Radiohead biography
Although Yorke, O'Brien, Selway, and Colin Greenwood had left Abingdon by 1987 to attend university, the band continued to rehearse often on weekends and holidays. In 1991, when all the members except Jonny had completed their university degrees, On a Friday regrouped, began to record demos such as Manic Hedgehog, and performed live gigs around Oxford at venues such as The Jericho Tavern. Oxfordshire and the Thames Valley had an active independent music scene in the late 1980s, but it centred around shoegazing bands such as Ride and Slowdive; On a Friday were never seen as fitting this trend, commenting that they had missed it by the time they returned from university.
Nevertheless, as On a Friday's number of live performances increased, record labels and producers became interested. Chris Hufford, Slowdive's producer and the co-owner of Oxford's Courtyard Studios, attended an early On a Friday concert at the Jericho Tavern. Impressed by the band, he and his partner Bryce Edge produced a demo tape and became On a Friday's managers; they remain the band's managers to this day. Following a chance meeting between Colin Greenwood and EMI A&R representative Keith Wozencroft at the record shop where Greenwood worked, the band signed a six-album recording contract with the label in late 1991. At the request of EMI, the band changed their name to Radiohead, inspired by the title of a song on Talking Heads' True Stories album. The song in turn was inspired by a story the actor, writer and director Stephen Tobolowsky told David Byrne about psychic experiences he had as a teenager.
Pablo Honey, The Bends and early success (1992-95)
Radiohead recorded their debut release, the
Drill EP, with Chris Hufford and Bryce Edge at Courtyard Studios. Released in May 1992, its chart performance was very poor. Subsequently, the band enlisted Paul Kolderie and Sean Slade-who had worked with US indie bands Pixies and Dinosaur Jr.-to produce their debut album, recorded quickly in an Oxford studio in 1992. and "Creep" was blacklisted by BBC Radio 1 because it was deemed "too depressing".
The band released their debut album, Pablo Honey, in February 1993. It stalled at number 22 in the UK charts, as "Creep" and its anthemic follow-up singles "Anyone Can Play Guitar" and "Stop Whispering" failed to become major hits. "Pop Is Dead", a non-album single later disavowed by the band, sold equally poorly. Some critics compared the band's early style to the wave of grunge music popular in the early 1990s-to the extent of Radiohead being dubbed "Nirvana-lite"
In the first few months of 1993, Radiohead began to attract listeners elsewhere. "Creep" had been played very frequently on Israeli radio by influential DJ Yoav Kutner, and in March, after the song became a hit in that country's charts, Radiohead were invited to Tel Aviv for their first live gig overseas. Around the same time, the San Francisco alternative radio station KITS added the song to its playlist. Soon other radio stations along the west coast of the United States followed suit. By the time Radiohead began their first North American tour in June 1993, the music video for "Creep" was in heavy rotation on MTV. The song rose to number two on the US modern rock chart, entered the lower reaches of the top 40 pop chart, and finally hit number seven in the UK Singles Chart when EMI re-released it in the UK in September.
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