Radiohead: The Bends (Parlophone TPS7372)

THIS TIME last year, there was abject fear in the Radiohead camp. The band were in Micky Most's Rak studios in London, in the middle of a projected nine-week recording session. A European tour with James at the end of 1993 had more or less wound up the protracted touring in support of their debut album. Pablo Honey. May and June would see them sally forth one more time, in a final effort to wring some 'Creep'-led sales from the indie kids and post-modern rockers of the Far East, Australia and New Zealand. But sandwiched in the middle, they had to make the follow-up to the 1.1 million-selling, unexpected success of their debut. And Radiohead lost the plot.