Colin Greenwood tells FHM Singapore the new record is full of jokes

Colin Greenwood read English at Cambridge, but Radiohead already existed, he tells Dylan Tan of FHM's Singapore edition, and they kept playing in the holidays and even came to Cambridge for a couple of shows. Being a student, with its hanging around and late mornings, he considers good preparation for a rock band. Without the band he pictures himself in a patched jumper and sensible brown shoes.

I'd probably be boring the arses off some young people about some subject.

Colin Greenwood¹

In Bangkok the band once passed a row of bars where older men were singing “Creep” and “Stop Whispering”; he would rather hear karaoke or a local band reworking a song than kids trying to be Radiohead.

He rejects the picture of Yorke as a tortured soul. When Yorke walks in the band start fooling around, and the new record is full of wordplay that worries him when people miss it.

I think calling a song Punch-up at a Wedding is not exactly the heaviest song title in the world

Colin Greenwood¹

His mother drove him and his brother Jonny to rehearsals at 15, glad it kept them out of trouble. For her 70th birthday they surprised her with a trip to Paris, where she worried that nobody would come to a 70,000-capacity venue, and where they would sit if they did. He promised her he would look after Jonny on tour.

Most of what is online about him is untrue, though he owns up to Madonna, up to The Immaculate Collection, and the Pointer Sisters. And if Ed O'Brien says never to believe him, O'Brien is the one lying.