Win: Radiohead reissues - Pablo Honey, The Bends and OK Computer

OK Computer was one of THE albums that turned me on to music. Up till then, my only exposure to music was Galaxy in my mother's car, and that's what I thought all music would be like, mostly crap. (Of course, it still is mostly crap, but you know what I mean.)

And then one of my teachers told me to listen to OK Computer. “Radiohead?” I thought. “They sound a bit shit, to be honest. Stupid name.” And that was that. Back I went to the homogeny of commercial radio stations and music that meant nothing to me.

Then, I got given an iPod. And around the same time, the Arctic Monkey's debut came out. Taken in by the hype, I wondered up to the local supermarket. Grabbing the album, and wandering down the aisle, I stopped to look at the £5 bargain section, and noticed a striking blue and white album. “OK COMPUTER” the writing in the top right declared, with an artist name underneath: “RADIOHEAD”.

Remembering the recommendation all those months again, and wanting to get some more music on this fancy new iPod thingymajig, I grabbed it, paid, and went home.

One of those albums bitterly disappointed me. The other one didn't. It utterly enthralled me, grabbing me, kneeing me in the balls and severely scolded me for being so ignorant. I started buying this band's back-catalogue. Pablo Honey disappointed me a bit, but it still had some good tunes. The Bends was excellent, though. I ended up buying more and more good stuff, and well, here I am today.

I can honestly say I would not be the person I am today if not for Radiohead's first three albums, even though I was late to the party...

The first time I heard OK Computer must have been when I was about 14, as my dad placed it upon my new MP3 player. I can't say I was taken by it, but I thought the robotic voice on Fitter Happier was pretty cool. Radiohead lay ignored for several years, till I decided to give OK Computer another go. This time I noticed more than the robotic voice on fitter happier. The songs moved me, I listened in wonderment to the epic nature of “Paranoid Android”, I became obsessed with “Karma Police” listening to it again, and again, attempting to work it out on the piano whenever I had the chance. It seemed to soundtrack my life at the time, and today I can pretty much play the whole thing through in my head. But Radiohead didn't truly become an obsession till I borrowed The Bends off a friend, this album moved me somewhat differently to the fragmented genius of Ok Computer. I soared with the guitars on "The Bends", played "Just" over in my head again, and again. The Bends to me was a feeling of elation, and came at a time when my life was taking a turn for the better (at 17). Pablo Honey was never quite the album of the other 2, but as the last Radiohead album I bought, it to me signalled something special. Thom Yorke became my hero, I desperately wanted to be Johnny Greenwood.. Now that I knew all of Radiohead, they had somehow become mine, a part of me. Getting into Radiohead heralded the beginning of my obsession with alternative music, without them I would not be on this website, I would never have made half of my friends, I wouldn't be the man I am today.

I was 13 when I fell madly in love with a girl. Her name like so many before her was Cher. Look, here's a photo of her in the 1995 hit movie, Clueless http://uk.imdb.com/media/rm1652660480/tt0112697 (do links count in the 300? I don't want to waste any words.) Oh how Alicia Silverstone’s (that’s her real name, I believe you may be fortunate enough to glimpse of her nipple her 1993 role in the movie, “The Crush”) little squiffy eye had me in frenzies. My Heavenly Father I had some amazing wanks over her, of course in those days I didn't realise that you had to keep going until you managed to spurt a bit, so my pictures always remained clean.

The soundtrack to the Clueless featured such greats as, "all by myself", "Rollin’ With My Homies", alongside a tune which remained tediously anonymous to me for a further year. During a routine rummage around my mate's older brother's records, I happened upon The Bends (I’d recently bought “Paranoid Android” on single after seeing it on MTV). Initially, I was rather-to-moderately impressed, but upon reaching “My Iron Lung”, I heard the riff which so wastefully eluded me. Seldom have I been so enraptured in my entire life. Maybe I was connecting the riff to the girl? Maybe it was the shear glory of Jonny’s Whammy?

I went out and bought it later that day, Followed it with Ok Computer, which successfully soundtracked my GCSE Business Studies coursework, then Pablo Honey (I remember my neighbour’s dad walking in on me air-rocking out to “You” in their living room.

I soon bought the song books to all of them, learned every song in a week, before forcing my ‘band’ to ruin them for the rest of the school. I’m now fully gay for Radiohead.

Is it OK if I do it in 3 words...

..they're fucking awesome

now hand over the cd's you bastards...it'll save me £36
ta

"We'll pick our favourite response on Monday and notify the lucky winner via private message"

still haven't got my private message...c'mon, I want my CD's