Free Thom Yorke by Trevor Baker

apart after just one album and again when Courtyard started to struggle. They’d opened it in 1987 in the Oxfordshire village of Sutton Courtenay but, like many studios, it had been a battle to survive. Although there were many talented young bands in Oxfordshire in the late 1980s, few of them went on to enjoycommercial success. Ultimately they sold the business, rented Courtyard back off the new owners and set up their own production and management company. In 1990, when they first heard On A Friday, they were on the look out for a good band that they could help steer clear of the same obstacles.
    Their first impressions weren’t that positive. Fourteen songs was far more than most bands would put on a demo, and none of them stood out. Thom had been writing furiously but they realised that he still hadn’t found a voice of his own. “There were some good tunes but it was all obviously ripped off mercilessly,” said Chris in a Q interview.
    When they got a chance to record another demo, Thom decided they needed to be more selective and get a proper recording done. During the Easter holidays in 1991, shortly before he graduated, they booked a session with local producer Richard Haines at Dungeon Studios near Oxford. The studio was built into a hill and the control room looked out over the rolling Oxfordshire countryside. By the standards of the places they would record at in the future, it was very basic but for On A Friday this was a major step up. Between them they’d saved £300, which was enough for three days and they had three songs ready to record: ‘What Is That You Say?’, ‘Give It Up’ and ‘Stop Whispering’.
    “Two of the songs were fairly unremarkable if not average 1980s rock,” Richard Haines recalled for this book, “but ‘Stop Whispering’ had a verse that Thom sang that was just beautiful. It was one of those shivers-down-the-spine moments. I thought, ‘Christ, that’s quite special’. The other two tracks weren’t special at all. Perfectly well done, very competent. But they were just glad to be in the studio. They were so into being in a band together. It was very harmonious. They got on really well. Thom was steering the ship, basically, which I guess he carried on doing throughout. But it wasn’t antagonistic. He didn’t have to push or pull them. They were quite cohesive and understood each other’s roles in the band. It was pretty obvious that they were a great band in the making.”
    When Chris Hufford received the new tape, he still didn’t think that they were anything earth-shattering but the dramatic improvement caught his attention nonetheless and he decided to go and see them at their next gig. “He heard about us through a mutual friend and came to see us at the Jericho,” said Colin in that firstinterview with Curfew fanzine. “Afterwards he was almost shaking. He said we were the best group he’d seen in three years.”
    At the time Chris was best known for his work with Thames Valley band Slowdive. In 1991 he was producing their debut album and was used to seeing ‘Shoegazing’ bands with little or no stage presence. If there was such a thing as ‘the Oxford sound’ it was defined by bands like Ride who, while having a powerful style of their own, had no real focal point onstage. The vocal was just the crest of a wave of sound.
    On A Friday were very different. Thom’s vocals were much higher in the mix. He wasn’t afraid to admit that he liked U2 more than My Bloody Valentine. In his own, highly idiosyncratic way, he was a rock star in a city that hadn’t seen a rock star in years. When On A Friday finished playing that night, Chris was stunned. They’d not managed to capture their three-guitar sound on their demos in such an electrifying way – they were a very different proposition live. As soon as he could, he invited himself backstage and said, “I’ve got to work with you.”
    At this point, On A Friday were in an odd situation. They’d been