There is a rule of thumb that successful rock musicians like to deny when making records: If you score a fluke hit, clone it - even if that means a one-way trip to Banalsville.

In short, don't allow creativity to get in the way of a surefire cash-grab. Britain's Radiohead have spent 1995 winning over the nay-sayers by doing just the opposite with their critically-acclaimed sophomore effort The Bends (songs from which will be on their playlist tonight at The Warehouse).

The band initially turned heads in 1993 with their debut Pablo Honey and its international hit single, "Creep" - a fast-slow anthem of apathy and self-deprecation that crystalized slacker-saturated pop culture.

The Bends is a more expansive, less accessible record.

It is also conspicuously "Creep"-less.

"That was very, very deliberate," says affable Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien from the band's Oxfordshire office.

"A lot of people wanted us to write "Creep Part 2", and I don't know whether we could. There was a lot of serendipity involved (in having a hit). It kind of captured the mood of the times or whatever."

O'Brien points out that by chucking all expectations out the window for The Bends, Radiohead were able to create an anti-rule book of sorts. Rather than fumble in creative darkness, the band developed a clear vision almost instantly.

"We were very conscious of what we were doing," he says. "It wasn't conceptualizing, but there were definite ground rules that became evident at the beginning.

"We wanted to make an album of 12 really strong songs, and we ended up recording 22. People often don't expect that much from a group's second album."

O'Brien and his bandmates - singer-guitarist Thom Yorke, guitarist Johnny Greenwood, bassist Colin Greenwood, and drummer Phil Selway - aren't resting on their laurels. In fact, the notoriously-nervous band has already begun stewing over their next project.

"I think the thing with us is that our next album will be the difficult one," O'Brien says lightly.

"People have said, 'Wow, The Bends is such a great album, you've got such a good formula.' But the last thing we want to be is formulaic. We don't know what the departures are going to be yet, but God forbid we stick to what we did on The Bends."

Despite having had all their equipment ripped off in Denver in October - "They were obviously professional thieves," jokes O'Brien - which caused the band's Toronto show to be postponed until tonight, the year was not without its bright spots. While Pablo Honey landed the group in numerous year-end readers' polls, especially at home in Britain, The Bends has found them in the critics' polls.

Says O'Brien: "Accepting Radiohead has been very difficult for critics. A lot of it has been based on very stupid things like us being on a major label. Now Supergrass and Blur are on the same label and there isn't that same kind of snobbery."

For Radiohead, it was but another character-builder.

"We really felt we were banging our heads against a wall, but it was cool in a way, because we had an opportunity to evolve, to go out on the road and play for no one and not be under any kind of scrutiny.

"I can't imagine what it must be like for Oasis, who within two years are catapulted into playing two of the largest indoor shows in the U.K."