By the end of that period, or the middle of that period, there was the Pixies, Happy Mondays and Stone Roses and all these things. We started off at the time of the Smiths’ The Queen is Dead, that era. Looking back now at those early songs, I realize how surprisingly well-written they were, and how good Thom was already when he was 16.Įd O’Brien: They never felt like lean years. I guess we were just very into kind of hearing ourselves and hearing each other. And then after Christmas everyone went back to college. I can remember one winter they came back from college and we just rehearsed every day of the week up until Christmas Day. Jonny Greenwood (guitar): We just got loads of pleasure from rehearsing and writing music and recording. And I think you can actually acquire some fairly grandiose ideas about how good you are. It was just us getting together in practice halls wherever we could find to rehearse. Musically it was kind of exciting, but we hardly did any gigs for that first five years. Phil Selway (drums): We realized there was something that had a lot of potential.

She was very worried if anyone was going to turn up, and she was also worried about why there weren’t any tables or chairs for people to sit down and listen to the music. On her 70th birthday, we took her to Paris to see us play at the Zenith. Me and Jonny’s mum used to say, “Well as long as it keeps you off the street.” Like we’d somehow be, like, shooting up or selling ourselves for crystal meth or something. And I think it was a way for us to be creative together in a world, at the time, that wasn’t perhaps so creative in terms of school. But that thing, that pull, was complete and utter “I have to do this.” There was no other question.Ĭolin Greenwood (bass): We loved the music that we were making together, and the songs Thom was writing. This is it.” If you have that, then the rest is just detail. And suddenly when the band came along it was like, “Voom. We went to private school, so there was all this stuff like, “What are you going to do? You’re going to do this, that?” And none of it resonated.

I found my purpose in life.” It’s very lucky to feel that at 16. In 1985, high school friends Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Colin Greenwood, Ed O’Brien and Phil Selway began playing around their hometown of Oxford, England, as On a Friday.Įd O’Brien (guitar): From the very first band practice in high school I felt, “Oh, I found it. It features all five members of the group along with their producer Nigel Godrich, tourmates Michael Stipe and Alanis Morissette, art director Stanley Donwood, filmmaker Grant Gee, and actress Jane Seymour, who owned the house where they recorded the album. We couldn’t begin to fit everything they told us into the main story, so here’s an expansive oral history of OK Computer put together from the many, many outtakes.

The bends ok computer radiohead career