LIVERPOOL LOMAX - FEB 10TH '95
(Un-used student magazine interview.)
by Simon Jaworski

It’s incredible the difference a little thought makes, or indeed the gift of good timing. Take the great Impressionists. Monet, Manet, Renoir, Yarwood. They all had special gifts, put a lot of nowse into everything, but they all got screwed due to their apparent bad timing, except for poor old Mike who was just a talentless git. So unfortunately the great Painters all died poor, and in our day and age their works of art are worth millions. Tough fucking shit! They should have followed the Radiohead guide to succeeding in your own lifetime. Basically, if you’ve got a magnificent beast of a record, (‘C***P’ - 1992 & l993’s single of the year"), just keep releasing it until it becomes a success. Simple, but very effective I’m sure you’ll agree. So how do the band hope to break the ‘One song’ tag? Thom, the truly engaging front man, responds. "There is a huge fear in the music industry. The fear of failure. No one every takes risks, it’s so depressing. ‘They’ try to hammer it out of you. No risks. No mistakes. You’re supposed to make mistakes, as it’s the only way to learn".

Radiohead certainly takes risks. One quote from the various press releases, reads, "Our day will come. It may take some time but it will. For now, it’s other people’s loss". "Ah, that was me." Ed beams. "I said it to John Harris of NME before the release of ‘C***P’ and he said that we’d have had a front cover if we’d been on an Independent’ label. Three years on and we still haven’t had one. The statement was just to show that we had some inner strength, a firm belief in our talents, which may sound vitriolic but it’s how it’s always been". Phil, the drummer, butts in, "You see in England people hate it when you’re confident in what you do, little realising the substantial difference between confidence and arrogance. Oh shit, that sounded arrogant didn’t it". Yes. But who cares. Let’s talk records.

"The Bends", got it’s title because Thom’s been using a lot of medical imagery, and without sounding wanky it is the diving condition and it relates to how we felt as a group for a lot of last year, especially with the pressure being built up to follow C***P and Pablo Honey". I, personally, will go out on a limb here and state quite categorically that it’s the best album of the year so far by streets. But, and listen up all you who were slightly perplexed by the oddity of a certain other bands ‘second coming’, this LP is no radical change of direction to their previous work.

Ed again, "Admittedly it is no great departure from it’s predecessor but it’s certainly a natural preogression from Pablo Honey, a linear pattern, although tracks like Planet Telex’ and ‘Street Spirit’ are quite dramatically different from songs we’ve written before. We have to be very careful as progressive rock/pop musicians as we don’t play all varieties of music so to a certain extent we are limited. It has to be said thought that Thorn’s lyrics are phenomenal, he’s put such effort in. After the surprise success of Pablo, people started asking questions and reading in to his lyrics, which came as something of a shock to him".

I ask the band what it was like working with the studio legend, John Leckie? "Bastard!" comes the initial response, swiftly followed by "Why don’t you ask him, he’s sat on the table over there?" I turn to look in both amazement and slight embarrassment. Shit. Help. Phil to the rescue. "Before this album we had a real studio phobia and we’d get paralysis every time the little red light would come on. John basically showed us how to feel confident and we will undoubtedly work with him again". Time for a sharp exit to the latrine.

The band as a whole ado re the music press (ahem!), particularly the regional publications, thought I can categorically state, dear reader, that the offer of some free Chinese food will hold no sway with this journalist. The offer of a free beer on the other hand.....

"We’re always keen to hear good critical appraisal, although you can never second guess peoples agendas on these things. I think there’s a feeling on this album though, that if the weeklies don’t like it... then fuck it... we’re really proud of this album and if it sells miserably, we don’t care, we know we’ve made the best album we can at the time. lf the NME and MM don’t like it, that’s too bad. Having been around the world you can look at it in the real perspective... of how really inconsequential they actually are. Oh thank-you. Do you have chopsticks?" The food’s arrived, and Ed’s being a smart bastard. Phil and myself decide to decline the offer of Chinese cutlery and opt for a large fork, and spoon. A good move, we both agree. Mouths full of Blackbean sauce and Sweet and Sour Pork we carry on regardless. Well Ed does. "We’re in a fortunate position that the first album sold in a whole host of countries so we got to play live in New Zealand, Thailand, the Mexican provinces amongst others, so our fingers in many pies already".

As the food digests, the night unfolds to produce one of the Lomax’s finest moments since conception, Radiohead never cease to astound. They play nine songs off the new LP and all are extremely well received. But the stagediving/moshing doesn’t truly hit home until they rip through ‘Prove Yourself, ‘C**P’, Blow Out’, and ‘You’ and the kids go mental. Ok, so it’s a secret gig for fanclub members, but it’s a glorious sight anyway. In two nights time Radiohead will play a benefit gig for the Oxford Apollo, their home town stadium. "It’s our Wembley. I remember seeing Dana in Panto as Snow White there. We love the place, it’s our spiritual home. Oxford only has one real venue and it should not be allowed to close. It’ll certainly be the most nervous l will have been for a gig. l mean we’ll know around half the audience".

For those of you who haven’t been ‘a blue’, the Apollo is equivalent to our own Royal Court. I mean, imagine Liverpool without it. Ok bad example, perhaps. But the situations sound surprisingly similar. "In Oxford classical music is given full council backing, whereas Pop Music has to fund itself. I mean look at the amount of money generated by our industry and compare that to the total snobbery. But maybe that’s why you get great bands, bands that kick out against the system. They have something to fight against".

The snobbery they refer to is rife. Radio l deemed "C***P.... too depressing a song in a depression’ whilst ‘Iron Lung’ their first release off the new long player, was ‘too raucous’ for the alleged ‘new look’ (but obviously not new sounding) lFM. But who needs a poxy little radio station where the only half decent daytimejock has finally come to his senses and is leaving. Fans are the ones who buy records, and this band know how to treat them well. Thom tells of the acoustic gigs across the country, where in Scotland, BT rang up the local radio station, Forth FM, to ask why all the phones were jammed. Tickets were being given away for free. Enough said. And Ed recalls telling his parents (Ahhh!) how they got a free taxi ride in Israel whilst walking down the street at 4am, simply because the cabby wanted an autograph, and mum and dad’s reaction was ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah right.....so what drugs were you taking’.

With their first album selling over a million copies world wide, a single (C***P) Jon Bon Jovi wishes he’d wrote (no such luck I’m afraid), a huge loyal fan base, being Britain’s hottest export for years combined with powerful and emotive live performances, Radiohead have a lot to answer for. They can only, and will only, enhance their reputation and unlike certain other artists l could mention, their big fat pay day is just around the corner. As is your local record store handily. So Deep Sea Divers, fuck the swimming for a while, and get ‘The Bends’. It may be un-chartered water, but it will do you the world of good.