Song · On a Friday / pre-Pablo Honey (1986–92)
To Be a Brilliant Light
On a Friday recorded it in the late 1980s, while the band still had a saxophone section.
1988
on a friday
It is one of three songs on a 1988 tape by On a Friday, the band's name at Abingdon School, with “Happy Song” and “Sinking Ship”, made when the line-up still had saxophones in it. It is long and morose, a small epic with saxophone on it.
2006–21
the tape turns up
The three songs reached the internet in January 2006, and NME and Spin both reported it. In 2021 they turned up again on Gripe, a six-song cassette with an inlay designed by Thom Yorke, which sold at Omega Auctions for £6,000. Its other three songs, “Promise Me”, “Body(?) in a box” and “These are the Chains”, had never been heard anywhere else.
the video
A recording of a song they never released.· AllRadioheadwatch on youtube →
sources3
- The site's own catalogue note, based on Stereogum and fan archives, for the saxophone and the description.
- The site's news archive, 3 January 2006, for the 1988 tape surfacing online, drawing on NME and Spin.
- The site's news archive, 26 January 2021, for the Gripe cassette, its inlay and the sale, drawing on People, Spin, Stereogum, RTÉ and Omega Auctions.