We sucked Satan's cock,“ Yorke spits, with typical scorn. “It took a year- and-a-half to get back to the people we were, to cope with it, emotionally." By then, says guitarist Jonny Greenwood, they were "operating in a kind of stasis. Thom was trying to shut off from everything. The rest of us just weren't communicating." Sick of touring, by the time they went into the studio, they had become phobic about recording anything. Their confidence was shot.

"We were playing like paranoid little mice in cages, “says Greenwood. "We were scared of our instruments, scared of every note not being right." Perhaps the secret of their success is that they learnt to turn their paranoia into a virtue. Contrary to popular wisdom, it's often a band's second album that proves to be their most natural and direct expression; where they shake off their influences (in Yorke's case, early Elvis Costello) and get the confidence to be themselves.

After resting up and scrapping their early demos ("Guns N' Roses pomp rock"), they returned to record The Bends in majestic form.