FIVE friends formed a band while at the elite Abingdon School before they knew how to play a guitar.

They were later discovered at a gig in their hometown of Oxford, and now have the world at their feet.

Radiohead are nominated for four Brit Awards tonight, after already winning enough awards and platinum discs to rival Oasis and The Spice Girls.

Singer Thom Yorke and the rest of the band, who all still live in Oxford, will not be at the Docklands Arena as they are touring in Japan.

1997 was their "big year" when Oxford's best-kept secret became fashionable - and very famous.

They have been described by critics as the best rock band in the world, and their latest album was voted the best rock record of all time. The Beatles came second.

Just a few years ago, the five musicians were just another bunch of school leavers eager for the big break.

While at Abingdon School, Thom Yorke, brothers Colin and Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, and Phil Selway formed a band - but did not know how to play the instruments. The school's director of music Michael Stinton taught Jonny Greenwood, now regarded as one of the world's finest rock guitarists.

Mr Stinton said: "I recall they did form a band without really knowing how to play at first.

"Jonathan was a classically trained musician, and played the viola. He played the guitar for fun initially. He was in the school's chamber orchestra. "They got into their own sort of music through the jazz that was played here. A lot of his guitar was self-taught.

"He was a strong musician and was always original in his ideas. I still have the tapes of his performances for his GCSE in 1988 where he played piano, viola and guitar. His own compositions were always very interesting. "My lasting memory of him as a pupil before he left in 1990 is of a polite, dignified and gentle person."

Thom did not enjoy his schooldays, and had his childhood made miserable with five operations on his left eye before he was six. He said his songs reflect some of the anger and fear he felt at the time.

But music was his great salvation. Endless hours of practising together forged their creative links, and the foundations had been laid.

They left school to go their separate ways and studied in colleges across the country. Thom went to Exeter University and bass player Colin Greenwood headed for Cambridge University.

They kept in touch and met in the summer holidays in Oxford. Tales of drunken mayhem are few. Drummer Phil Selway was once a counsellor for Oxford Samaritans based in Iffley Road, and Colin earned a crust behind the counter of Our Price records in the Westgate Centre.

When his college career was over in the summer of 1991, Thom was back playing music with Phil, Colin and guitarist Ed O'Brien.

Jonny, the youngest had only just begun a course at Oxford Brookes University. He had to leave college after just a month and took his text books on tour. They called the band On A Friday and soon won an army of fans who loved their unpredictable and frantic live shows.

Then they played the Jericho Tavern, in Walton Street, where they were spotted by recording scouts. Within three weeks, they were signed up by Parlophone. which remains their record company.

Fans from all over the world visit the pub, now called The Philanderer and Firkin, to see where Radiohead started out. The pub's assistant manager, Nancy Hutchison, said: "We had some Americans here the other day who took a day trip on their way to Europe just to see the pub where Radiohead used to play."

"They took photos of the stage and had a good look round." Radiohead recorded their first album Pablo Honey in 1992 at the renowned Chipping Norton Recording Studios, in New Street. They spent three weeks living at the studios, and Studio owner Richard Vernon got to know them very well. He said: "They were - and are - lovely people. They never have been pompous rockers like so many are these days.

"Few recording sessions stand out in the mind but theirs do because they had a great attitude right from the beginning. They knew exactly what they wanted to do and just got on with it.

"They are smarter than your average band and are great to get along with. "Even then, I would not have predicted they were going to be as successful as they have been - and I don't think they did." "They recorded some of OK Computer, and hadn't really changed a bit despite all the success. "They also visited me last year, and came round for tea and a slice of cake. That's a night out with Radiohead - they don't have wild, drunken binges."

The album was released in early 1993, went platinum in the UK and America and reached number 25 in the UK album charts.

Pablo Honey was famous for the track Creep, which was ignored by British radio stations but made them famous in America.

But success was assured with the release of their second album The Bends, with one track recorded at The Courtyard Studio at The Nursery, Sutton Courtenay.

The release of the OK Computer album last summer established Radiohead as one of the biggest bands in the world. Sell-out tours across the globe continue.

Thom Yorke says he has stayed in Oxford because of inertia and he did not want to move to London. He seems to have a love-hate relationship with the city. "Oxford's very polluted. It makes me unwell and it makes my girlfriend very unwell. I want to get somewhere else," he told Q Magazine.

He admitted the city was important to his song-writing, even though the city was a bit "weird". "I've always been able to walk round and round Oxford for days and watch people and be perfectly happy. I used to have favourite places to sit and watch. I still do."

He believes the city is too crowded and oppressive, because Oxford University owns so much land and the public does not have access to it.Oxford's famous architecture doesn't cheer him up either, "because most of those historic, beautiful buildings are surrounded by barbed wire and spiked walls".

The band are famous for being shy and running away from the media, and showbiz whenever they can. but they are often seen in Oxford and have helped good causes.

Colin and Ed pushed over a pile of pennies at a pub in Sutton Courtenay to be counted for an old folks' home in 1996, they led a campaign encouraging young people to vote at the last General Election and played a concert for the Oxford Mail's Rwanda appeal in 1994. by performing at a charity concert. in Abingdon,

Radiohead have said they will not release an album in 1998, but will concentrate on touring, writing - and resting.

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