Radiohead to play a benefit for Oxford's Jericho Tavern

Radiohead and Supergrass will play a benefit gig in December to help save the Jericho Tavern in Oxford, which is to stop live music in January to make way for a £250,000 theme pub. Thom Yorke calls the plan daft and depressing, and tells NME how much the place meant to his band.

The Jericho Tavern is Oxford's equivalent of New York's CBGB's. Without Jericho Tavern, we'd probably never have got started.

Thom Yorke¹

Pulp, Ride, Saint Etienne and Neneh Cherry have signed the Save The Jericho petitions, and more than 1,300 people have signed so far. Gaz Coombes, whose band Supergrass played the Tavern in their earliest days, calls the decision outrageous. Bob Woods, who has managed the pub for six years, says it has gone from strength to strength in that time.

Jeremy Cox, who is running the campaign, calls the Tavern the breeding ground for Ride and Radiohead. The Oxford music scene will die without the Tavern.¹