the interview desk
Radiohead on The Ozone, BBC Two
One of the band calls “Creep” the blessing and the bane, because a big hit on a first album usually means a band goes nowhere.
30 March 1995 · The Ozone, BBC Two · Radiohead
BBC Two's The Ozone catches up with Radiohead in Vancouver, promoting The Bends in North America, which mostly means radio stations. Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien and Phil Selway are taken with the city, all that space and the sea.
“Creep” was the blessing and the bane: it got them round the world, but bands with a big hit on a first album tend to go nowhere, and had it come on a third or fourth album it would have been fine. The frustration was touring Pablo Honey through Mexico and Thailand when they knew they already had the songs, and they had been recording 22 new ones they were proud of. Now people say The Bends is a great album and seem to be forgetting the one song.
At the top of a mountain they tell the origin story, the school music room as the only cool place to be and On a Friday as a name they had to change. Being big in America is blown out of proportion, they say. It's not the Beatles stepping off the plane.
where it comes up
sources · 2
- “Radiohead - Interview The Ozone BBC 2 TV 30.03.95”, TravisBickle1963, 10 January 2018
- “(1995/03/30) BBC Two, The O-Zone, full band”, Radiohead's interviews' archive, 2 April 2012