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

So if I won it would expand my music collection slightly, and I've been meaning to buy one of them for some time.

Well less than 300.

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.

Everything!

I first listened to Radiohead a few years ago; I was going through a stage just getting albums perceived to be 'classics', and near the top of the list were OK Computer and The Bends (I think there was a greatest album ever list with them 1 and 2).
At this time I wasn't really interested in music, it just seemed like something nice to have on in the background whilst I was doing something I actually cared about (e.g. games, books), and thusly I never really listened to them 'properly', to a certain extent I was just overhearing them.
I thought the guitars on tracks like Just and Paranoid Android were nice, as was the tune to No Surprises, but didn't really think much of either album. A couple of plays later and I moved on to some more music, not thinking too much of either of them.
A while later, my parents were getting annoyed at me for playing music late at night, so I picked up a pair of headphones and had a look for something that I thought would be suitable for playing through them. For some reason I picked OK Computer and decided to just listen, testing out whether I liked listening through headphones. I sat there mesmerised for the next 55 minutes, losing myself in the sound.
Radiohead taught me that music can be more than just something in the background; they showed me the rewards of actually listening to music, and have not only changed the way I listen, but it opened the door for me to become the huge music fan I am today.

I should probably mention Pablo Honey as well, shouldn’t I?
Pablo Honey.

give this guy the records. That's so fucking cool!

Creep was of course a first contact. It made me visit music shops 10 times before I bought Pablo Honey. But when I first heard Stop whispering, second single, I fell in love with this band. I hadn't really payed attention to any rock band before. I fell from the arms of classical composers into a beautiful scream of rebellion. I bought the CD without even having a player at home. This new dimension of sound hooked me and turned me into a loyal fan. By the time The Bends came out, motivated by the silly anyone can play guitar, I had learned to play most PH tracks.

The Bends was the soundtrack of my late teens. I sang along all of it, played most of it with my guitar, cried with it and shared it with my first true friends. But such bends and bonds, along with their singles and ep's, were not enough to prevent the shock that OK Computer was.

This third full-length experience was demanding, a fight of grown ups against universal and lethal demons in a combat where music was so sharp, it cut my reasoning at times. I was not afraid of this new, almost unrecognizable sound, but it took time and concentration, countless sessions tête à tête with the CD and booklet to dig all its layers of genius and bravery. OK Computer made it across my ears and got recorded in my head. Radiohead made me grow up! And that made me respect this band as much as they respect their audience.

before i started listening to radiohead i had an idea in my head of what they would sound like. the bends was the first of theirs i got and when i put it in my stereo i sat on the floor inches from my speakers. planet telex came on and it was exactly like the sound i had pictured in my head, but more. i am still mesmerized by that song today.
getting into radiohead was an experience and it all started with the bends and ok computer, pablo honey would come later. i just wish that i could listen to these albums for the first time again. not knowing what to expect was the best feeling. and i was never disappointed by the outcome. they exceeded all expectations and changed my outlook on albums forever.
ok computer always reminds me of the time when i first heard it and every time i listen to it as warm feeling to that cold winter when i discovered it.
pablo honey is the nineties. that album captures that sound perfectly. if only radiohead loved it as much as i do. clearly not their best, but that doesn't mean anything in the world of radiohead. many artists never make an album this good. and that means something. i'm just glad that i can enjoy it and i never will stop.
when i listen to these albums (and their others too) its like there is no such thing as good music other than radiohead.

can I just have the CD's I'm so poor and I cant listen to radiohead through a widget anymore !! My cd player got stolen..!?