Radiohead are the English musicians who redefined the sound of rock, making it more fearless and adventurous. They were regarded as one of the most provocative and innovative bands of the 1990s and the 2000s, becoming the biggest art rock act since the legendary Pink Floyd. The band consists of Thom Yorke, Ed O’Brien, Phil Selway and the brothers Colin Greenwood and Johnny Greenwood.
Radiohead has a predominantly rock sound with a strong infusion of other genres such as jazz, electronic music, progressive rock and art rock. And fans of the band will get to experience this unique sound when Radiohead tours in 2018. The rock band announced in November 2017 that they will be touring in 2018, after reports that the members were due to take a break to focus on their solo careers. Fresh off an extensive tour for their famous 2016 album, A Moon Shaped Pool, Radiohead is all set to bring the best of its music back to the concert arenas all across the country. If you want to catch them live in action, you ought to get your hands on these Radiohead tickets at the earliest!
Early Years and Career
The band members met while attending the Abingdon School in Oxfordshire. In 1985, the young men grouped together to form a band called ‘On a Friday’ – a reference to their usual rehearsal day. They credited their music instructor for introducing them to different genres, including jazz, avant-garde music and 20th century classical music.
On a Friday continued to perform for several years to come around Oxford. Soon, record labels took note of the band and in a stroke of luck, the band managed to sign a six-album recording contract with EMI. This is when they changed their name to Radiohead, upon a request from their label.
Soon after signing on to the label, the band began working on their debut album. They recorded their debut EP, called the Drill EP, and released it in 1992. The EP did not perform well on the charts. It wasn’t until the release of the single “Creep” later that year that the band started to gain some coverage in the British press.
The Slow Success of “Creep”
In the beginning of 1993, the single “Creep” began to attract the attention of listeners in other countries. It was receiving heavy airplay in Israel and resulted in the band being called to hold their first international performance in Tel Aviv. At the same time, the song also started gaining popularity in the US, when a San Francisco alternative radio station added it to its playlist. Soon other channels followed and the video for the song started getting a lot of attention from MTV. The song quickly rose to number two on the US modern rock charts and also entered the pop charts.
This unexpected success of the single helped the band embark on an extensive tour that saw then play more than 150 concerts in 1993 alone.
Critical Recognition
With the foundations of success set for Radiohead, the band started working on more music. The My Iron Lung EP was released in 1994 and saw the band exploring their music in a greater depth. Sales for this album turned out to be better than expected, making it clear that Radiohead was here to stay.
Their next album, called The Bends, was released in March 1995 and helped them establish themselves further in the business. This album also gave them the home success they had been looking for, as it dominated the British charts, with singles “Fake Plastic Trees,” “High and Dry” and “Just.” The Bends has also appeared in the Rolling Stone’s list for the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”, coming in at No. 111 in 2012.
OK Computer and Hitting Number One
Radiohead released their album, OK Computer in June 1997, experimenting with a new kind of sound, which prompted Rolling Stone to call the work a “stunning art-rock tour de force”. The album gained a lot of critical success, more than any of the members of the group had imagined. It ended up becoming Radiohead’s first Grammy Award winning album, bagging the award in the category of the Best Alternative Album and getting a nomination in the category of Album of the Year.
Continued Success
In October of 2000, Radiohead released their fourth album, Kid A. The album opened at number one in many countries, becoming an instant success. Kid A received a Grammy Award for the Best Alternative Album and a nomination for the Album of the Year in the start of 2001. Since then, the album has received a lot of additional honors by publications like the Times and Rolling Stone – both of whom named it the best album of the decade.
Over the next couple of years, the group took a hiatus as its members decided to pursue solo careers. They regrouped again by the end of 2006 and began recording.
Awards and Achievements
Since the beginning of their careers, Radiohead has sold more than 30 million albums all across the world – as of 2011. In 2005, Rolling Stone ranked them as “The Greatest Artists of All Time”. Jonny Greenwood and O’Brien have both been included in Rolling Stone’s list of the greatest guitarists and Yorke has made it to the list of the greatest singers.
In 2017, the band was also nominated for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
In addition to all these honors, the band has also won and has been nominated for many awards. They have won 4 Grammy Awards and have been nominated for 21. Radiohead has also won 4 Ivor Novello Awards, 1 MTV Video Music Awards, 9 NME Awards, 1 PLUG Award and 4 Q Awards. They have also received an impressive sixteen Brit Awards nominations and have won the Best Alternative Music Album Grammy Award thrice. The video for their song “There There” in 2003 received the award for Best Art Direction. Overall, the band has received a total of 22 awards from 79 nominations.
Musical Style and Influences
Some of the earliest influences of Radiohead include the likes of Queen, Elvis Costello and Pink Floyd along with post-punk musicians such as Joy Division and Magazine. U2, R.E.M., the Smiths and the Pixies have also been cited by Radiohead as significant influences on their work. The Jazz influences in their music stem from the music of Miles Davis, Alice Coltrane and Charlie Mingus.
The musical style of Radiohead infuses the sound of multiple genres. Their sound has evolved over the years, with each new album.
Radiohead Tickets 2017
Fans of the band can now get their hands on Radiohead tickets 2017 and 2018. With lots of performances lined up in the coming year, you will surely not want to miss this great opportunity to get your hands on these tickets. The British band is scheduled to play a series of shows in South America in April. They will be headed to Santiago, Buenos Aires, Lima, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Bogota. Die-hard fans of Radiohead would not want to miss out on this one-in-a-lifetime opportunity to catch their favorite band in concert!
