Early Radiohead Demo Tape from the '80s Set to Hit Auction
The cassette was released under the band’s first name, On a Friday.
An early Radiohead demo tape is set to hit the auction block this January.
According to reports, the project wasn’t even released under the Radiohead name but rather its predecessor, On a Friday. The Gripe EP was recorded between 1987 and 1988, and is comprised of six tracks with three unreleased. Frontman Thom Yorke designed the cassette label himself, writing “Gripe + 3 trax at beginning” and “Happy Song (why don’t you write a happy song?), To Be a Brilliant Light (Mid life crises, no comforts), Sinking Ship (how would you like a job like that?!)” on the inlay card. The three unreleased cuts are supposedly entitled “Promise Me,” “Body in a box” and “These are the Chains.”
The cassette is being sold by an anonymous person who claims he was gifted the project in thee 90s by someone in the band. Auctioneer Paul Fairweather said, “The tracks are raw but certainly suggest something of the fantastic potential that the band would realize in a few years’ time.”
Yorke, Ed O’Brien, Phil Selway and Colin Greenwood, who were schoolmates at the Abingdon School, formed On a Friday in 1985 and named themselves after their weekly rehearsal date. Jonny Greenwood, Colin’s younger brother, joined shortly after.
On a Friday’s Gripe EP is expected to fetch £2,000 GBP (approximately $2,720 USD), however as of writing the current bid is already at £3,400 GBP (approximately $3,270 USD) on Omega Auctions.
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