Radiohead Biography
The following biography
is from
Wikipedia.org
“The
Free Encyclopedia.”
Radiohead is a British alternative rock band from
Oxford and nearby Abingdon, comprising five members:
Thom Yorke, the lead singer, who also plays
acoustic guitar, rhythm guitar, and piano;
Jonny Greenwood, who plays lead guitar, keyboards,
modular synthesiser, Ondes Martenot, and glockenspiel, and creates sounds with a
laptop;
Ed O'Brien, who plays supplemental guitar, often
with effects pedals, and provides backing vocals and auxiliary percussion;
Colin Greenwood, who plays bass guitar, keyboards,
sampler, and synthesisers; and
Phil Selway, who plays percussion, including drums.
****
Country Oxford, England, UK
Years active 1986–present
Genre(s) Alternative Rock
Label(s) Parlophone
Capitol
Members Thom Yorke
Jonny Greenwood
Ed O'Brien
Colin Greenwood
Phil Selway
****
Overview and Influence
Main article: Radiohead overview and influence
Fans, music critics, and fellow musicians tend to
regard them as among the most fearlessly creative bands of their era, although
they are not universally popular. In general, Radiohead's music is more complex
than that of other pop musicians, incorporating a wide range of influences
across genres and time periods, but they identify with the punk and post-punk
movements rather than with progressive rock.
Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood are chiefly
responsible for songwriting, with Yorke initating a song, while Jonny develops
it. In recent years band members have sometimes embraced less clearly defined
roles. For example, bassist Colin Greenwood wrote much of "Dollars & Cents", a
track on Amnesiac, by playing string samples from Alice Coltrane's work on top
of a simple bassline, inspiring his brother Jonny's subsequent arrangement.
Yorke, who usually plays lead, switched to bass guitar on the song "The National
Anthem", the instrument usually played by Colin.
Producer Nigel Godrich has worked with the band
since the recording of The Bends, where he assisted producer John Leckie. He has
contributed significantly to their sound, and has often been dubbed the "sixth
member" of the band. Graphic artist Stanley Donwood met Yorke at the University
of Exeter, and has collaborated with Yorke to produce the artwork for the band's
albums since their My Iron Lung EP. Yorke works with Donwood under an alias,
usually "Tchock", "Tchocky", or "Dr. Tchock". The two also created the band's
official website, Radiohead.com. See section: Radiohead and the Internet.
Early influences include The Beatles, The Smiths,
Elvis Costello, Joy Division, Pixies, Talking Heads, Roxy Music, R.E.M., and the
Jam among others. Later influences have included jazz musicians like Charles
Mingus, Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman and Krautrock pioneers such as Kraftwerk,
Neu! and Can, whose song "Thief" Radiohead has covered. Electronic music artists
like Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, and Autechre have also been cited as important
influences on Kid A and Amnesiac. The work of Polish composer Krzysztof
Penderecki informed some of Radiohead's string-oriented songs such as How To
Disappear Completely, but more significantly, French composer Olivier Messiaen,
who made much use of the Ondes Martenot, is a longtime idol of Johnny Greenwood
whose work is adored by all members of the band. Members of Radiohead are also
fans of reggae, dub reggae, and classic soul music, particularly Booker T & the
MGs for Colin. The band are huge fans of Outkast. Artists they have invited to
open for them on tour include Sigur Rós, Supergrass, Spiritualized,
Sparklehorse, Stephen Malkmus (of Pavement), Low, Clinic, Four Tet and the Beta
Band, among others.
History
(1986–1991) Formation and first years
The Radiohead story began in the mid-Eighties at
Abingdon School, a private boys-only 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 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, Pixies, Magazine, 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 honour of the day they
regularly rehearsed. The band played their first gig in August 1986, at Oxford's
Jericho Tavern. Jonny Greenwood, Colin's younger brother, became the final
addition to the band when Colin took him along to rehearsals 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.
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.
(1992–1995) 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 was signed not
long after the members had graduated from university. The only member of
Radiohead without a university 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.
After spending a year trying to break into the
consciousness of the British music press, they finally did become well-known
with "Creep" in 1992. The band subsequently released Pablo Honey in 1993, began
touring America, 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 then 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 moved into its second year.
However, some critics and record buyers labeled the
band as a "one-hit-wonder" on the heels of "Creep"'s massive success. The band
was fully aware of this, and began work on their second album immediately after
the tour finished. 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 Kolderie, 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!" 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 relaxed the atmosphere and 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 1995. It wasn't successful until their third
single "Street Spirit (Fade Out)", which hit the Top 5 in UK. The album finally
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 R.E.M. and the
Pixies. Songs like "High & Dry", "Fake Plastic Trees", "My Iron Lung" (the
band's response to their big hit "Creep") and "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" were
striking, original and profound, hinting that the group were growing as
musicians and were on the way to lasting fame.
Although not regarded as a proper Britpop album, it
was associated with the movement and in early 1996, Radiohead—widely praised a
year after the album's release—took part in Cool Britannia, battling famous acts
like Oasis, Blur, Pulp, and Suede. The Bends is now considered by many critics
and fans to be one of the best albums of the mid-1990s.
(1996–1998) OK Computer
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." The band didn't know it at the time, but already one
new song was recorded for the album: "Lucky", especially produced in September
1995 for the War Child charity's The Help Album, which was an indicator of the
bands next steps. With the assistance of engineer Nigel Godrich, Radiohead
really did produce their next album themselves. They bought their own recording
gear and went to work on OK Computer in early 1996. By July they had recorded
four songs with producer Nigel Godrich at their rehearsal studio, Canned
Applause, a converted shed with the latest recording equipment. Their plan was
to stay away from traditional recording studios and the bad vibes they'd
previously set off in the band. After recording four songs, and having learnt
from The Bends, they decided to perform the songs live, touring with Alanis
Morissette, before completing the record. The rest were recorded in actress Jane
Seymour's 15th-century mansion in St. Catherine's Court near Bath.
Unfortunately, some of the same tension present during the Bends sessions
appeared once again during the track selection for OK Computer. At the end the
band learned that creative tensions isn't necessary a bad thing. By the end of
the year the album was finished and February and March it was mixed and
mastered.
On 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. During this time their performance at the
Glastonbury Festival (shown briefly in Meeting People Is Easy), just after the
release of OK Computer, was hailed by Michael Eavis as one of the greatest gigs
ever performed at the festival. 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, as well as numerous other publications and
public votes.
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.
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 Pearl Jam.
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 included in
OK Computer.
(1999–2001) 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. Thom Yorke claims that New Years Eve 1998
was one of the most depressing days of his entire life. During this time he
began a big friendship with R.E.M.'s frontman Michael Stipe, who had a big
influence over his mental health and artistic career. According to Thom, Michael
helped him a lot to overcome the depression.
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.
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."
Their fourth record, Kid A, was released in October
2, 2000 - three-and-half years after OK Computer. The band cited Alice Coltrane,
Charles Mingus and Paul Lansky as influences, as well as the entire back
catalogue of Warp Records. The album's arrangements have been likened to a
meeting of Pink Floyd and Aphex Twin. Kid A received a Grammy Award for Best
Alternative Album just as its predecessor did, but some critics complained that
the record was too self-indulgent and radio-unfriendly. Despite this, Kid A is
now considered one of their finest records and greatest achievements. The online
music publication Pitchfork Media picked Kid A as the finest album of the first
half of this decade.
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 did not quite match Kid A's sales, but came close. There is some argument
among fans over which of the two albums is better.
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 fully-fledged live record. In the fall of 2001,
they released their first live album: I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings,
featuring performances from Berlin, Paris, London and a couple of other concerts
as well as one unreleased track, "True Love Waits".
(2002–2004) Hail to the Thief
On the heels of the Amnesiac tour the band took
their new material on the road in Portugal and Spain during July and August 2002
prior to recording it. The recording process of the album was more like The
Bends sessions, rather than the slower Kid A/Amnesiac sessions. 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 Hail
to the Thief, which was rooted in less overt experimentation than its two
immediate predecessors but was still a long way from their earlier guitar-driven
material. The album's title was seen as a comment on the 2000 U.S. presidential
election. Even though the band denied that it had any reference to George W.
Bush's election win, and the subsequent Bush presidency, the view that it was
might be seen as appropriate when taking into consideration the artwork and
themes of some of the songs on the album, such as the track "2 + 2 = 5", which
refers to George Orwell's political commentary Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Hail to the Thief gathered lukewarm reviews on
release, mainly based on the fact that it was not considered 'genre-redefining'
to the extent Kid A and OK Computer were analysed to be. However, in the greater
scheme of popular music, many fans and critics consider it to be an on a par
with Radiohead's previous work. The record revisits every era of Radiohead's
sound, varying from experimental electronica to crunching guitars, and is
infused with a certain swagger that band members attribute to the quick,
energetic recording sessions.
After the release of Hail to the Thief, Radiohead
embarked on a vast international tour, lasting about a year. The band showed a
relaxed attitude during interviews and press conference and at the stage shows,
they were dancing and grinning. The tour 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 again, in June 2003, headlined the main (Pyramid)
stage on the Saturday of the Glastonbury Festival. Like in 1997, the perfomance
was greeted to huge crowd acclaim and positive press reviews. Also in 2003,
Jonny Greenwood, with the help of his brother Colin Greenwood, recorded and
produced the soundtrack to the avant-garde documentary Bodysong.
About one year after the release of Hail to the
Thief, Radiohead released a new EP titled 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.
(2005–2006) Current recording sessions
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. This didn't last long, as Ed and Colin
were expecting children, and the band wanted some time off after a three-album
cycle. Free of any contractual obligations, Radiohead spent the rest of 2004
resting and devoting themselves to solo projects and recordings with other
artists, only recording sporadically. They released the DVD version of their
webcast television show, The Most Gigantic Lying Mouth Of All Time, in December
2004. Jonny Greenwood and Phil Selway had cameo roles in the film Harry Potter
and the Goblet of Fire, for which they recorded three songs, but their fictional
band The Wyrd Sisters, fronted by Pulp's Jarvis Cocker, only got a few minutes
of screen time. Jonny became a composer for the BBC, charged with creating
classical pieces. He and Thom collaborated with many other artists for the Band
Aid 20 project, playing guitar and piano, respectively.
Radiohead returned 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 participate in the making of the album, as the
bandmembers are capable enough to produce it themselves. At the moment Nigel is
doing work on the new Travis album. 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. It's known that regular graphic artist "in charge" Stanley
Donwood will be painting for them again.
It's been revealed that it's unlikely that the band
would re-sign with EMI. Their management also dismissed 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."
In March 2005 Thom and Jonny played at the Ether
Festival, unveiling a new song "Arpeggi", in the process. A month later, in
April, Thom played an acoustic solo gig at the Trade Justice vigil at
Westminster, playing a new song, "House of Cards", and three 'lost' songs, "Big
Ideas" (from the Kid A/Amnesiac sessions), "Last Flowers" (shelved from the OK
Computer era) and "Reckoner" (between the Kid A/Amnesiac and Hail to the Thief).
In early September, the band recorded a new song;
"I Want None Of This", for the War Child album Help - a Day in the Life. It is a
simple piano-based song, with a minimalist style & some haunting backing vocals.
On September 30, Thom posted a photo on their own on-line blogof what seems to
be a list of 21 songs for the band to work on. A list has been extrapolated by
members of the ateaseweb.com fansite. Not all of these songs will make the cut
and probably these are not all the songs that Radiohead are currently working
on. Although it is unknown how many songs will land on the new album, it is
likely that the remaining songs will either be used as b-sides, or remain on the
back burner for further releases. It is possible that some songs may be scrapped
completely, but unlikely as the band rarely does so. Tracks touted for the new
album include the aformentioned "Big Ideas" (aka "Nude"), dating back from the
Kid A-sessions and "Last Flowers" - an OK Computer leftover.
Other titles for tracks which are being considered
for the new album from the sessions, which is expected some time Summer 2006,
include "Rubbernecks", "Bodysnatchers", "Solutions", "A Pig's Ear", "Burn The
Witch", "Suit Don't Fit", "Down Is The New Up" (speculated to be a prospective
title for the new album), "Morning Mi' Lord", as well as the already mentioned
"House Of Cards", "Reckoner" and "Arpeggi". The band are already discussing next
year's tour dates, although no dates are confirmed. Thom said the following on
the official site messageboard: "Next year we will play some small gigs.
Actually maybe a couple of large ones too...". It is rumoured also that the band
will be headlining at the V festival in Chelmsford, UK in 2006.
On 22 October, 2005, Thom and Ed made another
appearance at the blog and messageboard. Apparently, Radiohead have finished two
weeks of non-stop recording sessions, making one track a day, afterwards the
band will take November off and will return in December to record until
Christmas. As it is already December 2005 it can be assumed that the band are
currently in the studio recording final touches of their upcoming album. Ed
O'Brien is also scheduled to appear on BBC1 on December 21 to talk about
Radiohead's upcoming record.
****
Discography
Studio
albums
Pablo Honey
February 22 1993(UK)
#25 (UK), #32 (US)
The Bends
March 13, 1995
(UK) - #4 (UK), #88 (US)
OK Computer
June 16, 1997
(UK) - #1 (UK), #21 (US);
Kid A
October 2, 2000
#1 (UK), #1 (US)
Amnesiac
June 4, 2001
#1 (UK), #2 (US)
* * * *
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