The five members of Radiohead, widely tipped to steal
U2 's crown as the 90s progressed, first met at a private
boys school in Abingdon, a small, picturesque town on the
outskirts of Oxford. Thom Yorke
(b. 7 October 1968,
Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, England; vocals, guitar)
had been given his first instrument, a Spanish guitar, at the
age of eight by his mother. He formed his first band two
years later, then joined an existing school punk band, TNT.
Singing for the first time, he realized he would require more
sympathetic band members and formed what would become
Radiohead with school friends Ed O'Brien
(b. Edward John
O'Brien, 15 April 1968, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England; guitar),
'who looked cool', and Colin Greenwood
(b. Colin Charles
Greenwood, 26 June 1969, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England;
bass) 'because he was in my year and we always ended up
at the same parties'. They shared an interest in Joy Division
and the Smiths and Greenwood earned Yorke's sympathy
for joining TNT after him. Mild-mannered drummer Phil
Selway
(b. Philip James Selway, 23 May 1967, Hemmingford
Grey, England; drums) bound the group, titled On A Friday,
together. The addition of Colin's brother and jazz fanatic, Jonny
Greenwood
(b. 5 November 1971, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England;
guitar, keyboards) completed the line-up, originally on harmonica,
after he pestered his elder brother and friends continually to let
him join. A week after his first rehearsal with the band, On A
Friday played their debut gig at the now defunct Jericho Tavern
in Oxford. With a musical canon resembling a youthful Talking
Heads, they added two saxophone-playing sisters to fill out the
band. However, the band were then put on hold while the
members pursued their academic careers, in an effort to
appease already frantic parents
(Jonny finished his schooling).
Colin became entertainments officer at Peterhouse College,
Cambridge University, and helped get his friends together
for occasional gigs there. At Exeter University, Yorke
played guitar in a techno band, Flickernoise, while Selway
drummed for various theatrical productions
( Blood Brothers,
Return To The Forbidden Planet ) while studying at Liverpool
Polytechnic.
The band finally regrouped in Oxford in the summer of 1991,
deciding to dispense with the brass section and concentrate
squarely on the band, now entitled Radiohead
(after a Talking
Heads song). Playing their first gig at the Hollybush Inn in July
1991, it was not long before they made a lasting impression.
Their first commercial broadcast followed when 'Prove Yourself'
was voted Gary Davies' 'Happening Track Of The Week' on
BBC Radio 1. 'Creep' then became the alternative rock song in
the UK during 1993, its self-loathing lyric
('I'm a creep, I'm a
weirdo, I don't belong here') stretched over driven guitars that at
one point simply explode. Ignored when it was first released in
September 1992, its re-release sparked enormous interest as the
group toured with Kingmaker and James. Taking the band into the
UK Top 10, it also announced a Top 30 debut album, Pablo
Honey. Unlike other celebrated UK indie hopefuls such as Suede,
Radiohead also translated well to international tastes, from the US
to Egypt. Two years of promotional activity followed, before the
release of The Bends in March 1995. With the pressure on following
the plaudits, the recording process was not easy. With hardly a note
recorded over two months, producer John Leckie ordered all bar
Yorke out of the studio and told the singer to 'just fucking play it'.
The songs came, and he and the rest of the band relocated to Abbey
Road Studios to finish off the album in a mere three weeks. The
Bends did not disappoint, with a vibrant mood range encouraging
Yorke's prosaic yet affecting lyrics: 'When your insides fall to pieces,
You just sit there wishing you could still make love'. Notable tracks
included the hypnotic 'High And Dry' and 'Fake Plastic Trees'. By the
end of 1995 The Bends had been universally acclaimed, enough to
win them a Brit awards nomination as the best band of the year. Two
years later, the band unveiled its follow-up, OK Computer, which
received the most spectacular reviews of any rock album in recent
memory, and won the band a Grammy award in 1998 for Best
Alternative Rock Performance.
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