Editing The Bends (album) (section)

==Background==
Radiohead released their debut album, ''[[Pablo Honey]]'', in 1993. By the time they began their first US tour early that year, their debut single, "[[Creep (Radiohead song)|Creep]]", had become a hit.<ref name="mel2">{{Citation |title=Creepshow |date=19 December 1992 |newspaper=[[Melody Maker]]}}</ref> The band felt pressured by the success and mounting expectations.<ref name="BLACK3">{{citation |last=Black |first=Johnny |title=The Greatest Songs Ever! Fake Plastic Trees |date=1 June 2003 |url=http://www.blender.com/guide/articles.aspx?id=824 |magazine=[[Blender (magazine)|Blender]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070409000921/http://blender.com/guide/articles.aspx?id=824 |access-date=15 April 2007 |archive-date=9 April 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Following the tours, the singer, [[Thom Yorke]], became ill and Radiohead cancelled an appearance at the 1993 [[Reading and Leeds Festivals|Reading Festival]]. He told ''[[NME]]'': "Physically I'm completely fucked and mentally I've had enough."<ref name="Monroe-2019" />

According to some reports, Radiohead's record company, [[EMI]], gave them six months to "get sorted" or be dropped. EMI's [[Artists and repertoire|A&R]] head, Keith Wozencroft, denied this, saying: "Experimental rock music was getting played and had commercial potential. People voice different paranoias, but for the label [Radiohead] were developing brilliantly from ''Pablo Honey''."<ref name="Monroe-2019" />

After Radiohead finished recording ''Pablo Honey'', Yorke played the co-producer [[Paul Q. Kolderie]] a demo tape of new material with the working title ''The Benz''. Kolderie was shocked to find the songs were "''all'' better than anything on ''Pablo Honey''".<ref name="Monroe-2019">{{cite web |last=Monroe |first=Jazz |date=13 March 2019 |title=Radiohead's ''The Bends'': inside the anti-capitalist, anti-cynicism classic |url=https://www.nme.com/features/radioheads-the-bends-at-20-the-story-of-an-anti-capitalist-anti-cynicism-classic-36 |access-date=20 September 2019 |website=[[NME]] |archive-date=25 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190525032146/https://www.nme.com/features/radioheads-the-bends-at-20-the-story-of-an-anti-capitalist-anti-cynicism-classic-36 |url-status=live }}</ref> The guitarist [[Ed O'Brien]] said later: "After all that touring on ''Pablo Honey'' ... the songs that Thom was writing were so much better. Over a period of a year and a half, suddenly, ''bang''."<ref>{{cite web |last=McLean |first=Craig |date=6 February 2020 |title=Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien steps up |url=https://theface.com/music/radiohead-guitarist-ed-obrien-album-shangri-la-interview-thom-yorke |access-date=2020-02-08 |website=[[The Face (magazine)|The Face]] |language=en-gb |archive-date=24 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200424035341/https://theface.com/music/radiohead-guitarist-ed-obrien-album-shangri-la-interview-thom-yorke |url-status=live }}</ref> Kolderie credited Radiohead's ''Pablo Honey'' tours for "turning them into a tight band".<ref name="Randall-2011">{{Cite book |last=Randall |first=Mac |title=Exit Music: The Radiohead Story |publisher=Omnibus Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-1849384575}}</ref>

To produce their next album, Radiohead selected [[John Leckie]], who had produced records by acts they admired, such as [[Magazine (band)|Magazine]].<ref name="Monroe-2019"/><ref name="Stereogum-2015">{{Cite web |date=2015-03-09 |title=Q&A: Radiohead's Philip Selway remembers ''The Bends'' |url=https://www.stereogum.com/1784465/qa-radioheads-philip-selway-remembers-the-bends/franchises/interview/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200711170800/https://www.stereogum.com/1784465/qa-radioheads-philip-selway-remembers-the-bends/franchises/interview/ |archive-date=11 July 2020 |access-date=2020-07-11 |website=[[Stereogum]]}}</ref> Leckie did not like ''Pablo Honey'', but saw potential in Radiohead's new demos, Yorke's vocals and the three-guitar lineup.<ref name="Irvin-1997" /> The drummer, [[Philip Selway]], said Radiohead were reassured by how relaxed and open-minded Leckie was on their first meeting.<ref name="Stereogum-2015" /> According to O'Brien, the success of "Creep" meant that Radiohead were not in debt to EMI and so had more freedom on their next album.<ref name="Greene-2017" /> EMI asked Radiohead to deliver a followup to "Creep" for the American market; however, according to Leckie, Radiohead had disowned "Creep" and did not "think in terms of making hit singles".<ref name="Monroe-2019" />

Recording was postponed so Leckie could work on the album ''[[Carnival of Light (album)|Carnival of Light]]'', by another Oxford band, [[Ride (band)|Ride]].{{sfn|Randall|2000|p=125}} Radiohead used the extra time to rehearse in a disused barn on an Oxfordshire fruit farm in January 1994.{{sfn|Randall|2000|p=126}}<ref>{{Cite news |date=2021-02-24 |title=Radiohead sketchbook sells for £5,000 after auction |language=en-GB |work=[[BBC News]] |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-56171708 |access-date=2022-06-18 |archive-date=18 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220618110734/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-56171708 |url-status=live }}</ref> Yorke said: "We had all of these songs and we really liked them, but we knew them almost too well ... so we had to sort of learn to like them again before we could record them, which is odd."{{sfn|Randall|2000|p=126}}