Watching the stella peformance from Radiohead on Sunday night at the Reading Festival in the UK, I was just in awe of the range and breadth of their music.
I’ve been a huge fan since I saw them for the first time at Glastonbury Festival in 2003, where I had tears running my face at the beauty and the emotion of their performance.
Radiohead are one of the most unique and inventive bands around. You might not like their music, but you’d have to admit they push the boundaries and are inventive and explore ways of expressing themselves musically like no-one else and they have a huge fan base and international success.
Every time I see them I am reminded me of being a student in Reading in the early 90s. My friends were talking about someone they knew, (a friend of my flat-mate’s boyfriend) who had decided to manage a new band made up of these ‘guys from Oxford’ who were called Radiohead. At the time, to me, they sounded just like any other indie band.
I’m embarrassed to say that while a few were enthusiastic about his chances, many of us were unsupportive and even sneering at how he would fail. They talked about the chances of succeeding being so slim and how it was too risky to contemplate.
I remember sitting in the pub, and joining in with the general derision at the idea of this guy being successful at managing a band. (Forgive me, I was only 19 and thought then being cynical and nihilistic was cool!). That night one of my friends said as part of that conversation, ‘It’s so rubbish, I mean, what kind of a name is ‘Radiohead’ anyway?’
During their performance this weekend as the headline act of the festival, that phrase and the negative tone floated through my head as an example of how wrong we can be. Imagine if he had listened to all that negativity and just given up. After all, it’s not like any of us sitting in the pub had any experience of writing, recording, producing or releasing music. What did we know about success back then?
Yes he might have failed. Taking a risk always runs the possibility of failure, that’s why it was a risk and not a sure thing. In the early 90s they were still learning their craft and weren’t that great a band and yet they took that chance.
When you are surrounded by nay-sayers on all sides it’s easy to get sucked into that negative world view. So many people play it safe, and tell you to play it safe too so that they don’t have to worry about you! If there’s something you want out of life and you are surrounded by people who are telling you it’s too risky then go and find someone who believes in you.
Don’t share your dreams too soon with those that will crush them along with your self-confidence before they have a chance. What you need is to surround yourself with those that have already made that journey and who will support your transformation. And if you have doubts about whether or not you can succeed, then ask yourself, ‘What kind of a name is Radiohead anyway?’