Radiohead

On a Friday played their first gig in 1987, at Oxford's Jericho Tavern. Although all but Jonny had left Abingdon by 1987 to attend university, On a Friday continued to rehearse on weekends and holidays, but did not perform for four years. At the University of Exeter, Yorke played with the band Headless Chickens, performing songs including future Radiohead material. It was here where he also met Stanley Donwood, who later became Radiohead's cover artist.

In 1991, the members of On a Friday regrouped in Oxford, sharing a house on the corner of Magdalen Road and Ridgefield Road. They recorded another demo, which attracted the attention of Chris Hufford, Slowdive's producer and the co-owner of Oxford's Courtyard Studios. Hufford and his business partner, Bryce Edge, attended a concert at the Jericho Tavern; impressed, they became On a Friday's managers. At this point the band had all of the elements of the future Radiohead, but with a rougher, punkier sound and faster tempos. At Courtyard Studios, On a Friday recorded the Manic Hedgehog demo tape, named after an Oxford record shop. In late 1991, Colin happened to meet the 'EMI' A&R representative Keith Wozencroft at a record shop and handed him a copy of the demo tape. Wozencroft was impressed and attended a performance. The following November a further performance at the same tavern attracting several more A&R reps resulted in a deal ultimately with 'EMI'.

At 'EMI''s request, the band changed their name to Radiohead, taken from the song Radio Head on the Talking Heads album True Stories (1986). Yorke said of the name "it sums up all these things about receiving stuff ... It's about the way you take information in, the way you respond to the environment you're put in."

Radiohead released their debut EP, Drill in May 1992, but its chart performance was poor as it was difficult for major labels such as 'EMI' to promote bands in the UK, where independent labels dominated the indie charts, Radiohead's managers planned to have the band use American producers and tour aggressively in America, then return to build a following in the UK. Paul Kolderie and Sean Slade, who had worked with the US bands Pixies and Dinosaur Jr., were enlisted to produce Radiohead's debut album, recorded quickly in Oxford in 1992. With the release of their debut single, Creep, that September, Radiohead began to receive attention in the British music press, not all of it favorable; NME described them as "a lily-livered excuse for a rock band", and Creep was blacklisted by BBC Radio 1 as "too depressing".

Radiohead released their debut album, Pablo Honey (1993) reaching 22 in the UK charts. Creep and its follow-up singles Anyone Can Play Guitar and Stop Whispering failed to become hits, while Pop Is Dead, a non-album single, also sold poorly. O'Brien later calling it a hideous mistake. Some critics compared Radiohead to the wave of grunge music popular in the early 1990s, dubbing them "Nirvana-lite", and Pablo Honey failed to make a critical or a commercial impact upon its initial release.

Early 1993 saw Radiohead began to attract listeners elsewhere. Creep had been played frequently on Israeli radio by DJ Yoav Kutner, and in March, after the song became a hit there, Radiohead were invited to Tel Aviv for their first show overseas. Around the same time, Creep began receiving airplay on US radio stations and reached number two on the US modern rock chart. By the time Radiohead began their first North American tour in June 1993, the music video for Creep was in heavy rotation on MTV. It reached number 34 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and number seven on the UK Singles Chart when 'EMI' rereleased it in September. To build on the success, Radiohead embarked on a US tour supporting Belly and PJ Harvey, followed by a European tour supporting James and Tears for Fears.

The Bends (1995), their second album, was driven by dense riffs and ethereal atmospheres from the three guitarists, with greater use of keyboards than Pablo Honey. It received stronger reviews for its songwriting and performances. While Radiohead were seen as outsiders to the Britpop scene that dominated music media at the time, they were finally successful in their home country as the singles Fake Plastic Trees, High and Dry, Just and Street Spirit (Fade Out) became chart successes. Despite this, The Bends only peaked at 88 on the US album charts. In 1995, Radiohead again toured North America and Europe, this time in support of R.E.M., one of their formative influences and at the time one of the biggest rock bands in the world. Attention from famous fans such as the R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe, along with distinctive music videos for Just and Street Spirit, helped sustain Radiohead's popularity outside the UK.

When Radiohead released their third album, OK Computer, it found the band experimenting with song structures and incorporating ambient, avant-garde and electronic influences, prompting Rolling Stone Magazine to call the album a "stunning art-rock tour de force". Although Radiohead denied being part of the progressive rock genre, critics began to compare their work to Pink Floyd, whose early 1970s work influenced Jonny Greenwood's guitar parts at the time. OK Computer was Radiohead's first number-one UK chart debut, and brought them commercial success around the world. Despite peaking at number 21 in the US charts, the album eventually met with mainstream recognition there, earning the band their first Grammy Award recognition, winning Best Alternative Album and a nomination for Album of the Year.

Although the success of OK Computer meant there was no longer pressure from the record label, tensions were high. Band members had different visions for the band's future, and Yorke suffered from writer's block, influencing him toward more abstract, fragmented songwriting for the eventual fourth album, Kid A (2000). A departure from the previous album, Kid A featured a minimalist and textured style with more diverse instrumentation, including the ondes Martenot, programmed electronic beats, strings, and jazz horns. It debuted at number one in many countries, including the US, where it became the first Radiohead album to debut atop the Billboard chart and the first US number-one album by any UK act since the Spice Girls in 1996. This success was attributed variously to marketing, to the album's leak on the file-sharing network Napster a few months before its release, and to advance anticipation based, in part, on the success of OK Computer. Kid A received a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album and a nomination for Album of the Year in early 2001. Amnesiac, the follow-up album also followed 2001 comprising of additional tracks from the Kid A sessions, including Life in a Glasshouse, featuring the Humphrey Lyttelton Band.

Hail to the Thief (2003) with lyrics influenced by what Yorke called "the general sense of ignorance and intolerance and panic and stupidity" following the 2000 election of US President George W. Bush, was promoted with a website, radiohead.tv, where short films, music videos, and studio webcasts were streamed. Hail to the Thief debuted at number one in the UK and number three on the Billboard chart, and was eventually certified platinum in the UK and gold in the US. The singles There There, Go to Sleep and 2 + 2 = 5 achieved heavy circulation on modern rock radio. At the 2004 Grammy Awards, Radiohead were again nominated for Best Alternative Album, with Godrich and the engineer Darrell Thorp receiving the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album.

Hail to the Thief was Radiohead's final album with 'EMI'; in 2006, The New York Times described Radiohead as "by far the world's most popular unsigned band". Following the supporting tour, Radiohead went on hiatus to spend time with their families and work on solo projects.

In 2007, 'EMI' was acquired by the private equity firm Terra Firma. Radiohead were critical of the new management, and despite a £3 million advance offer, the band also wanted rights to their back catalogue. Facing the refusal from the management, no new deal was agreed upon and the band released their next album, In Rainbows, on their website on 10 October 2007 independently as a download for any amount users wanted, including £0. The landmark 'pay-what-you-want' release, the first for a major act, made headlines worldwide and created debate about the implications for the music industry. In Rainbows was downloaded an estimated 1.2 million times on the day of release. Media reaction was positive, and Radiohead were praised for finding new ways to connect with fans. However, it drew criticism from some musicians who felt it undercut less successful acts. The retail version of the album was released in the UK in late December 2007 on 'XL Recordings' and in North America in January 2008 on 'TBD Records', reaching number one in the UK and in the US. The success was the band's highest chart placement in the US since Kid A. It became their fifth UK number-one album and sold more than three million copies in one year. The album received acclaim for its more accessible sound and personal lyrics. It was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and won the 2009 Grammy awards for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package.

Days after signing to 'XL', 'EMI' announced a box set of Radiohead material recorded before In Rainbows, released in the same week as the In Rainbows special edition. Commentators including the Guardian saw the move as retaliation for the band choosing not to re-sign with 'EMI'. In June 2008, 'EMI' released a greatest hits album, Radiohead: The Best Of. It was made without the band's involvement and contains only songs recorded under their contract with 'EMI'. Yorke was critical of the release, calling it a "wasted opportunity". In 2009, 'EMI' reissued Radiohead's back catalogue in expanded editions.

In August 2009, Radiohead released Harry Patch (In Memory Of), a tribute song to Harry Patch, the last surviving British soldier to have fought in World War I, with proceeds donated to the British Legion. The song has no conventional rock instrumentation, and instead comprises Yorke's vocals and a string arrangement composed by Jonny Greenwood.

The King of Limbs (2011) was initially released again as a download from the band's website. Following the protracted recording and more conventional rock instrumentation of In Rainbows, Radiohead developed The King of Limbs by sampling and looping their recordings with turntables. It was followed by a retail release in March through 'XL', and a special "newspaper album" edition in May. The album sold an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 copies through the band's website; the retail edition debuted at number six on the US Billboard 200, and number seven on the UK Albums Chart. To perform the rhythmically complex King of Limbs material live, Radiohead enlisted a second drummer, Clive Deamer, who had worked with Portishead and Get the Blessing; he has since joined Radiohead on subsequent tours.

Radiohead began work on their ninth studio album in September 2014. In 2015, they resumed work in the La Fabrique studio near Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France but the sessions were marred by the death of Godrich's father and Yorke's separation from his wife who would subsequently die from cancer in 2016. Work was interrupted again when the band were commissioned to write the theme for the 2015 James Bond film Spectre; after their song, Spectre, was rejected, the band released it on the audio streaming site SoundCloud on Christmas Day 2015. That completed album, A Moon Shaped Pool arrived in 2016 on Radiohead's website and online music stores, followed by retail versions that June via 'XL'. It would prove to be the band's sixth UK number-one album and reached number three in the US. It was the fifth Radiohead album nominated for the Mercury Prize, making them the most shortlisted act in the award's history, and was also nominated for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Rock Song (for "Burn the Witch") at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards. The band have since toured, attended festivals, and released solo efforts as individuals.