Biography

Thomas Edward Yorke (born 7 October, 1968 in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom) is best known as the lead singer of the British alternative rock band Radiohead. He has also recorded as a solo musician. His debut album, The Eraser, debuted July 10th 2006 in the UK and July 11th in the US. Two singles were released from the album, “Harrowdown Hill” and “Analyse”. The song “Black Swan” was used as the end theme to the 2006 film adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s novel A Scanner Darkly and was also a succesful hit on American alternative radio in the summer of 2006. “Analyse” was also used on the end credits of the film The Prestige. As well as the Eraser, Yorke has also released a solo EP entitled ‘Spitting Feathers’ including 5 previously unreleased B-sides.

A collection of remixes from The Eraser from such electronic luminaries as Burial, Four Tet, Modeselektor, Various Production and Surgeon were released as MP3 files initially in 2007, followed by a series of limited 12” in 2008.

He mainly plays electric guitar, acoustic guitar and piano, but has also played drums and bass guitar (notably during the Kid A and Amnesiac Radiohead sessions). He has one brother, Andy, of the band the unbelievable truth. Yorke currently lives in central Oxford with his partner, Rachel Owen, a printmaker who holds a doctorate in art history, and their two children, Noah, born in 2001 (to whom the Radiohead album Amnesiac was dedicated) and Agnes, born 2004 (to whom Yorke dedicated The Eraser).

Thom Yorke is also heavily involved with Friends of the Earth and helped launch their Big Ask campaign. He also played a Big Ask benefit gig at the Koko club in London, England.

As a child, Yorke underwent five surgical operations to correct a paralysed left eye he had had since birth. He has claimed that the last surgery was “botched,” giving him his characteristic drooping eyelid.