Radiohead's managers tell Variety that “Creep” saved their EMI deal

Chris Hufford, Bryce Edge and Brian Message, who manage Radiohead, are the subject of Variety's Featured Player column this week. Their company, Courtyard Music, works from Sutton Courtenay, a village outside Oxford, and takes the 20 per cent commission that is standard in Britain.

Hufford credits “Creep”, the 1993 single Variety counts as the band's only hit, with rescuing them.

It saved our bacon. No matter what anyone tells you, EMI (was) about to negotiate our deal downwards.

Chris Hufford¹

Hufford, 46, and Edge, 44, played in the early-1980s new romantic band Aerial FX, then ran a recording studio that failed, until an assistant put them in touch with Radiohead. The first demo left them cold. The next tape, in 1991, made them managers. Message, 35, came over from EMI's accounts department to run the business side.

Four albums on, the band have sold more than 13 million records. Kid A went in at number one in Britain and America and has sold 2.5 million so far, against 4.5 million for OK Computer. Another album from the same three years of sessions, with more accessible songs on it, is about six months away, and Edge denies anyone planned it that way.

If people say album two has all the commercial tunes, it wasn't by design.

Bryce Edge¹