Thom Yorke

Thom Yorke is one of the most revered musicians of his generation. As the frontman of Radiohead, he has helped craft more era-defining albums than you’ve had hot dinners, many of which are widely regarded as having expanded the parameters of alternative rock. In addition to penning some of the Oxford group’s most celebrated singles – including ‘Creep’, ‘No Surprises’ and ‘Paranoid Android’ – Yorke has had a successful solo career and established himself as a sought-after composer for film.

Born October 7th, 1968, Yorke settled with his family in Oxfordshire in 1978. By the age of ten, he’d already been playing guitar for three years, and by the time he was eleven, he’d formed his first band and started writing songs of his own. After enrolling at Abingdon School, he was introduced to Ed O’Brien, Phil Selway, and brothers Colin and Jonny Greenwood. Together they formed On A Friday – named after the only day of the week they were allowed to rehearse. The school’s music department was a saving grace for Yorke, who spent a lot of time there after school playing piano. On leaving formal education, he took a year off and worked a variety of jobs. The car crash he was involved in around this time would go on to inspire lyrics to a number of Radiohead songs, including ‘Airbag’ from OK Computer.

Yorke spent the late ’80s at Exeter University and eventually resumed work with On A Friday in 1991. That same year, the band signed to Parlophone and changed their name to Radiohead. The success of the band’s breakthrough single ‘Creep’ prompted a surge of self-destructive behaviour in Yorke, who would later claim that he was “unbearable” to be around at the time, having completely disappeared up his own arse. By the release of their second album, The Bends, in 1993, Radiohead had attracted a deeply devoted and rapidly expanding fanbase.

Yorke’s struggles with fame were helped by his newly formed friendship with R.EM. frontman Michael Stipe, who had chosen Radiohead as the support for their European tour. Sadly, Stipes’ advice didn’t stop him from suffering a mental breakdown after the release of OK Computer in 1997, which earned Radiohead critical acclaim and record-breaking sales. Yorke was ambivalent about the band’s success, however, and eventually retreated from the limelight to remedy his now total disillusionment with music in an isolated house on England’s west coast.

With the arrival of the new millennium, Yorke continued to help Radiohead push the boundaries – with the band producing most of their best work to date. Amid the band’s mid-2000s hiatus, Yorke took the opportunity to release his first solo album, 2006’s The Eraser, which was quickly followed by one of Radiohead’s most beloved albums, In Rainbows. The band continued to release new music until 2016’s Moon Shaped Pool, at which point Yorke stepped into the world of film scoring, providing the soundtrack for Luca Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 remake of Susperia. Most recently, Yorke has been focusing his attention on his new band, The Smile, which features Jonny Greenwood and former Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner.