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Thomas Edward Yorke (born October 7 , 1968 in Wellingborough , Northamptonshire , England ) is an English Musician , best known as the lead Singer of the Band Radiohead . He has also recorded as a solo artist; he released his debut album, '' The Eraser '', in July 2006, and has collaborated with many other artists. Yorke mainly plays Electric Guitar , Acoustic Guitar and Piano , but he has also played drums and bass guitar (notably during the '' Kid A '' and '' Amnesiac '' Radiohead sessions). Yorke is also an Electronic Music ian, and ''The Eraser'' was heavily influenced by electronic music.1 In 2005, Yorke, along with his manager Nate Jackson, became spokesmen for Friends Of The Earth and their campaign to reduce Carbon Emissions . He has one brother, Andy , ex-vocalist of the band the Unbelievable Truth . Yorke currently lives in central Oxford with his partner, Rachel Owen, a printmaker who holds a Doctorate in art history, and their two children, Noah, born in 2001 (to whom the Radiohead album ''Amnesiac'' was dedicated) and Agnes, born 2004 (to whom Yorke dedicated ''The Eraser''). BIOGRAPHY Early years As a young child Yorke underwent five surgical operations to correct a .2 The Yorke family finally settled in Oxfordshire , as Yorke's father was a travelling chemical equipment salesman, and had to travel around the country frequently.3 Yorke received his first guitar when he was seven, inspired by a televised performance of Queen guitarist Brian May .4 His first song, "Mushroom Cloud" described a nuclear explosion, and by age ten he had joined his first band at the Public Abingdon School for boys. It was at this school that he was to meet his future bandmates Ed O'Brien , Phil Selway , Colin Greenwood and Colin's younger brother, Jonny . The band was named On A Friday , as Friday was the only day on which the members were allowed to rehearse.5 Yorke, in this early line up, played guitar and provided vocals, and was already developing his songwriting and lyrical skills. Yorke, speaking about music's influence on him as a schoolboy, said, "School was bearable for me because the music department was separate from the rest of the school. It had pianos in tiny booths, and I used to spend a lot of time hanging around there after school."6 The band's mentor at the school was the music teacher, Terence Gilmore-James, who, according to band members, was the only one who encouraged them.7 Said Colin Greenwood, "When we started, it was very important that we got support from him, because we weren't getting any from the headmaster. You know, the man once sent us a bill, charging us for the use of school property, because we practiced in one of the music rooms on a Sunday." While attending the University Of Exeter , where he studied Fine Art and English , he worked as a DJ at Guild nights in the Lemon Grove and played briefly with the bands Headless Chickens and Flickernoise, the latter of which was a techno group. He also held a part time position as an orderly at a Psychiatric Hospital . In his second year, he was introduced to computers, the universities' newly acquired Macintosh es, and he was fascinated with them. It was also around this time that he met Stanley Donwood , an artist who from 1994 on would become an important collaborator on single and album artwork for Radiohead. Yorke has often used an alias ('The White Chocolate Farm', 'Tchock') while working on projects with Donwood. Together, the duo would later win the 2002 Grammy Award For Best Recording Package . In 1987, when Yorke was nineteen, he and his girlfriend were involved in a car crash. He was unharmed, but his girlfriend suffered from Whiplash . This brought on Yorke's phobia of cars that can be heard in later Radiohead songs, "Airbag", "Killer Cars", and "Stupid Car" or also on the B-Sides of Thom Yorke's Solo Album "Drunkk Machine". On A Friday reformed in 1991 as the members were finishing their degree courses. Meanwhile, Thom briefly had a job selling men's suits. Now relocated to Oxford, they signed to Parlophone and changed their name to Radiohead, the name taken from a song on the Talking Heads album '' True Stories ''. Yorke has admitted he has Hypomania Disorder .8 Radiohead See Also: Radiohead Radiohead first gained notice with the worldwide hit single "'', which was seen as a typical example of early '90s alternative rock and received mixed reviews. Yorke, coming to resent the way "Creep" had overshadowed their career, described the band's feeling toward it in the lyrics of " My Iron Lung ", which appeared on their second album, '' The Bends '', in 1995. By this time the band, through frequent touring and greater attention to detail in the recording studio, had picked up a large cult fan base and had begun to receive wider critical acclaim for their anthemic, atmospheric rock sound. Yorke was also beginning to address deeper social concerns in some of his lyrics. Radiohead charted their first top 5 single in the UK with " Street Spirit (Fade Out) " in late 1995. The band's third effort, 1997's '' OK Computer '', was heralded as a landmark album by nearly every publication that reviewed it, establishing Radiohead as one of the leading rock acts of the 1990s. However, new insecurities came along with the acclaim and stardom Yorke had found, contributing to the frontman's lapse into Clinical Depression during the mammoth Radiohead tour that followed the album. Some of these concerns were voiced in the documentary film '' Meeting People Is Easy '', which focused on the period. Yorke has explained in various interviews that he dislikes the "mythology" he feels is endemic within the rock genre, and hates the media's obsession with celebrity." Yorke derides mainstream music ", NME, 5 April 2006. Retrieved 19 May 2006. In the late 1990s the band began to fear that the personalities behind Radiohead were more prominent than the actual music, and that the band were participating in the system they attempted to criticize, causing Yorke to struggle with the idea of a follow-up to ''OK Computer''. Yorke and the band adopted a more radical approach on 2000's '' Kid A '' and 2001's '' Amnesiac '', processing vocals, obscuring lyrics, and departing from rock for a more varied musical landscape including Electronic , Jazz and avant-garde Classical influences. Expanding Radiohead's sales while earning acclaim for experimentation, the albums also divided fans and critics. To Yorke's dismay, many preferred that the band retain their earlier style, which had begun to exert great influence on the British pop music scene, with acts such as Coldplay , Travis and Muse replacing an earlier generation of Britpop bands. In 2003, Radiohead released their sixth album, '' Hail To The Thief '', a blend of rock and electronica that Yorke described as a reaction to the events of the early 2000s and newfound fears for his children's future, though he denied a specific political intent. The band has continued to tour, and in 2005 they undertook recording sessions for a seventh album, expected for release as early as 2007. Yorke has claimed to have never listened to Radiohead records after they are released, and it appears this will be the case for the forthcoming album. "I will dread listening to it all after we have left in the real world. I always dread that. I'd much rather start something new and forget," Yorke wrote in Radiohead's Blog in 2006. Dead Air Space Solo work See Also: The Eraser Yorke released '', losing to the Arctic Monkeys , and was also nominated for a Grammy Award For Best Alternative Music Album . MUSICAL APPROACH As a singer, Yorke is known for his distinctive Falsetto (" Fake Plastic Trees ", " Paranoid Android ", " Like Spinning Plates ") and his ability to reach, and sustain, high notes ("Creep", " Exit Music (For A Film) ", " Let Down "). During the recording sessions for '' The Bends '' in 1994, the band watched Jeff Buckley in concert; Yorke later said the concert had a direct effect on his vocal delivery on "Fake Plastic Trees." {Link without Title} , www.greenplastic.com, retrieved 7 November 2006. However, Yorke has said, "it annoys me how pretty my voice is... how polite it can sound when perhaps what I'm singing is deeply acidic." He has often adopted other styles of singing, such as shouting in the middle section of "Paranoid Android" and a semi-spoken delivery for 2003's "Myxomatosis" and "A Wolf at the Door". Another distinctive aspect of Yorke's singing is his frequent slurring of words, sometimes rendering his lyrics unintelligible. Printed lyrics for ''Kid A'' and ''Amnesiac'' were not provided with the albums, allowing listeners to form their own interpretations. Aside from vocal duties and writing lyrics, Yorke's musical contributions to Radiohead include Guitar , both acoustic and electric (usually rhythm parts, with band member Jonny Greenwood handling lead), and Piano (including Rhodes Piano , especially on ''Kid A''). He also plays Bass Guitar on occasion (the bass line for " The National Anthem " was recorded by him) as well as Drum s; in 2006 he performed percussion on stage in tandem with drummer Phil Selway . Yorke, like most members of Radiohead, has never learned how to read music. He said, "If someone lays the notes on a page in front of me, it's meaningless... because to me you can't express the rhythms properly like that. It's a very ineffective way of doing it, so I've never really bothered picking it up." In interviews Yorke has sometimes played down his skills on both guitar and piano; he rarely plays guitar solos, and joked about the simplicity of his part in "Bishop's Robes". Yorke explained how he had bought a "proper" baby grand piano after ''OK Computer'' and began writing songs on it, despite a lack of proficiency, constantly relying on Pedal Tone s and pivot tones. Yorke said, "I'm such a shit piano player. I remember this Tom Waits quote from years ago, that what keeps him going as a songwriter is his complete ignorance of the instruments he's using. So everything’s a novelty. That's one of the reasons I wanted to get into computers and synths, because I didn’t understand how the fuck they worked". Since ''Kid A'', Radiohead, and in particular Yorke, have incorporated many elements of electronic music into their work. As a result, Yorke has taken an increased role in programming beats and Samples and has been credited with playing "laptop" on recent albums. On a radio show in 2003 to publicise the release of ''Hail to the Thief'', Yorke remarked that he would rather make a record just with a computer than with only an acoustic guitar.Jo Whiley's Radio 1 show, 2003. His solo effort ''The Eraser'' featured piano and guitar, but was built primarily around electronics. In interviews Yorke has cited a variety of personal musical heroes and influences, ranging from jazz composer and bassist Charles Mingus to Neil Young , singer Scott Walker , electronic act Autechre and Krautrock band Can . Joy Division , Magazine , Elvis Costello , The Smiths and Sonic Youth were early influences on Radiohead and Yorke. In 2004, at the Coachella music festival, Yorke mentioned to the crowd, "When I was in college, the Pixies and R.E.M. changed my life",Seattle Post-Intelligencer. {Link without Title} and he has often mentioned both bands as examples. EQUIPMENT Guitars
Due to Radiohead's Gear truck being stolen in Denver 1995, Pre-95 gear was replaced. Effects
Amps Piano's/Synths/Keys ACTIVISM Make Trade Fair campaign, 2004]] Yorke's enigmatic persona has made him a .10 Yorke is friends with the environmentalist writer, academic and journalist 's request to meet with him to discuss climate change, declaring Blair had "no environmental credentials".The Guardian. Yorke has subsequently been critical of his own energy use. He has said the music industry's use of air transport is dangerous and unsustainable, and that he would consider not touring if new carbon emissions standards do not force the situation to improve.The Guardian. [http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1924075,00.html DISCOGRAPHY See also: Radiohead Discography Studio albums |
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| "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/information/entry/Spitting_Feathers" class="copylinks">Spitting Feathers '''''<br/> 22 November 2006 <br><center>(XL Recordings) |
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