Expect this to become a decade of commemorations for the halcyon days of Britpop. It has been said this British based earthquake in popular and youth culture had two distinct phases.
The first era saw Blur, Oasis, Pulp, and Suede rise to prominence from the early to mid-90s. The latter phase saw The Verve fill a mainstream vacuum in the wake of Oasis releasing a bloated sonic fart allegedly induced by cocaine, Be Here Now, and Manic Street Preachers reaching number one with a song about the Spanish Civil War. Although in all due respect, I don't think you can accuse the Welsh outfit of ever waving a Union Jack.
Meanwhile, in Oxford, a band called Radiohead kept minding their own business and having nothing whatsoever to do with the Britpop circus. They didn't drink champagne in the Groucho with Keith Allen and Damian Hirst or get papped falling out of nightclubs.
"To us, Britpop was just a 1960s revival," their feted guitarist and dexterous multi-instrumentalist, Jonny Greenwood, once opined. "It just leads to pastiche. It’s you wishing it was another era. But as soon as you go down that route, you might as well be a Dixieland jazz band, really."
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Exactly thirty years ago this February, Radiohead released their debut album, Pablo Honey. It featured a 90s anthem that launched their careers while also becoming an irksome albatross around their necks. That infamous song, Creep, will be performed by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra this February for the Irish premiere of Radiohead, A Jazz Symphony at the National Concert Hall.
After Pablo Honey (1993), Radiohead released two back to back career-defining classic albums with The Bends (1995) and OK Computer (1997). They subsequently went on to become one of the most revered acts of all time after unveiling Kid A (2000), Amnesiac (2001), and In Rainbows (2006).
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It is a testament to their enduring popularity and influence that Radiohead have been radically reimagined and reinterpreted by a host of acts, including Brad Mehldau, Regina Spektor, Kelly Lee Owens, Cold War Kids, Michael Kiwanuka, Mark Ronson, Prince, and Camille O’Sullivan. In 2012, Noordpool Orchestra from the Netherlands went even further by releasing an entire tribute album.
Under the baton of Noordpool founder and conductor, Reinout Douma, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra will perform all ten of these Radiohead classics for jazz soloists and orchestras. Reinout Douma will introduce the evening by revealing how this project came to fruition just over ten years ago.
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Two bonus pieces will feature, the title track of Thom Yorke’s 2006 solo album, The Eraser, and Spectre by Radiohead, an orchestral ballad originally written for the 2015 James Bond film of the same name.
The rest of the programme will consist of Paranoid Android, Nude, Weird Fishes, Karma Police, Exit Music, No Surprises, 15 Step, Suite: Everything in Its Right Place – Pyramid Song, You, and the aforementioned Creep.
Radiohead’s drummer and former Samaritans volunteer, Phil Selway, has claimed that the band will reconvene this year to plot their next move. However, it probably will be quite some time until we hear new music or get an opportunity to see them live.
In the meantime, Radiohead, A Jazz Symphony is a glorious opportunity to bask in the brilliance of their music, which works in countless different contexts.
RTÉ Concert Orchestra will perform Radiohead, A Jazz Symphony at the National Concert Hall on Wednesday, February 8th - find out more here.
