Radiohead: Hysterical and Useless

Radiohead is alternative rock's most influential new band -- a group whose haunting vocals, richly textured guitar lines, sophisticated studio effects, and challenging lyrics have made them the darlings of music critics on both sides of the Atlantic. Michael Stipe of R.E.M. says, "Radiohead are so good they scare me." Noel Gallagher of Oasis declared, "199

Radiohead is alternative rock's most influential new band -- a group whose haunting vocals, richly textured guitar lines, sophisticated studio effects, and challenging lyrics have made them the darlings of music critics on both sides of the Atlantic. Michael Stipe of R.E.M. says, "Radiohead are so good they scare me." Noel Gallagher of Oasis declared, "1998 is the year for...Radiohead," a pronouncement that was borne out when the group grabbed one Grammy and won a nomination in the most coveted category of all, Best Album of the Year.

Now, for the first time, a veteran music journalist takes us inside Radiohead's world. Drawing on extensive interviews with all five band members -- composer and lead singer Thom Yorkie, guitarists Jonny Greenwood and Ed O'Brien, bassist Colin Greenwood, and drummer Phil Selway -- Martin Clarke chronicles how five teenage friends from Oxford, England, went on to become the most highly praised rock group of the late 1990s. Clarke covers their early days on the Oxford club scene; their first album, Pablo Honey, with its slacker-friendly single "The Creep"; their second album, The Bends, followed by U.S. tours with R.E.M. and Alanis Morrisette; and finally their astonishing concept album OK Computer. Illustrated with photographs throughout, this Radiohead biography will be required reading for the band's legions of fans.