Every Thursday on CBC Radio 2 Drive, Rich Terfry gives you a chance to win a great prize if you can separate the facts from the fiction about a famous artist. Rich will give you three clues, and one of them is true. Listen at 5:15 p.m. and send your answer on Twitter, Facebook or Email: R2Drive@cbc.ca Today: Radiohead.
Radiohead have been loved and hated, lauded and despised, have given pleasure and been misunderstood. From pop-grunge darlings in the early 1990s to electro-jazz enthusiasts in the 2000s, few other bands have covered the kind of musical ground that these guys have.
The band can boast nearly 30 years of being together, and word has it they will start recording yet another studio album this year.
But how much do you really know about Radiohead? Here are 10 facts about everyone's favorite art rock act.
1. Radiohead met while attending an all boys school in the UK. There original band name was On A Friday.
2. On A Friday were spotted by a couple of industry blokes name Chris Hufford and Bryce Edge. The two savvy producers are still managing the band!
3. On A Friday were asked to change their name by the suits upstairs. "Radiohead" came from a song of the same name off a Talking Heads album called True Stories.
4. Radiohead's song "Creep" made it big in Isreal and California before is conquered the world. The single was so popular that Radiohead played over 150 concerts in 1993.
5. Although beloved now, the group's sophmore record, The Bends, only made it to #88 on the US album charts!
6. In 2001, Radiohead lost in the best album category at the Grammys. Their ethereal classic Kid A was beaten out by Steely Dan's return to pop music, Two Against Nature.
7. Many thought that the album Hail to the Thief was a comment on the 2000 US Presidential election. Yorke explained that he had heard the phrase while listening to a discussion on the BBC.
8. Radiohead was record company-free by the time they released In Rainbows. Giving it away for a pay what you can fee online. The album reportedly sold 1.2 million downloads in one day, although the group never released actual figures.
9. Thom Yorke and Radiohead started to truly utilize computers in their music in the late 1990s after the release of OK Computer. Thom Yorke credits the artist Aphex Twin as his major electronic influence at the time.
10. Thom Yorke claims that he has tried to break-up the band regularly and that his bandmates simply wait for him to announce it from time to time.
Related Links:
The Background Check: George Harrison
The Background Check: David Bowie
The Background Check: Jeff Buckley