Thom Yorke's Breakdown Night: The Song That Saved Radiohead Twice
British outlet Far Out Magazine has revisited the backstory of Radiohead's "Everything In Its Right Place" — a song the report says rescued the band twice, once in 1997 and again in 2000. Its origin traces back to a single night after a Radiohead show in Birmingham, England.
What was reported
On November 19, 1997, Radiohead played the NEC Arena in Birmingham at the height of the band's post-OK Computer fame. According to the report, frontman Thom Yorke walked off stage and into the dressing room completely overwhelmed by accumulated exhaustion. He later went home and wrote "Everything In Its Right Place" on piano, then handed it to longtime producer Nigel Godrich to develop further.
From a Birmingham dressing room to a Gloucestershire manor
OK Computer had turned a band of self-described outsiders into one of the most watched acts in the world, pushing Yorke into the archetypal frontman role of 1990s rock. Far Out Magazine's account frames the Birmingham breakdown as the moment that pressure turned into songwriting material.
The band then set up at a manor house called Batsford Park in Gloucestershire to record, but reportedly found themselves circling through experimental ideas without traction. Yorke and Godrich finished the song themselves, making it the first piece to take shape during that period and setting the direction for the album that would become Kid A, released in 2000.
Ed O'Brien: the first thing that came out of it
Guitarist Ed O'Brien recalled that the band had already been working at the countryside manor for six months, effectively tearing everything down to rubble and starting over — and that "Everything In Its Right Place" was the first thing to grow out of that wreckage. He said the rest of the band did not take part in recording the song, and that their reaction on hearing the finished version was, "Well, that's beautiful."
As Far Out Magazine tells it, the song first caught Yorke as he was on the verge of collapse in 1997, then proved useful again in 2000 when the band was formally recording the new album and stuck in a creative deadlock — making it a pivotal hinge point for Radiohead's move from OK Computer into its next phase.