When I was 16 my preoccupations were music and books. I’d probably gone past my science-fiction period by 16. So I was reading history books, The Communist Manifesto, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. American writers like Richard Ford and John Cheever. A big thing for me when I was 16 was the ‘Red Light Zone’ on Channel 4. That was a sign of cutting-edge content – I saw Jean-Luc Godard and Derek Jarman and Antonioni movies there.
We all rehearsed in the music room at school when we were on breaks. I was in the same year as Thom [Yorke, singer and guitarist] and we had classical guitar lessons with the same teacher. Then he got a band together with Ed [O’Brien, guitarist] and because Ed already played guitar, they asked me to play bass. I think I dodged a bullet on that one.
