Slitz Magazine (from Sweden)

Four drunk and uninvited guests stumbles into the dressing room. - Is that everything? The Big Swedish Multimedia-oracle looks coldly at the singer of Radiohead. Thom Yorke's teeth are awry and he has a droopy eyelid. He had five major eye operations before the age of six. The last one was unsuccessful and made him almost blind. - Is that everything? the Multimedia-oracle repeats drunkenly. - That says almost everything! - Is this an interview? does another loudmouth wonder after which he screams "Hello!" into the microphone of the tape recorder. Thom says nothing. He just looks foxed at them. - Who was that? Thom wonders after that the company has left the room with bluster and yells. Thom isn't pleased with the answer that the person is a so-called celebrity: a guitarist in the Swedish band called "Whale", tv-profile and so on. - He seems like a fucking sick idiot. It's late Thursday night. Thom sits alone in Gino's basement after Radiohead's gig. He drinks beer and pukes. Bile, of course. Over Elastica, tomorrow's attraction. "Shut up!" Radiohead are doing their soundcheck and Thom hangs in Gino's lower bar. He listens concentrating while the lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood plays the riff to Street Spirit (fade out) over and over again. Something is wrong. - Shut up, Thom shouts and jumps up on the stage. The band starts playing a raw version of Bones, stops, discusses, gives the sound technician the directives of the situation, starts all over again, stops. They are very accurate these service-minded sound-fascists. Radiohead are the most improbable rock band in the world. They are well trained, middle-class men and has of course nothing to revolt against. They still live in Oxford to get away from all the fuss- they are musicians, not clowns. They aren't appreciated by London's musical "brat pack", whose members (Blur, Oasis, Elastica and many more) despise them as pompous stadium-rockers. They are the five ugly ducklings by the pond. The drummer, Phil Selway, is the only married man in Radiohead. The silent one. The one who takes care of the group's finances. While Thom And Jonny try their best not to fall asleep through a tv-interview and bass-player Colin Greenwood and guitarist Ed O'Brian has gone to do a radio-ditto, Phil packs his bag. Alone and very happy to stay in the background. - I get to do that a lot, he smiles happily. - No one wants to talk with you, that's one of the advantages of being a drummer. Colin and Phil are opposites. Colin is the only one in the band who is single. He is hyperactive and suffers from insomnia. In the taxi-limo to the Palladium he devotes two minutes to explain how convenient it is with electronic windowpane openers. Little brother Jonny gets tired of him first and asks him to shut up. Jonny is the youngest one in the group and is the only one without a college-degree. He is the guitar god and the women's favourite. But Jonny isn't interested in so much in life except the band- and his girlfriend. - I don't see her so often. She lives in Israel and that is very frustrating of course, he sighs. - But I've chosen the music instead of a functioning private life. We all have. Together with Thom and Phil, Jonny constitutes Radiohead's introverted side. They are the ones that think a lot and talk less. Just Ed can compete with Colin's gift to gab, but he's better mannered and doesn't talk to people who don't listen. By the way, Ed's the only one in the band who looks really healthy for the moment. Radiohead thinks that Gino's dinner menu is excellent. Steak with chips or salmon with sweet potatoes. The only complaint comes from Ed who didn't get a lemon slice in his Cola. After the dinner everybody wants to see Manchester's revived pride (The Stone Roses) play except Thom who is tired and wants to take a sauna. Colin puts his eighth toothpick in the flame of a candle that stands on the table. - There are almost never toothpicks in English restaurants, he complains. - Stop nagging you little bitch, hisses Ed. It is high time to go. Colin realises suddenly that Radiohead isn't the head attraction of the night when he sees the crowd on the floor inside the Palladium. - Are we really popular in Sweden, asks Colin sadly. - I wish we could play here instead. Maybe next time… Nobody in Radiohead have seen The Stone Roses live before so they are very excited when they pack together by the sound technician's table. Just so that they can hear Ian Brown commit suicide in I wanna be adored. Afterwards there is a lot of talk about the singer's timing, about the new drummer's hard rock n´ roll- hammering and about John Squire's Jimmy Page-similar excesses. There is no comment without pointing out "this is off the record, OK?" OK. Radiohead has just played the shit out off The Stone Roses in front of the Roses' own fans. -It was fun playing Creep for once, says Thom and stretches out his dachshund-legs in the dressing room's sofa. For the last three years the brain of Radiohead has been ennobling his wild song writing (that before went with the theory that "if you hammer hard enough, maybe you'll hit a few nails between the misses) to pure perfection. The result was The Bends. In a lot of magazines it has already been pointed out as this years' most brutal, fragile, disgusting and beautiful album. - I can't say anything about the record, says Thom just after the roadies have left the room to hobnob with some blond, long legged Nordic beauties upstairs. - You got to understand. My opinion is of no consequence at all. The fridge is full of beer but Thom, who has had his periods when he's been drinking awfully much, is taking it easy. He opens a bottle of Tuborg and starts drinking it slowly, slowly. - The last time I was reeling drunk I made a fool of myself at a public party in Oxford two months ago. Colin and me started making out and it was fun. Colin is a rather good kisser. Did I just say that? Yeah you did and Sting said recently that nobody under forty should be taking drugs or having sex. - Who? Sting? It seems like he's desperate to get attention. I'm twenty-six though, and have just realised what sex is about. Was it a problem before? - Yeah it was because I've had so little experience of it. I've lived on the idea that sex is something totally different than it is. It's terrifying how your sex-fantasies can affect the media. Back to the music. Is song writing pure therapy? - Yes, always. That cow in Sleeper ( Louise Wener) said something that really made me pissed. (Thom raises his voice for the first and the last time throughout the interview) She couldn't understand why music always had to be about exorcism. Of course it has to be about that! I live for this! Excuse me very fucking much! It's not about entertainment or pop. I don't make fucking pop music! You are not exactly Elastica. - No, right. I don't like Justine. She is so fucking scheming. If she wants to sit and calculate, then she should take a job at an advertising agency, just as long as she doesn't make music! Justine is a fucking cynical bitch from hell and their record is a joke! You've said that Radiohead works almost like the UN: the others can get their veto but you are the USA. Do you ever break the law in this political game? - Yes, all the time. It's impossible not to. I often have ultimatums. Anyway, the others agree with me most of the time when it comes to important questions. But maybe that's because I am the USA. It is an original, peaceful night at Gino. Jonny and Phil have already sneaked out the back way to go to sleep. The other three members of Radiohead will not stay long either. But Colin stays long enough to see Ian Brown at one of the tables. - I really hate that Manchester-arrogance, Colin says spontaneous and then walks to Ed and Radiohead's manager Chris Hufford (who also is the manager of Supergrass). A day with Radiohead.