Radiohead

WHICH city in England boasts the largest number of signed bands per capita? Well, according to Radiohead, it's their hometown of Oxford (also home to Ride and Supergrass). All five members of the band are natives of Oxford, where they met at Abingdon School. Singer-guitarist Thom Yorke and bassist Colin Greenwood were the first to hit it off at Abingdon, sharing an affinity for Joy Division, Magazine, and cross-dressing. Ed O'Brien, another singer-guitarist, was added because Thom thought he was "cool and looked like Morrissey." Phil Selway replaced the trio's drum machine, and the foursome formed On a Friday, named after — what else? — the day they practiced. Soon, Colin's younger brother, Jonny, joined their ranks on harmonica, but the quintet soon put their budding career on hold as various members shuttled off to universities. Thom went to Exeter to study fine art and literature; Ed to Manchester for politics; and Colin and Phil went on to study English at Cambridge and Liverpool, respectively.

During vacations from school, On a Friday was revived; live shows featured a brass section and, as a closer, a rousing rendition of Elvis Costello's "Pump It Up." In the summer of 1991, after the members had all completed school, they regrouped in Oxford (Jonny was now a full-fledged guitarist and keyboard player), and eventually changed their name to Radiohead ("Radio Head" is a Talking Heads song on the album True Stories). With other commitments out of the way, they began to take the band seriously, and it didn't take long for the powers-that-be to take notice: after their first official gig, Radiohead received more than twenty record-company offers.

Radiohead's first release was a 1992 U.K.-only EP, Drill, which sparked enough interest to land them opening slots on tours with PJ Harvey, Tears for Fears, and James, just to name a few. But this was only the beginning, as a song called "Creep" was about to change their careers forever. "Creep" hit U.K. airwaves in the second half of 1992 and was eventually named one of the top British singles of both that year and the next. The song, which was perceived as an anthem for the alienated, had little in common with the rest of their first album, Pablo Honey, released in 1993. In fact, some fans of "Creep" were disappointed by the comparative mellowness of the rest of the album, though plenty were fascinated by the band's distinct and varied sound. At last, here was a new British band that owed more to Pink Floyd than to usual suspects the Beatles or the Sex Pistols (in 1995, the band even tipped their hat to Pink Floyd by mounting a most Floydian quadraphonic surround-sound tour of the U.K.). And "Creep" certainly helped Radiohead sell tickets, even though subsequent radio singles failed to garner much airplay in America.

In 1994, the band next released an EP called My Iron Lung, which provided a taste of what was to come on 1995's The Bends. American radio jumped on the single "Fake Plastic Trees," which also appeared on the oh-so-hip soundtrack to the film Clueless in 1995. At last, the band began to escape from their "Creep" pigeonhole. "Fake Plastic Trees," a slow and almost mournful tune, was a far cry from the grinding plaint of the earlier hit, as was "High And Dry," which also received significant airplay.

By this time, the band had plenty of fans in the music world as well as the population at large. R.E.M. liked Radiohead so much that they asked them to be an opening act on their 1995 European and American tours. Meanwhile, other bands paid their respects by doing covers of Radiohead songs. Tears for Fears recorded a live version of "Creep" and released it as a B-side. The Pretenders also recorded their own rendition of "Creep," which appears on the Isle of View video (but not on the CD). It was Alanis Morissette, however, who may have been the biggest Radiohead fan: she often performed "Fake Plastic Trees" during her live shows in 1995 and 1996, and she invited the band to tour with her in August of 1996.

Radiohead started working on material for their third album in early 1996, but it wasn't until after the Morissette tour that they headed into the studio to get down to some serious business. And what a studio it was — the band recorded the album in a fourteenth-century manor house owned by actress Jane Seymour (of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman fame). Located outside of Bath, England, the isolated mansion was also used by the Cure to record their album Wild Mood Swings. The working title of the new record was Ones and Zeroes, but that binary-code reference evolved to OK Computer by the time the set was released in 1997. Songs were recorded all over the Seymour mansion, everywhere from the grand ballroom to the hallway. Bassist Colin Greenwood, in an interview with New Musical Express, described the resulting sound as being "like a stoned Radiohead." The first single, a six-and-a-half-minute track in three parts entitled "Paranoid Android," was released in May and entered the U.K. charts at No. 3. OK Computer, released the following month, debuted at No. 1 in the U.K.

Although Radiohead has been touring since OK Computer's release, and they expect to play more shows in the U.S. in November and December, they do have plans for some "new" music. The band has given DJ Shadow "Subterranean Homesick Alien" to work on and plans to offer the entire OK Computer album to Massive Attack for a remixing dissection.

Radiohead was one of the few alternative bands of the early '90s to draw heavily from the grandiose arena rock that characterized U2's early albums. But the band internalized that epic sweep, turning it inside out to tell tortured, twisted tales of angst and alienation. Vocalist Thom Yorke's pained lyrics were brought to life by the group's three-guitar attack, which relied on texture -- borrowing as much from My Bloody Valentine and Pink Floyd as R.E.M. and Pixies -- instead of virtuosity. It took Radiohead awhile to formulate their signature sound. Their 1993 debut, Pablo Honey, only suggested their potential, and one of its songs, "Creep," became an unexpected international hit, its angst-ridden lyrics making it an alternative rock anthem. Many observers pigeonholed Radiohead as a one-hit wonder, but the group's second album, The Bends, was released to terrific reviews in the band's native Britain in early 1995, helping build a more stable fan base. Having demonstrated unexpected staying power, as well as increasing ambition, Radiohead next released OK Computer, a progressive, electronic-tinged masterpiece that became one of the most acclaimed albums of the '90s.

Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar), Ed O'Brien (guitar, vocals), Jonny Greenwood (guitar), Colin Greenwood (bass), and Phil Selway (drums) formed Radiohead as students at Oxford University in 1988. Initially called On a Friday, the band began pursuing a musical career in earnest in the early '90s, releasing the Drill EP in 1992. Shortly afterward, the group signed to EMI/Capitol and released the single "Creep," a fusion of R.E.M. and Nirvana highlighted by a noisy burst of feedback prior to the chorus. "Creep" was a moderate hit, and their next two singles, "Anyone Can Play Guitar" and "Pop Is Dead," built a small following, even as the British music press ignored the group.

Pablo Honey, Radiohead's debut album, was released to mixed reviews in the spring of 1993. As the band launched a European supporting tour, "Creep" became a sudden smash hit in America, earning heavy airplay on modern rock radio and MTV. On the back of the single's success, Radiohead toured the U.S. extensively, opening for Belly and Tears for Fears. All the exposure helped Pablo Honey go gold, and "Creep" was re-released in the U.K. at the end of 1993. This time, the single became a Top Ten hit, and the band spent the following summer touring the world.

Although "Creep" made Radiohead a success, it also led many observers to peg the band as a one-hit wonder. Conscious of such thinking, the group entered the studio with producer John Leckie to record their second album, The Bends. Upon its spring 1995 release, The Bends was greeted with overwhelmingly enthusiastic reviews, all of which praised the group's deeper, more mature sound. However, positive reviews didn't sell albums, as Radiohead struggled to be heard during the U.K.'s summer of Britpop and as American radio programmers and MTV ignored the record. The band continued to tour as the opening act on R.E.M.'s prestigious Monster tour. By the end of the year, The Bends began to catch on, thanks not only to the band's constant touring but also to the stark, startling video for "Just." The album made many year-end best-of lists in the U.K., and early in 1996 the record re-entered the British Top Ten and climbed to gold status in the U.S., helped in the latter by the video for "Fake Plastic Trees."

During the first half of 1996, Radiohead continued to tour before re-entering the studio that fall to record their third album, OK Computer, which was released in the summer of 1997. A devoted following of fans and a handful of enthusiastic critical supporters immediately embraced the album's majestic blend of unfettered prog rock, post-punk angst, eerie electronic textures, and assured songwriting. Since it skillfully teetered between rock classicism and futurism, it earned near-unanimous critical and popular support over the course of the year, which turned into unrestrained adoration in the final two years of the decade, even though its sales still hadn't climbed above gold status.

Expectations for Radiohead's fourth album were stratospheric, which placed additional pressure on the already perfectionist band, and led to several stumbling blocks along the way. An intense buzz of excitement among the band's still-growing following greeted the prerelease appearance of most of the album's tracks on the Internet in MP3 form; they displayed an all-out fascination with challenging, often minimalist electronica. Titled Kid A, the album was finally released in October 2000 and astonished many observers by debuting at number one on the U.S. album charts. While the band didn't release any singles or embark on a formal tour, the album met with a mixed critical response as the group was accused of creating a distant and radio-unfriendly record; however, it did remain a fan favorite.

In June of 2001, Radiohead quickly released an album under the name Amnesiac that consisted of material that was recorded during the Kid A sessions. The band made it very clear, though, that it was not to be considered an outtakes album; rather, they insisted that the two albums were of clear and separate concept. Regardless, Amnesiac debuted at number one in the U.K. and number two on the U.S. chart (behind then-stronghold Staind), while outselling Kid A in week one by 25,000 copies. The singles Pyramid Song and Knives Out were culled from Amnesiac with a subsequent world tour. While planning "I Might Be Wrong" for a third single, the idea expanded into a live "mini-album," titled after the track, that was released in November of 2001. Hail to the Thief, the proper follow-up to Amnesiac, was relatively direct in structure and peaked at number three on the U.S. chart. Sporadic recording sessions resumed in early 2005, but a projected release date for the band's seventh studio album remained 2007 as Yorke prepared a solo album, The Eraser, which was issued in July 2006.

On October 1, 2007, the band announced that they had finished their seventh album, In Rainbows, and that it would be "out" in a matter of ten days. Giving fans the option to pay whatever they'd like for the album as a zip file of MP3s, Radiohead also devised a pre-order system for the physical version of the album -- a "discbox" containing a double-vinyl version, a CD copy with an enhanced six-track bonus disc, a lyric book, and photos -- which they planned on shipping by early December. This was done without the involvement of a record label. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Andy Kellman, All Music Guide