy Division, Magazine, U2, R.E.M., Elvis Costello and the Smiths. After trying and ditching a series of names, they finally settled on the rather uninspired On A Friday in honor of the day they regularly rehearsed. The band played their first gig in 1987, at Oxford's Jericho Tavern. Jonny Greenwood, Colin's younger brother, became the final addition to the band when Colin took him along to rehersals as a shortcut to babysitting him. Soon he began to take his keyboard along and play any parts they wanted on top. It was a long time before Jonny became an official member of the band.

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Even though the band were already fairly certain that they wanted to keep playing together, when it came time for college, all chose to bow to parental pressure and continue their education, putting music on the back burner. For almost four years On A Friday didn't play a single gig, and they rehearsed only during holiday breaks. In 1991, the band reemerged to release its first demo tapes. Their first one – the Manic Hedgehog Demo (named after an Oxford record shop) – brought the group to another gig in the Jericho Tavern. In the meantime, the band had already appeared on the cover of Curfew, a magazine based in Oxford.

Related Topics:
1991 - Demo tape

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(1991–1995) One hit wonders and rise to success: Pablo Honey and The Bends

Things went fast as On A Friday started being booked for gigs frequently. Various record labels showed interest and eventually the group signed a 6-album recording contract with EMI. The band were signed not long after the members had graduated from college. The only member of Radiohead without a college degree is Jonny, the youngest, who abandoned his course in psychology at Oxford Polytechnic when the band got signed. Responding to the critic in Curfew who characterised their name as mundane, the band decided to swap it for the title of a cod-reggae tune, "Radio Head" on Talking Heads' True Stories album. The record is a band favourite and would later be a major influence on their own Kid A.

Related Topics:
EMI - Talking Heads - True Stories - Kid A

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After spending an year trying to break into the consciousness of the British music press, they finally did become well-known with "Creep" in 1992 (in Israel first, no lie, and then the US). The band subsequently released Pablo Honey in 1993, began touring America like mad and nearly broke up over the pressure. The band's debut release was a self-produced EP, described by Chris Hufford as "not a clever move." "A huge conflict of interests. I think Thom was very insecure of my involvement. I'd had that happen to me as an artist when one of our managers acted as producer. There was definitely some friction on that front. Otherwise it was a treat; we fired out the songs." The 4-track Drill EP came out in March 1992 with Prove Yourself as the lead track. It reached 101 in the UK singles chart. The band hired Paul Kolderie and Sean Slade, who produced Buffalo Tom's "Let me come over," as producers. The album was finished in three weeks in an Oxford studio. Although representing a style from which the band would later move, songs like the big self-loathing hit "Creep," "Anyone Can Play Guitar," "Thinking About You," and "You" were popular. Because the album kept on breaking around the world, the Pablo Honey supporting tour lumbered into its second year.

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The hiring of producing legend John Leckie to make their next record – The Bends – showed that the band had further developed as musicians and the latter contributed significantly to the sound of the album. "The best part about working with John Leckie," Jonny recalls, "was that he didn't dictate anything to us. He allowed us to figure out what we wanted to do ourselves." Previous producers Colderie, Hufford and Slade participated in the mixing process and the selection of tracks. Nevertheless the first sessions were exceedingly difficult as the pressure to make a follow-up that would build on the success of Pablo Honey created high levels of tension within the band. Recalling these sessions, Leckie said: "It was either going to be Sulk, The Bends, Nice Dream, or Just. We had to give those absolute attention, make them amazing, instant smash hits number 1 in America. Everyone was pulling their hair and saying, 'It's not good enough! We were trying too hard!'"

Related Topics:
John Leckie - The Bends

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Thereafter, the band responded by seeking a change of scenery, quitting the studio and touring Australasia and the Far East. Trying new songs while touring, helped in making their second album. Hufford claimed that "it made them re-evaluate what they were good at and enjoyed doing. Playing live again put the perspective back on what they'd lost in the studio." The EP My Iron Lung (1994) was released between the two albums while the band were touring and saw them in a transitional stage between the pop-like Pablo Honey and the musical depth of their sophomore album. Having worked the songs in on the road, they returned to Britain and completed the album at once in a fortnight in late 1994. It was swiftly mixed and released in May the following year 1995. It wasn't successfull however untill their third single "Street Spirit (Fade Out)", which hit the Top 5 in UK, that the band were finally recognized and the album bounced to the charts in 1996. The Bends drew heavily on 1960s influences as well as the then-popular music exemplified by groups such as the Pixies and R.E.M. Songs like "High & Dry", "Fake Plastic Trees", "The Bends" and "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" were striking, original and profound, hinting that the group were growing as musicians and were on the way to stardom.

Related Topics:
Australasia - EP - My Iron Lung - 1994 - 1995 - Street Spirit (Fade Out) - 1960s - The Pixies - Fake Plastic Trees

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Although not regarded as a properly Britpop album, it was associated with the movement and in early 1996 – widely praised a year after the album's release – Radiohead took part in Cool Britannia, battling famous acts like Oasis, Blur, Pulp, and Suede. Now, The Bends is considered by many critics and fans as one of the best albums of the mid-1990s.

Related Topics:
Britpop - Cool Britannia - Oasis - Blur - Pulp - Suede

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(1996–1998) At the height of popularity: OK Computer

Radiohead began writing OK Computer a converted fruit shed with the latest recording equipment. By July they had recorded four songs with producer Nigel Godrich. Thom Yorke said that the Bends succeeded because "we had to put ourselves into an environment where we felt free to work. And that's why we want to produce the next one ourselves, because the times we most got off on making the last record were when we were just completely communicating with ourselves, and John Leckie wasn't really saying much, and it was just all happening." With the assistance of engineer Nigel Godrich, Radiohead did produce their next album themselves. They bought their own recording gear and went to work, first in early 1996 at their rehearsal studio, Canned Applause, then in actress Jane Seymour's 15th-century mansion in St. Catherine's Court near Bath. Their plan was to stay away from traditional recording studios and the bad vibes they'd previously set off in the band. But the same tension present during the Bends sessions appeared once again during the tracking for OK Computer. Yet the band eventually realized that creative tension wasn't necessarily bad. Having learnt of the Bends, they decided to perform the songs live before completing the record. After recording four songs in Canned Applause in July and August, they tried them on tour and then without pressure, recorded the rest till the end the year in St. Catherine's Court mansion.

Related Topics:
OK Computer - 1996

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In 16 June, 1997 OK Computer was released and received even greater acclaim than The Bends, featuring prominently in many "best album" polls, then and now. It found Radiohead introducing uncommon musical elements, experimenting with ambience and noise to create a set of songs that many consider to be a high point of late-twentieth century rock music. It received a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album and was followed by their big "Against Demons World Tour". Grant Gee, the director of the "No Surprises" video, accompanied the band on their tour and filmed it, which resulted in the "fly on the wall" documentary Meeting People Is Easy, which showed the band starting from their first and foremost tours and finishing in their late burn-out dates in mid-1998. OK Computer has been named the best album of the past 20 years by US music magazine Spin, and the best album of the 1990s by the online music publication Pitchfork.

Related Topics:
16 June - 1997 - Ambience - Noise - Grant Gee - Meeting People Is Easy - 1998

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One of their most notable shows of 1997 took place at New York's Irving Plaza, where the guest list included members of U2, R.E.M., Oasis, Blur, Marilyn Manson, Courtney Love, Madonna and many other notables - including Ed O'Brien's mother. "It was the first time she'd seen us in four years," O'Brien says. "Before the doors opened, I went round looking at the V.I.P. section, and I saw that Madonna had the best table in the house and my mum's table was way in the back. I thought, 'I'm not having this,' so I swapped the signs on the tables around. So," he continues with a giggle, "Madonna was at the back, and my mum had the best table in the house, between U2 and R.E.M. And that's exactly how it should be."

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The band released two EPs No Surprises/Running From Demons (1997) and Airbag/How Am I Driving? (1998), which differ only by a couple of songs. The more notable is the second, which has few songs that could best be described as a bridge between the progressive alternative rock of OK Computer and their subsequent experimental work.

Related Topics:
No Surprises/Running From Demons - Airbag/How Am I Driving?

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OK Computer and The Verve's final powerful alternative album – Urban Hymns – were regarded as a boost to the already dying Britpop movement, despite the fact that both records departed from the style. Nevertheless OK Computer is regarded by some as one of the greatest rock albums and still tops various charts. It defined Radiohead as top superstars and elevated them to the pantheon of the greatest bands of 90s, among such seminal acts as R.E.M., U2, Nirvana and Oasis.

Related Topics:
The Verve - Urban Hymns - 90s - R.E.M. - U2 - Nirvana - Oasis

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During this time, Radiohead also contributed two songs to Baz Luhrmann's 1996 adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, "Talk Show Host" and "Exit Music (For a Film)". The former is b-side to "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" found also on the soundtrack to the film, while the latter was also included in OK Computer.

Related Topics:
Baz Luhrmann - Romeo and Juliet - Talk Show Host - Exit Music (For a Film)

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(1999–2001) Experimental work: Kid A and Amnesiac

Exhausted by their fame and on the verge of burning out, following the end of the "Against Demons World Tour" in middle 1998, the band spent the next year in relative quiet. Thom Yorke admitted that after the tour the band was close to splitting up, and that he himself had fallen into depression for a time. Colin Greenwood said: "It felt a bit like we were in a dead-end street and that was really frustrating." The band only appeared at the Amnesty International Concert in Paris (10 December 1998), and Thom and Jonny performed at the Tibetan Freedom Concert in Amsterdam, where a new song, "Pyramid Song", made its live debut.

Related Topics:
10 December - 1998

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The band however were still working on the follow-up, but rather chaotically and were less organised than previous times. Thom said: "I think it was the first time we didn't have a clue what we were going to do, what we were doing. We were just experimenting. We've been in this state for about a year, just fooling around, trying out stuff and listening to what we did, then it finally started to get into shape... after about 18 months." But, after O'Brien's collaboration for the BBC drama series "Eureka Street" in middle 1999, the band holed completely in the studio to record. The amount of the material was huge – about 40 new songs, from which they chose 30 for their subsequent two records.

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Radiohead refused to make a follow-up of OK Computer in the same musical vein and chose to be even more ambitious than before, creating an experimental electronic album with minimal guitar work that complemented the lyrical and musical hooks of their earlier work with a more minimalist style. Yorke explained that the band wanted "to experiment and find new angles, leave the old paths. We tried to treat the album like a song, let the album develop itself rather than giving it a shape and moulding it into a shape, and it worked. It was a completely different way we used for work and it was rather liberating."

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The album's arrangements have been likened to a meeting of Pink Floyd and Aphex Twin. Their fourth record Kid A was released in October 2000. The band cited Alice Coltrane, Charles Mingus and Paul Lansky as influences, as well as the entire back catalogue of Warp Records. Kid A received a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album just as its predecessor did, which fired them to superstardom. The band were accused by some critics for creating a radio-unfriendly record, though most of the band's fans hailed it as a masterpiece, and it is now considered by some to be one of their finest records and greatest achievements. The online music publication Pitchfork Media article holds Kid A as the finest album of the first half of this decade.

Related Topics:
Pink Floyd - Aphex Twin - Kid A - October 2000 - Alice Coltrane - Charles Mingus - Paul Lansky - Warp Records - Grammy - Pitchfork Media

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The follow-up Amnesiac, which was released in June of the following year, comprised further tracks from the same recording sessions. Conceived as two separate sequences of songs, the two albums are similar in style and influences; linked by two different versions of the song, "Morning Bell." Amnesiac is often viewed by critics as the less accomplished of the two works and has been criticised for its lack of cohesion. However, most fans and a growing number of critics refer to this lack of continuity as a deliberate device used by Radiohead to distinguish Amnesiac from Kid A. The album was received very well and nearly reached Kid As sales, marking a further musical exploration of the band. There is even a division in the opinion of some fans about which of the two albums is better.

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After its release, the band staged their own mini-festival in Oxford's South Park, featuring Beck, Sigur Rós, Supergrass, Humphrey Lyttelton (who played trumpet on "Life in a Glass House", the closing track on Amnesiac), and themselves. Initially the band wanted to release "I Might Be Wrong" as their new single after "Pyramid Song" and "Knives Out", but soon the idea expanded into a full-fledged live record. In the fall of 2001, they released their first live album: ', featuring performances from Berlin, Paris, London and a couple of other concerts as well as including one unreleased track, "True Love Waits".

Related Topics:
Oxford - Beck - Sigur Rós - Supergrass - Humphrey Lyttelton - Trumpet

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(2002–2004) Mixing from everything: Hail to the Thief

The recording process for their next record, Hail to the Thief, was remarkably different from those for the previous three studio albums. They were comparable more to the pace of the Bends sessions, rather than the usual holing up in a studio for months. The band elected to take their new material on the road in Portugal and Spain during July and August 2002 prior to recording it. With the songs fleshed out and finalised during the tour, the band completed the album in a Los Angeles studio in a fortnight. In 2003 the band released their sixth album, which was rooted in less overt experimentation than its two immediate predecessors but was still a long way from their earlier guitar-driven material. It was received very warmly by both fans and critics alike and surpassed the previous two albums' sales.

Related Topics:
Hail to the Thief - Portugal - Spain - July - August 2002 - Los Angeles - 2003

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Thereafter, Radiohead embarked on a vast international tour, lasting about a year. It saw the band visiting Australia and Japan for the first time since their OK Computer tour in 1997–1998, more than 6 years previous. Many Australian fans were deeply upset by the cancellation of the last show merely hours before its scheduled start due to problems with Yorke's throat. Radiohead headlined the main (Pyramid) stage on the Saturday of the Glastonbury 2003, to huge crowd acclaim and positive press reviews. The same year, Jonny Greenwood, with the help of his brother Colin Greenwood, recorded and produced the soundtrack to the avant-garde documentary movie Bodysong.

Related Topics:
1997 - 1998 - Glastonbury 2003 - Bodysong

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About one year after the release of Hail to the Thief, Radiohead released a new EP entitled COM LAG (2plus2isfive), while on their 2004 tour in Australia and Japan. With 10 tracks, COM LAG is longer than the average Radiohead EP. It features live takes, remixes, and different versions of Hail to the Thief-era songs, as well as a handful of acoustic and electronic numbers. The band finished touring and promoting Hail to the Thief in mid-2004 with an acclaimed performance at the Coachella Festival.

Related Topics:
COM LAG (2plus2isfive) - 2004 - Australia - Japan - Coachella Festival

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(2005–2006) Next Album

At first, the band stated that it's natural to record some more material, on the heels of the previous record and started jamming in their Oxford based studio, but then gave up. Free of any contractual obligations, Radiohead spent the rest of 2004 devoting themselves to solo projects and recordings with other artists, before working again. The band only gave note of themselves as a whole, releasing the DVD The Most Gigantic Lying Mouth Of All Time in December 2004. Jonny Greenwood, along with Phil Selway, will have a cameo role in the next Harry Potter movie – HP and the Goblet of Fire. Jonny became a composer for the BBC, charged with creating classical pieces. He and Thom participated in the Band Aid 20 project, playing respectively guitar and piano, collaborating with myriad of famous artists.

Related Topics:
2004 - The Most Gigantic Lying Mouth Of All Time - December 2004 - Cameo - HP and the Goblet of Fire - Band Aid 20

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Radiohead returned fully again to recording sessions in early 2005, although they recorded on and off in during the hiatus. The band got together back in January 2005 and Thom played a bunch of his new songs for the others. Having never heard the material before, the rest of the band just jumped in and started adding their own parts. The whole recording process has been portrayed as "unorganised" and very different than the usual ways Radiohead has recorded before. Later Thom described this change to NME as the way the band worked during the gap of OK Computer and Kid A. It's unknown whether close collaborator Nigel Godrich will produce the album, but it's most likely. It's been reported that he is frequently visiting the studio, where the band is recording, and that Thom gave him a tape with some new songs.

Related Topics:
2005 - January 2005

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It's been revealed that it's unlikely that the band would re-sign with EMI.Their management also dismissed recent rumours that Warner Music were lining up to sign the band, saying: "The band (are) not looking for a record company in any way, shape or form. They are out of a contract, but they're not actively looking for another one. They're getting on with doing what they do."

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The first Radiohead song heard since "Hail to the Thief" era tracks appeared on the compilation titled Help: A Day in the Life supporting the WarChild Foundation. This song was called "I Want None Of This" and features maily Thom Yoke on piano and vocals. The idea for the compilation was to get many different artists together (including Gorillaz, Razorlight, The Zutons, Manic Street Preachers, Bloc Party, Hard-Fi, The Coral, Elbow and Maximo Park), and have them each record a song in a 24 hour time period, and release it on the internet for purchase, as well as in record stores. The 2005 Help album also marks the 10 year anniversary of the first Help album which was released in 1995 and featured Radiohead's "Lucky" which was later featured on OK Computer.

Related Topics:
Gorillaz - Razorlight - The Zutons - Manic Street Preachers - Bloc Party - Hard-Fi - The Coral - Elbow - Maximo Park - 2005 - 1995 - OK Computer

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On September 23, Jonny posted on Radiohead's studio blog, announcing that they were back in the studio after a month's break, and that Stanley Donwood would be painting for them again. Jonny has also mention that he has been listening nothing but dub reggae for the past six months. On September 30, Thom posted what seems to be 21 songs that the band have been working on. A list has been made.

Related Topics:
Jonny - Stanley Donwood - Dub reggae

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Not all of these 20 songs will make the cut and probably these are not all the songs that Radiohead are working on. It's quite normal for a band to work on many songs during the recording process and then narrow down the ones they feel will fit on the album. Probably 10 to 15 songs will land on the new album, others will be used as b-sides and some will be eventually scrapped or remain in the back burner for further releases.

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Also Thom is quite hesitatant whether to meet or not with Tony Blair and he is eminent for his conflicting sentiments against him, which he expressed during the Hail to the Thief-era, coinciding with the 2003 Invasion in Iraq. He appealed for fans' guidance and the vast majority, 70% of readers, immediately contacted NME and expressed their opinion, that "Yorke should meet and discuss issues on his mind with leading politicians."

Related Topics:
Tony Blair - 2003 Invasion in Iraq

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