(Credits: Far Out / Greg Williams)
Mon 26 January 2026 16:30, UK
You do kind of have to feel for Thom Yorke every time a fan screams “Play ‘Creep’” at a Radiohead show, knowing just how reluctant the band are to even address any of the material from their debut album.
Granted, ‘Creep’ is indeed one of the album’s highlights, but those come few and far between on an album where the band weren’t quite yet at the level of being world-beaters. It’s understandable that some fans would want this to still be part of their live performances, and that it has ended up being unfairly dismissed by the band, but at this point, it’s very much become a punchline said just to wind up a band who would much rather move on from this period of their career.
It’s a sign of their youth and their starting block as a band, but it’s also incredibly naive in the sense that they would go on to release far more experimental and expansive works in their later years, and for this reason, you can’t argue with the fact that they want to be dismissive of this song, even if it was their first major hit.
Radiohead would obviously blow Pablo Honey out of the water on every subsequent release, but it’s also not like their second album, The Bends, is a million miles away from being the same band. It’s still an indie rock record at its core, and one filled with the same moody guitar-laden songwriting that was present on their debut, but the crucial difference is the fact that the songwriting is much stronger.
The Bends is a far greater record across the board, with songs like ‘Planet Telex’, ‘Just’ and ‘Street Spirit (Fade Out)’ being among its many highlights that showcase the evolution of the band, and just how far the members were willing to push themselves to reach a higher level of creativity. Not only was Yorke’s lyricism far more mature, but the guitar work of Jonny Greenwood and Ed O’Brien was far bolder, and the rhythmic contributions of Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway had also been taken up a notch.
However, Yorke still doesn’t revisit this record all that much, and even though he acknowledges it’s a touch better than their debut, there’s one song that he doesn’t particularly enjoy performing to this day.
During a 2003 interview with Magnet Magazine, shortly after they’d released their sixth album, Hail To The Thief, he reflected on this era of the band, and why one song from The Bends remained unlikely to make it into their setlist at the time.
“I can’t remember when I last heard it,” he said of The Bends, before admitting that he still enjoys playing some of the songs from the album. “It’s a little bit rock for me. But that’s OK. Every time we dig up ‘Bones’, it never kind of works. It sounds a bit like Status Quo, which is weird, because it didn’t at the time.”
It doesn’t really sound like Status Quo at all, but as one of the weaker moments on the record, you can understand why it would be left out in favour of a masterpiece like ‘Fake Plastic Trees’. Anyway, next time you’re at a Radiohead show and you want to be that guy who calls out “Play ‘Creep’”, maybe consider shouting “Play ‘Bones’” instead and see what the reaction is. You never know, it might be fun.
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