‘Creep’, Radiohead's classic, controversial debut single, was both an outstanding ode to alienation and easily the most memorable rock record of 1992. Complete with grunge-friendly guitars and self-loathing lyrics, it was also a surprise Stateside hit for the Oxford five piece, despite barely scraping the charts back home. The perks of their success, at a time when few British bands were making it in America, were soon outweighed by a hellish promotional schedule. Consequently, Radiohead had found themselves forced to flog their patchy, hastily recorded first LP, Pablo Honey, on a worldwide tour which lasted for almost two years. Midway through their second trip to the States, supporting Belly, Radiohead were at breaking point. Singer Thom Yorke seemed to have lost his creativity, while the entire band, all friends since school days, had begun to hate the sight of each other.

Matters came to a head last year in Mexico when they all finally admitted to how they felt about the dismal state of Radiohead. The confessions acted as a catalyst, and the result was a dozen stress-related, stadium friendly, strangely fragile songs, which came out this year as the band's second album, The Bends. Hailed by the music press as an essential British rock album of 1995, The Bends three Top 40 singles - ‘Planet Telex’, ‘My Iron Lung’ and ‘High and Dry’ - and a sold-out UK tour - proved that Radiohead’s time away had far from diminished their reputation. Indeed, they had become the archetypal misfits of British pop. Having spent their entire adult lives together, Radiohead claimed to be each other's best friends. Here they take it in turns to describe one other member of the band - their most appealing attributes, worst bad habits and that article of clothing they never want to see again.

Jonny on Thom:
Thom's unbelievably productive and creative. He would happily spend the rest of his life writing and recording songs instead of performing. Until last year, we toured for two years without time to rehearse. I thought Thom was going to go mad. Thom's very quiet. He gets tense very quickly. He's moody and childish and often aloof, but he can also be very affectionate and friendly. He's childish because in the space of 20 minutes, he can go through a dozen different moods. I'm sure it makes him more creative. He's always thinking, always writing down ideas or lyrics or sketching. Thoms not comfortable with being famous, he always ends up portrayed as this miserable complainer. He can be like that, but you should see him in the studio. See how optimistic and excited and child-like he can be. He's a very volatile person to be around. Sometimes I'm just practising guitar and he'll start feeding me all these incredible ideas. It's like being around Elvis Costello. It’s quite alarming, really.
At gigs, Thom turns into a comedian if he's having a good time. I don't envy what he does - singing about very personal things in the public eye. I can understand him being prickly. It's not as if he's singing rubbish like Oasis. He's revealing things about himself, often things that are nothing to be proud of. He confesses. He'd never admit that, though. It's just like Mark E. Smith pretending none of his songs are about him. Has he ever written anything I've hated? Yeah, but nothing that ever made it into a record. Thom digests music really quickly. He's into the Mo’ Wax compilation right now. He's just been through Lennon's entire solo back catalogue. He likes dEUS and Massive Attack too. I'm trying to convert him to jazz, but he reckons it all sounds like a car advert. I bought him a Miles Davis CD though, and he's actually started listening to it by himself.
Apart from the band, Thom's only obsession is clothes. If he has a day off he'll spend it shopping. He's wearing a lot of my tops these days. It's a big brother thing. Besides, they look better on him than me and it stops him wearing those exceedingly tight long sleeve women's shirts he used to be into.

Thom on Colin:
Colin likes hamming it up for people. He has lots of in-jokes that no one else understands. He's not like he pretends to be at all. He’s the one who always reads the literary reviews in the Guardian and lots of books I've never heard of.
The best thing about Colin is that he's very strong minded. He's been through a lot. He was determined not to let something destroy him and it didn't. I'm very proud of him for that. Not that that means anything, but I am. He's also very astute. He always makes these totally ridiculous suggestions musically and I think he's barking mad. Then, six months later, I realise he's totally right. It keeps happening. I'm getting wise to it now.
Colin's great about talking to people when no one else will. He's a secret weapon. We wheel him out and he just doesn't shut up for half an hour. I respect him for that. I can't even smile when all I wanna do is punch someone in the face. Colin could smile while sticking a knife in your stomach. That's a huge compliment, by the way. The others in the band are all really charming. They were brought up to be polite. I wasn't. I do have a sense of humour though, which most people think I don't have. My biggest battle at the moment is to persuade people that a lot of the lyrics I write are very funny, no one believes me. For years it was a big problem that Colin and I have never understood our moods. We never knew why we wigged out at each other, but when we did, it was like a bomb going off. We’re both very moody people. Now that we're aware of that, we're very careful. We know when to step aside. If we go to a party, Colin is always the last to leave - on principle. If he finds out later that he wasn't, he's upset for days. He also likes to think that he drinks more than anyone else.
Colin is a good dresser, I’d tell him straight away if I didn't like what he was wearing. If one of the band told me they hated what I had on, I'd get rid of a straightaway. Fuck, yeah. They don't though, that's the problem. I can't believe no one told me about my hair. Why didn't they? I've no idea. They were scared, probably. Colin’s worst fashion mistake was wearing this Jean-Paul Gaultier necklace that I got sent once. He was the only poor bastard that would wear it. It was this huge bulls face with a nose ring. It was absolutely disgusting. I gave it to him to see how far he would go. He only wore it because it was Gaultier.

Colin on Ed:
I have the pleasure of sharing a room with Ed when we're both on tour. We choose partners - it’s a personality thing. Ed and I are both quite easygoing, we're both smokers and we both have a soft spot for country soul music. You know. Dan Penn and Richard Buckner.
I like sharing with Ed because he can do wicked Sean Connery and Darth Vader impressions first thing in the morning. He's crap for borrowing clothes off though, because he's so tall. I’d look like the incredible shrinking man in one of his jackets.
The worst thing about Ed is his sleeptalking. Last night he dreamt he was doing a radio show on Live 105 in San Francisco. He was going, ‘straight up after the break, we've got another hot track from The Metres’. Even had a pause while he thought the record was playing, before introducing something else. He kept that up for a good hour. Once, when he was sharing a room with Jonny, he started shouting ‘Fuck off, fuck off, get out of my room’ in his sleep. It was five in the morning but Jonny actually apologised and left. Normally, Ed’s a very placid chap. Let's just call it hidden turbulence.
We have this arrangement that if one of us brings a girl to the room, the other one disappears. There's a classic REM photo with Buck and Mills, both in bed in the same room with their future wives. We wouldn't stand for that. I certainly couldn't pretend I was asleep and since Ed sounds like he's awake, even when he is asleep, quite frankly it would be appalling. Ed has a reputation as a steady member of the band because he's usually so mellow. Last year in LA though, I think he was close to breaking. We were sitting in this nightmare restaurant with lousy service and lots of mobile phones going off and he just stood up and overturned the entire table. He thought he was Jesus in the Temple of Moneylenders.
I like most of Ed’s clothes. He has a rather nutty pair of moleskin trousers. I don't like him in anything too tight or shiny. He's very slim, so he suits baggier stuff. Thank God he's gone off the flowing shirts, though. He still has this blue t-shirt that I hate. He knows how I feel about that, but he still insists on wearing it. I'm sure he does it just to wind me up.

Ed on Phil:
Phil’s the oldest in the band. He's also Mr. Smooth. He’s the one who least likes the idea of a band being a gang. I love that idea of the five of us against the world, but he's not competitive like that. He's very self-dependent. Trying to find out how he's feeling sometimes is impossible, he'll never impose his mood on you. Not like some members of the band. Who? I'm not saying. Phil's married to Kate [Cait]. She's as important to him as being in Radiohead. None of the rest of us have that. Thom and Phil are the two most sensitive members of the band. Thom perhaps less so now. He's come out of his shell a lot. He’s willing to laugh things off - sometimes.
Phil is incredibly dapper and mannered. He's built like an ox. He could do some serious damage if he wanted, but he's always very contained. He needs his space and privacy. If he had a day off, he’d definitely go off on his own and visit a museum or an art gallery. The only thing Phil ever wore that I hated was this fish pendant. It didn't really suit him. At photo shoots, I always had to tell him to lose the fish.

Phil on Jonny:
Jonny is Colin’s brother. The Greenwoods have a highly intellectual streak to them. Colin is the hard-bitten intellect, Jonny’s slightly more eccentric. Jonny is the one in the band who's always asked to do things like poetry readings on night-time radio. It’s because of his lovely soft spoken voice. He sounds like an authentic artist. I'm sure he feels very uncomfortable about doing that stuff because it's very egotistical.
The best thing about Jonny? Extremely funny. Naturally funny. His excellent entertainment value. He usually costs less than a video. The only problem is you can't take him back to the shop when you’re sick of him. The worst thing about him is that, especially in stressful situations, he's terribly impatient. He likes everything to be done quickly. When he's tired, he's also very grumpy.
In Israel a couple of years ago, it was a religious holiday and Jonny phoned round all our rooms, saying the Prime Minister had called and that his children were really into Radiohead. He said that we'd been asked to play a private gig for them. A few of us fell for it. Me? Possibly. Not that I still hold against him.
Clothes wise, Jonny does tend to colour clash. He’s completely click colorblind, so his coordination goes. He's particularly bad with purples and reds. Also cerise and orange. Apparently, when they were kids, Colin used to change the paints around in their paint boxes. Jonny would end up with all these really disturbing pictures. I think it was Colin’s attempt to pack him off to a child psychologist.