Demo Tracks By Your Favourite Band, On A Friday, Discovered After 25 Years

You might not have heard of a little-known band from the 80s called On A Friday, but you will have heard of their later incarnation after bassist Colin's brother joined the band. We already have a lot to thank Jonny Greenwood for (not least his most recent score for We Need To Talk About Kevin), but without him, Radiohead could have been a sax-heavy new romantic outfit.

Two tracks from a 1986 demo tape were rediscovered and uploaded onto YouTube in the past two weeks. The person who uploaded them said their husband used to know the band, and was given the demo when he was 17. They've been kept safe and sound all this time, now being released at a time when the band could quite simply not be any bigger or more influential.

The first of the demo songs, Girl (In The Purple Dress), is more accomplished of the tracks. Very few 17 year old bands around then or now could emulate quite the same quality from a very early attempt at songwriting. Everybody Knows is a little less fluid but still an enjoyable 80s ballad worthy of the time.  Yes they're a little rough around the edges and Thom's voice is still getting comfortable at being being the mic, but to criticise these tracks that were recorded 25 years ago by teenagers who presumably never thought hundreds of thousands of people would some day listen to them would be like a parent punishing their beloved child for not colouring in exactly within the black lines.

Perhaps the most surprising thing however is the blaring sax solos that barge their way into the middle of each song. With so many people being so intimately familiar with Radiohead's back catalogue, it seems altogether bizarre that the saxophone should play such a prominent part in these songs. Especially when you consider that their only use of it to date is the beautifully shambolic inclusion of a jazz band mash up on The National Anthem.  It is intriguing to wonder what happened to their friend and the culprit behind the saxophone Raz Peterson. 

What is not, perhaps, surprising is that these songs are actually good, and in the case of Girl (In The Purple Dress), really good. The beginnings of what would later become Radiohead are already there, impressive for being six years before their seminal debut single.