4 août 1986, Oxford, Jericho Tavern, Club Avocado
Ce concert est considéré comme le tout premier du jeune groupe « on a friday » au club « avocado » de la Jericho Tavern. On A Friday intègre alors des saxophonistes (dont Raz Peterson). On ne connaît pas la set-list, mais comme tout groupe très jeune, il est certain qu’on a du entendre des reprises, des chansons en cours d’aboutissement…
En 2013, Colin en avait un peu parlé sur l’invitation de Steve Lamacq, journalitste de la BBC1, visitant sa maison, et l’interrogeant sur un poster sur le mur d’un très vieux concert… :
retranscription d’une interview radio donnée pour ‘Lamacq live’ sur la BBC 1 par Radiohead le 9 juin 2003
[quote ]Steve : “It’s Radiohead in the house or rather bassist Colin Greenwood’s
house. I’ve just walked upstairs from the living room where we’re
actually broadcasting from by the fire and the flight casts and upstairs
there’s a little room with… I can see a computer and loads of
keyboards actually two sets of keyboards and a bit of piano vibe [strums
on piano] can’t play, so there’s a piano there and then there’s vinyl
and CDs. Of course what’s the first thing you do when you go around any
pop star’s house ? You have a look a his CD collection just to check
first is this in alphabetical order ? Yes it is, it starts with “B“…
Jacques Brel, The Boo Radleys some Jeff Buckley and… so many David
Bowie records. I would say about 14 Bowie records there and as we move
along more CDs… and I think that’s a picture a Nigel Godrich and I
think that’s a picture of the rest of the band all wearing shades. On
the wall there’s a poster that appears to be for a gig by ‘On a Friday’,
so pre-Radiohead and I’m not sure what year this is but it says
“Tonight Club Avocado : Live music at The Jericho Tavern, Wolton Street”
Monday 4th August. The first band on was “The Yellowy Blue Roof Men”
what ever happened to them and mystery group in the middle and then On a
Friday headlining. Uh… there’s a bit of… Thom Yorke… come over
here, tell us about this gig. He’s run away… Colin… he’s run away
too… come in guys. So this is something you’ve had framed, is this a
very early gig ?
Colin : “Yeah, that was like the first gig we’ve ever did in 1986, ‘87…
Steve : “Your first ever gig ?
Colin : “Yeah, pretty much .
Steve : “Do you remember anything about The Blue Roof Men or The Yellowy Blue Roof Men ?
Colin : “Well they were all the same band they just kept changing
their name we didn’t realise, we thought it was three bands but in fact
it was just the same group and we were there… it was us and them. I
sort of coloured half of it in which was a bit of mistake.[/quote]
En janvier 2014, Colin Greenwood, porte-parole en Angleterre des petites salles de concert, a répondu à quelques questions du NME au sujet des débuts de Radiohead, et il est revenu sur ce concert, précisant la date et diffusant l’affiche du concert. Il nous apprend également que le groupe avait énormément répété, et qu’il buvait beaucoup beaucoup de bières.
[quote cite=’NME, 23 janvier 2014′]
NME: What do you remember about Radiohead’s first gig at the Jericho Tavern?
Colin Greenwood: Our first gig at the Jericho Tavern was in 1986 at Club Avocado (see the poster). The ‘Mystery Group’ and ‘The Yellowy Blue Roof Men’ also on the bill were, in fact, the same band. We were called ‘On A Friday’ at that time. You’ll see on the poster it says “Oxford NEEDS live music” It wasn’t just Oxford!
In terms of the setlist there was nothing on it we play now (hear an On A Friday song below). It was planned for a while and we’d rehearsed in the village halls of Southern Oxfordshire. They were as important to our success as the gigs at independent venues we went on to play. Before the show I’d been drinking a six-pack of beer in Wellington Park with Raz (Peterson), the sax player at that point, and probably finished said six pack afterwards. The beer went down very well. The gig did too.
Lire : http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/colin-greenwood-qa-on-radioheads-first-gig-independent-venues-what-the-bands-up-to-now#XkyJtskP1XQUQ4ZW.99
[/quote]
