Radiohead's The Bends enters the albums chart at number six

The Bends, Radiohead's second album, enters the UK albums chart this week at number six, six days after Parlophone put it out on Monday 13 March. The band played Wolverhampton's Wulfrun Hall on release day, and their 13-date British tour runs on to the London Forum on Friday. The year ahead holds four months of touring and promotion in America, then the Far East, Australasia and Europe.

Tony Wadsworth, who runs Parlophone, gave Music Week his verdict on it in January.

My impression is that they've missed out their second album and gone straight to their third. Most acts take until their third album to reach maturity.

Tony Wadsworth³

Work on the album began early in 1994. Thom Yorke says the band rehearsed new songs for two months and then found the studio a nightmare, with everyone under scrutiny again. Later accounts put the first sessions at RAK Studios in London from February. In June they toured Japan, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand. Yorke says they came back feeling better and scrapped half of what they had recorded. The same accounts have the rest made at Abbey Road and at the Manor in Oxfordshire.

It was a confidence thing. It was getting us to realise that our best performances are first takes and most of the good things are accidents.

Thom Yorke³

John Leckie produced the album, with additional production credited to Radiohead, Nigel Godrich and Jim Warren, and Stanley Donwood did the artwork. “My Iron Lung” came out ahead of it last autumn, followed by the double A-side “High & Dry” / “Planet Telex” on 27 February.

Parlophone has also put Pablo Honey on a mid-price offer until the end of May. The first album has sold more than 1.1 million copies, and the band's co-manager, Chris Hufford, says they have no idea how many of those were bought for “Creep” alone.