EMI's managing director asked for “Philippa Chicken”, says Colin Greenwood

On the day Radiohead signed to EMI, the label's managing director named “Philippa Chicken” as his favourite of their songs, Colin Greenwood tells Simon Williams in NME. Colin told him the band had dropped it from their set, and the room went quiet over the contract. The same executive told them they would not see him again until they had sold 500,000 records, and then there would be a handshake and a photo.

Williams picks “Prove Yourself” from Drill, the debut EP, for the way it starts slowly and breaks into loud guitars. Thom Yorke says the song objects to things such as invasions of privacy, and that under the anger the outlook is positive. A DJ in Newcastle has been playing it on hospital radio.

The members were away at college when Ride formed and the Thames Valley scene grew up, Yorke says, and it was over by the time they came back to Oxford.

Onstage, he says, they are not funny, though supporting Sultans Of Ping FC he suspects the audience expected a comedy act. They scream and yell, and though they are calm off stage they get a strong buzz from it.

The crowd matters, and a band cannot carry on like the Manic Street Preachers in front of 50 people. Moshing makes no sense to him, and he thinks punk failed because its violence intimidated people until they hit back. The band approve of Fugazi, whose aggression they call intelligent.

The aggression should be channelled into something rather than encouraging people to hit each other.

Thom Yorke¹