Radiohead nominated for a Grammy and a Brit within a week
Both nominations come out of OK Computer, one for an EP of “Airbag” and B-sides from its singles and one for a video from the album.
News archive
1999
Radiohead in 1999, written up from the press of the day.
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january
may
Radiohead are making their fourth album at a Gloucestershire country house
The follow-up to OK Computer is being made the way the last one was, in a country house, from songs gathered in France, Denmark and on the road.
june
Jonny Greenwood plays harmonica on Pavement's Terror Twilight
Nigel Godrich produced Pavement's new record, and when he wanted a harmonica player he went to Radiohead for one.
Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood play a new song at Tibet 99 in Amsterdam
It is the first time anyone from Radiohead has stood on a stage in 1999, and the two of them brought something new with them.
Thom Yorke joins Bono in Cologne to hand over the debt petitions
Days before the summit, Yorke spent an online chat explaining why the poorest countries' debts matter to him, and batted away every question about Radiohead.
july
Radiohead's Meeting People Is Easy is still playing American cinemas
Grant Gee's film of the OK Computer tour has sold out screens from Austin to Chicago and come within one place of the top of Billboard's music video chart.
Ed O'Brien starts a diary of Radiohead's album rehearsals
Six days of the new album's rehearsals, written up by a band member as they happen: working titles, a bad day and the song pulled back from it.
august
Ed O'Brien asks if Radiohead are heading into Stone Roses territory
With no deadline over them for the first time, the band spend their second week of rehearsals working out that the next record needs a plan.
september
Ed O'Brien laughs off a Godspeed You Black Emperor rumour
Ten days of rehearsal notes find the new songs still being taken apart and rebuilt, with “Optimistic” the one closest to being ready for tape.
Ed O'Brien co-writes the music for the BBC's Eureka Street
Announced in May as Radiohead's first original score, the BBC Two drama has arrived with music by Martin Phipps and O'Brien on guitar.
MTV and NME pick up Ed O'Brien's diary of Radiohead's next album
Since July the sessions for the album after OK Computer have been written up online.
october
A hip-hop documentary sets Radiohead rethinking how they record
After a week spent mostly setting up, Ed O'Brien decides that many of the new songs need a different way of being recorded.
Radiohead cut “Knives Out” to a duo and leave “Optimistic” unfinished
Ed O'Brien's account of two weeks on the new album shows a band trying new ways to record, with five or six songs now close to finished.
december
Only the “Kid A” mix is right, says Ed O'Brien as his diary returns
With the record now being mixed, Radiohead's managers have raised the question of a tour, which the band had not even begun to think about.
Jonny Greenwood puts ondes Martenot on Radiohead's “How to Disappear”
In the same week the band go back to the Copenhagen take of “I Will”, and Thom Yorke sings as he has not sung for a while.
Radiohead play “Knives Out” for the first time on a surprise webcast
Anyone who found radiohead.com that night got three hours or more of records, dancing and sock puppets, and the first hearing of a new song.
Ed O'Brien asks unsigned bands to send Radiohead their demos
The band's recent webcast gave him the idea, and he wants new music of any kind from acts without a major-label deal.
Radiohead's new album is about six months off, says their French tour manager
As 1999 runs out, someone who works with the band has heard the follow-up to OK Computer in the studio and reckons it is their best yet.