Song · The Bends era (1994–96)
Lucky
They found it at a soundcheck in Japan and recorded it in five hours for a charity album.
1995
above the nut
On the tour behind The Bends, at soundchecks in Japan, Ed O'Brien started strumming above the nut of his guitar and got a high ringing note out of it. They built a song around that sound and started playing it live.
4 sep 1995
one day, five hours
Brian Eno asked the band for a track for The Help Album, a War Child record that was to be written and released inside a week. Everything had to be cut on 4 September 1995.
They did it in five hours, with an engineer who had worked under John Leckie on The Bends and produced a few of their B-sides: Nigel Godrich.
Those things are the most inspiring, when you do stuff really fast and there's nothing to lose. We left feeling fairly euphoric.
nigel godrich · the mix, august 1997
That session did two things. It got Godrich the OK Computer job, and it showed the band what they wanted the next record to sound like.
‘Lucky’ was indicative of what we wanted to do. It was like the first mark on the wall.
thom yorke · mojo, july 1997
1995–97
released twice
It led the Help EP, which reached 51 after Radio 1 declined to play it. Two years later it went onto OK Computer as track eleven. It was meant to be a single from that album; in the end it was only pressed as one in France, on 26 December 1997.
1995–2025
the opener
First played in London on 24 July 1995, seventy-two times in 1997, and of the archive's 422 nights it has opened forty-one. It was still in the set in Copenhagen on 15 December 2025.
the video
The promo from 1995, made for War Child's HELP album: the band at the session, cut with footage of the war in Bosnia. A fan's copy.· badkidneywatch on youtube →
takes(3)
Live history
| Times played | 422 shows |
|---|---|
| Live debut | Monday 24 July 1995 · London |
| Last played | Monday 15 December 2025 · Copenhagen |
| Opened the night | 41 times |
| Closed the night | 8 times |
| Longest absence | 7 years · back on Tuesday 4 November 2025 · Madrid |
Nights played include broadcasts; opened and closed count gigs only. A cancelled night has no setlist. All setlist stats →
Tabs (2)
sources4
- Jim Irvin, “Thom Yorke tells Jim Irvin how OK Computer was done”, Mojo, July 1997.
- Andrea Robinson, “Nigel Godrich”, The Mix, August 1997.
- David Fricke, “Ed O'Brien: 100 greatest guitarists”, Rolling Stone, 3 December 2010.
- Steve Lowe, “Back to Save the Universe”, Select, December 1999.