This new band Radiohead may have a future, old clips predict
A newspaper archive is full of articles that now play as comedy, after time has passed and you know the rest of the story.
But nothing seems more obsolescent — even if it’s an article from 1993 — than the first small story about a politician, actor or rock band who eventually made it big.
The San Francisco Chronicle’s July 13, 1993, Datebook section definitely carries that vibe. There’s a John Carman television column interviewing an optimistic Chevy Chase about his upcoming late- night talk show. ( Run away, Chevy! It’s going to be an all- time disaster!) The centerpiece article features Todd Rundgren’s leap into the future, releasing new music on a CDROM cousin called CD- Interactive.
But the most striking story on the page is a review of Radiohead, then a one- hit wonder, making the band’s first Bay Area nightclub appear-
ance at Slim’s in San Francisco.
“British Rockers Ride A Hit Called ‘ Creep,’ ” the headline states.
The most valuable find for Radiohead fans may be the photos from the show, taken quickly by The Chronicle’s Eric Luse, all from the same angle. Singer/ guitarist Thom Yorke is featured in every image, wearing a striped long- sleeve shirt and bleached- blond hair that recalls a “Nevermind”era Kurt Cobain. The five- piece band is forced to huddle close together on the smallish stage.
Yorke has always performed as if each big tour may be his last. But it was literally a possibility in July 1993, just five months after Radiohead’s debut album “Pablo Honey,” which produced their first single, “Creep.” The band was still more than a year and a half away from “The Bends,” the acclaimed 1995 album that set Radiohead on the course for artistic respect and stardom.
Chronicle critic Michael Snyder wrote a thoughtful review of the Slim’s performance, laying out the stakes for the band in detail.
“Every so often, a song clambers out of obscurity and into the public’s embrace,” Snyder wrote. “Stars are born, careers are built, money is made, etc. Or there’s a brief flash, followed by a puff of smoke, as the act that recorded the song disappears into the annals of pop music history.
“Radiohead, the novice rock band from the English university town of Oxford, could go either way.”
Snyder went on to compliment the band’s musical diversity and stylistic range from punk to glam, and called out each player by name — Yorke, Jonny and Colin Greenwood, Ed O’Brien, and Philip Selway. ( Radiohead is a unicorn in rock history: Eight albums and many side projects later, the band touring in 2018 has the same lineup as 1993.)
“The concert, which also featured Torontobased folk- grunge quartet Crash Vegas, was one of those frequent opportunities to discover where pop hype ends and substance begins,” Snyder wrote. “The bands acquitted themselves with honor and style and showed great promise.”
Radiohead played songs from “Pablo Honey,” to a crowd that was mostly there to hear their hit song, which was still rising up the Billboard singles charts. (“The Slim’s audience was ready for ‘ Creep,’ and greeted the song with a roar,” Snyder wrote.)
The photos show Yorke with eyes closed, mouth practically attached to the microphone and heavy strain on his face, a look that fans of “OK Computer,” “Kid A,” “Hail to the Thief” and other Radiohead classics would come to know well — often from 100 yards away or more in venues 25 times the size of Slim’s, which has a capacity of 500.
Radiohead would return to San Francisco later in 1993 to open for Belly at the Warfield, then come back for multiple victory laps in 1995.
An early darling on the alternative rock station Live 105, the band returned triumphantly in ’ 95 to play a free outdoor Justin Herman Plaza show promoted by the FM radio station. Later in the year, they arguably stole a pre- Christmas Live 105 show at Berkeley Community Theater, among a powerhouse lineup including Oasis, Sonic Youth, No Doubt and Garbage.
“The other news of the night was the outstanding set by Radiohead,” Examiner critic Barry Walters wrote in the Sunday Examiner-Chronicle on Dec. 17, 1995. “Although the British band that sang
‘ Creep’ seemed destined for the one- hit wonder dumper, its second CD, ‘ The Bends,’ is shockingly great. ... During several of the album’s exquisitely dramatic songs, singer Thom Yorke looked ready to explode as three guitars roared in orgasmic ecstasy. Who could blame him?”