Song · Radiohead
I Don't Want to Go to Woodstock
The only song Headless Chickens ever released, with a student Thom Yorke on guitar and someone else singing.
1989
headless chickens
Headless Chickens were a student band at the University of Exeter that Thom Yorke played in while On a Friday, the band he had started at Abingdon School and the one that became Radiohead, were on hold and he was away from Oxford. Simon Shackleton, known as Shack, sings it and plays bass, with Yorke on guitar and backing vocals, Martin Brooks on drums and John Matthias on violin; the 2003 version of this site also listed a second violinist, Laura. It is credited to the whole band.
They recorded it at Daylight Studios in 1989 with Paul Bateman producing. It came out that year on The Hometown Atrocities EP, a 7-inch shared by four Exeter bands, the first record on the city's Hometown Atrocities label, and pressed in a run of just over a thousand. It is the only song Headless Chickens ever put out. Shack and Brooks helped out at the label's early shows in the city, and Matthias went on to play on Radiohead records.
2000
year zero
It came out again on Year Zero: The Exeter Punk Scene 1977–2000, a compilation of the city's bands. At Yorke's request, Hometown Atrocities paid a contribution for its use there to Friends of the Earth.
the video
A recording of a song they never released.· Shaun McCrindlewatch on youtube →
sources4
- Mark Brend, “Thom Yorke's Year Zero”, Record Collector, July 2000: the band, the EP and the Year Zero compilation.
- The Hometown Atrocities EP (Hometown Atrocities STORM 1, 1989), its Discogs entry: the lineup and credits, and the pressing.
- Will Richards, “A Brief History Of... Headless Chickens”, DIY, 14 July 2015: Yorke's Exeter years and the band's one release.
- The 2003 site's page for the song: the studio, the producer, Laura on violin, the Hometown Atrocities shows, John Matthias's sessions and the Friends of the Earth contribution.