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Ed O'Brien starts a diary of Radiohead's album rehearsals
Ed O'Brien is keeping a diary of Radiohead's rehearsals for the next album on radiohead.com. Its opening section, headed “first week of writing”, covers six days between Thursday 22 and Friday 30 July. The band have been recording with Nigel Godrich since the spring). When they began, their management told NME there was no time-scale for the album and no live dates scheduled this year.
The best moment came on the first day. The band tried three-part harmonies on a song they call “neil young *9”, and Phil Selway cracked up because he felt a bit like the Eagles' drummer.
a fucking brilliant rehearsal. its great to be in our band.
Ed O'Brien2
By the next day Colin Greenwood (“cozzie” in the diary) was calling it the “phil is don henley” song, after the Eagles' singing drummer.
That same Thursday Thom Yorke arrived with a new song on acoustic guitar. Nobody had a name for it, so it became “the song with no name”; a week later it is “move along”, for the moment. “lost at sea/in limbo” is starting to get somewhere, O'Brien notes, after only nine months. On the Friday the band began “optimistic”, whose words he loves (one line reminded him a little of PJ Harvey's blues material). Jonny Greenwood brought in a jam while complaining that his ideas never turn into proper songs.
its good but he doesnt realise it, as hes already bored of it by the time he plays it to us.
Ed O'Brien2
The following Tuesday was frustrating. The band got sidetracked by loose ideas, one very like the Fall, and lost their way with “you and whose army”, which had sounded great the week before. He wants another go at “you and whose army?” next week, to rescue it from the pile of songs left for a while. On Wednesday they talked through “follow me around” before playing it, so as not to slip into old habits; with everything new, it can feel as if little has moved.
Those two days, O'Brien says, had been building up to Thursday. Thirty seconds into “up the ladder” it sounded dreadful and Yorke stopped it. O'Brien puts it down to a lack of energy; Selway got angry, the band talked, and they went again in a defiant mood.
start up again with a dose of the 'fuck you's. sounds better almost immediately. funny that.
Ed O'Brien2
The first three hours of Friday went on the same song. Jonny brought in what O'Brien calls the “missy eliot” chord, Yorke started singing words from another song, Colin found a catchy riff for the chorus and Selway played funk, and with all that going on O'Brien's own part came easily.
The diary's first six days, titles as O'Brien wrote them
| # | Date | Working titles | O'Brien's note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thu 22 July | song with no name; lost at sea/in limbo; everything; everyone/the national anthem; neil young *9 | Thom's new song on acoustic; harmonies on neil young *9 |
| 2 | Fri 23 July | optimistic; two jams, one of them Jonny's; neil young *9 | Loves the words of optimistic; neil young *9 even better |
| 3 | Tue 27 July | how to dissapear; everything in its right place; two loose ideas; you and whose army | Frustrating; lost their way with you and whose army |
| 4 | Wed 28 July | follow me around; a 'remain in light' style jam; a 'de la soul'esque jam | Approach to follow me around talked through before playing |
| 5 | Thu 29 July | up the ladder; move along; the cminor | Stopped after 30 seconds, restarted, better; the song with no name is now move along |
| 6 | Fri 30 July | up the ladder; lost at sea/in limbo; optimistic; c-minor song | Three hours on up the ladder; you and whose army to be rescued next week |