Thom Yorke biography

Synopsis

Early Life

Born on October 7, 1968 in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, England, Thomas Edward Yorke, better known as Thom Yorke, picked up at a guitar at the age of 7 and formed his first band at the age of 10. Born with an abnormality in his left eye, Yorke underwent multiple surgeries as a youngster and was often teased by his peers.

At the Abingdon School for Boys, Yorke teamed up with guitarist Ed O'Brien and bassist Colin Greenwood to form a band, which they called On a Friday. Yorke was the lead singer and songwriter. They soon added Phil Selway as a drummer and then Greenwood's younger brother, Jonny, as a harmonica player, keyboardist and guitarist.

Radiohead

When Yorke left to go to University of Exeter, the group disbanded temporarily, but they reunited to record a series of demo tapes. One of the tapes, Manic Hedgehog, attracted attention from the recording company EMI. On the lookout for the next hit grunge band, EMI signed the group in 1991 to a six-album deal. The next year, On a Friday was renamed Radiohead, after a Talking Heads song.

In 1992, EMI released Radiohead's debut EP, Drill, which included three songs that were later included on the band's 1993 debut album, Pablo Honey. "Creep" became Radiohead's first hit single.

In 1995, Radiohead's second album, The Bends, was released to critical acclaim and commercial success. Rolling Stone ranked the album at No. 110 on its "500 Greatest Albums of All-Time" list. Nigel Godrich, an engineer on The Bends, went on to become the band's producer.

In the 1990s, Radiohead opened for Alanis Morissette and R.E.M., and Yorke became friends with R.E.M.'s lead singer, Michael Stipe. The band also released a collection of B-sides from The Bends as an EP, My Iron Lung. But it was their next album, OK Computer, that catapulted them into international stardom.

According to Rolling Stone, "With the release of 1997's OK Computer, Radiohead were among the most closely watched bands of the decade, drawing on influences as varied as Queen, R.E.M. and Miles Davis." The album, which hit No. 1 on the U.K. album charts, put pressure on the band to come out with a follow-up hit. Yorke experienced writer's block and depression around this time.

For their next album, Kid A, Yorke's voice was "mechanized and mutilated," and turned into "something distant, alien and largely inhuman," according to Rolling Stone. The band's 2003 album, Hail to the Thief, reflected the apocalyptic post-9/11 world.

Once their contract with EMI expired, Radiohead made a revolutionary decision to let fans decide how much they wanted to pay for a digital copy of their 2007 album, In Rainbows.

Rolling Stone ranked Yorke No.