Song · On a Friday / pre-Pablo Honey (1986–92)
Sinking Ship
Seven years before they opened for R.E.M., Stereogum hears the band already trying on an R.E.M. influence.
1988
on a friday
It is one of three songs on a 1988 tape by On a Friday, as Radiohead were then called, with “Happy Song” and “To Be a Brilliant Light”. By then they were mostly at university, and the band was something they played and recorded in the holidays. Stereogum heard them trying on an R.E.M. influence. In 1995 they were on the road with R.E.M. themselves, as the support.
2006–21
two tapes
The 1988 tape went round online in January 2006. Fifteen years later the same three songs turned up on Gripe, an On a Friday cassette with three more that nobody had heard, when Omega Auctions put it up for sale in January 2021.
the video
A recording of a song they never released.· matheus sonic orlandiwatch on youtube →
sources4
- The site's own catalogue note, based on Stereogum and fan archives, for the R.E.M. influence.
- The site's news story “Two demo tapes from before Radiohead turn up online”, 3 January 2006, for the tape and the university years.
- The site's news story on the Gripe cassette auction, January 2021, for the second tape.
- Ronan Munro, Curfew interview, reprinted in EP Magazine, August 1995, for the band on tour with R.E.M. that year.