Seattle Times, 02.04.98
Radio wave: Britain's band rides crest of superstardom with low-wattage egos
by Patrick MacDonald
Concert preview: Radiohead and Spiritualized, 8 p.m. Sunday, Paramount Theatre, Seattle; sold out. (But see Backstage Pass article elsewhere in this section for hints on getting tickets to sold-out shows.)
Radiohead is the most acclaimed new rock band in years. The British group's eclectic, intriguing OK Computer was on every rock critic's 1997 Top 10 list, and the band has been on the cover of every major rock magazine.
Two weeks ago, at the South by Southwest Music and Media Conference in Austin, Texas, Capitol Records president Gary Gersh - famous for signing Nirvana - told a panel audience that Radiohead "is the best band in the world" and was going to be "the biggest band in the world." In the next millennium, he said, it will be the only one playing stadiums.
So, Colin Greenwood, Radiohead bassist, with that kind of success, have you bought your new house with a pool yet?
"Oh my, no!" he laughs, talking from his room at the fabled Chateau Marmont in Hollywood. "We're not that successful. We haven't seen that kind of money, not yet anyway. We're certainly not counting on it."
He said the band had made some good money, but plowed it back into videos.
"You have to question the value of a medium where you spend more money for one video than you do to record an entire album," he observed. "Which is not to disparage the directors we've worked with, because they've been wonderful. And we've been very pleased with our videos. So it's been money well spent, I guess."
A full-length video will be released this summer that chronicles the band's experiences, from the release of OK Computer in England last May through an Australian tour that ended last month.
"We've seen some of the footage and it looks wonderful," he said. "There'll be no narration, no voice-overs, no interviews. Just our lives onstage and off, with lots of music."
Asked for his own highlight of the past year, he replied, "I don't know if there is one, or if I could pick just one. I was very excited the other day when I read that Jimmy Webb liked our music. That's very cool. It's gratifying to have people you admire and respect liking us."
Although lead singer and songwriter Thom Yorke gets the most attention, Radiohead's music is a group effort.
"My involvement is to play bass guitar," Greenwood explained, "but our ideas and suggestions in certain areas, as to where the music should go or develop, are listened to. We are very much a band."
He said he was troubled by Gersh's remark about Radiohead playing stadiums.
"I don't know if we'd like to play them, really," he said. "We want to play places where the music sounds good and connects with the audience. At those huge stadium shows you're in danger of becoming some awful parody of yourself, a disembodied stick figure up on stage, totally detached from the audience. It would be terrible. I can't see us ever playing stadiums."
After the last show of this tour, April 17 at Radio City Music Hall in New York, Radiohead will go on extended leave, with just one commitment - a Free Tibet rally in June in Washington, D.C. The band will meet in September to talk about recording an album.
So what will Greenwood do during his time off?
"Anybody else would go away," he replied. "But, for us, after touring for so long, being on vacation means staying home in Oxford and rebuilding our lives with our friends and loved ones. That's our way of preserving our sanity."
by Patrick MacDonald
Concert preview: Radiohead and Spiritualized, 8 p.m. Sunday, Paramount Theatre, Seattle; sold out. (But see Backstage Pass article elsewhere in this section for hints on getting tickets to sold-out shows.)
Radiohead is the most acclaimed new rock band in years. The British group's eclectic, intriguing OK Computer was on every rock critic's 1997 Top 10 list, and the band has been on the cover of every major rock magazine.
Two weeks ago, at the South by Southwest Music and Media Conference in Austin, Texas, Capitol Records president Gary Gersh - famous for signing Nirvana - told a panel audience that Radiohead "is the best band in the world" and was going to be "the biggest band in the world." In the next millennium, he said, it will be the only one playing stadiums.
So, Colin Greenwood, Radiohead bassist, with that kind of success, have you bought your new house with a pool yet?
"Oh my, no!" he laughs, talking from his room at the fabled Chateau Marmont in Hollywood. "We're not that successful. We haven't seen that kind of money, not yet anyway. We're certainly not counting on it."
He said the band had made some good money, but plowed it back into videos.
"You have to question the value of a medium where you spend more money for one video than you do to record an entire album," he observed. "Which is not to disparage the directors we've worked with, because they've been wonderful. And we've been very pleased with our videos. So it's been money well spent, I guess."
A full-length video will be released this summer that chronicles the band's experiences, from the release of OK Computer in England last May through an Australian tour that ended last month.
"We've seen some of the footage and it looks wonderful," he said. "There'll be no narration, no voice-overs, no interviews. Just our lives onstage and off, with lots of music."
Asked for his own highlight of the past year, he replied, "I don't know if there is one, or if I could pick just one. I was very excited the other day when I read that Jimmy Webb liked our music. That's very cool. It's gratifying to have people you admire and respect liking us."
Although lead singer and songwriter Thom Yorke gets the most attention, Radiohead's music is a group effort.
"My involvement is to play bass guitar," Greenwood explained, "but our ideas and suggestions in certain areas, as to where the music should go or develop, are listened to. We are very much a band."
He said he was troubled by Gersh's remark about Radiohead playing stadiums.
"I don't know if we'd like to play them, really," he said. "We want to play places where the music sounds good and connects with the audience. At those huge stadium shows you're in danger of becoming some awful parody of yourself, a disembodied stick figure up on stage, totally detached from the audience. It would be terrible. I can't see us ever playing stadiums."
After the last show of this tour, April 17 at Radio City Music Hall in New York, Radiohead will go on extended leave, with just one commitment - a Free Tibet rally in June in Washington, D.C. The band will meet in September to talk about recording an album.
So what will Greenwood do during his time off?
"Anybody else would go away," he replied. "But, for us, after touring for so long, being on vacation means staying home in Oxford and rebuilding our lives with our friends and loved ones. That's our way of preserving our sanity."
Labels: Colin Greenwood, interviews, OK Computer, Radiohead, Seattle Times, Tibet, videos
Radiohead’s bass player has been interviewed endlessly. One added weekly.
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