Radiohead’s members first met at the boys-only public school Abingdon, Oxfordshire in the mid-1980s. Thom Yorke and Colin Greenwood were both in the same year, while Ed O'Brien and Phil Selway were one year older and Jonny Greenwood was two years below his brother.

The group was originally called On A Friday, but were advised to change their name to Radiohead after securing a deal with EMI. The name came from the title of a song on ‘True Stories’ by Talking Heads.

Radiohead’s debut 1992 single ‘Creep’ failed to find success.and was originally blacklisted by Radio 1 for being “too depressing”. It was only the release of the band’s debut album ‘Pablo Honey’ transformed it into a worldwide hit.

After their debut saw them labelled “Nirvana-lite”, Radiohead went more introspective with 1995’s ‘The Bends’, which earned them critical acclaim, and, according to Jonny Greenwood, made them feel like “we made the right choice about being in a band”.

In late 1995, Radiohead solidified their working relationship with the then up-and-coming producer Nigel Godrich. Together they recorded 1997’s ‘OK Computer’, which debuted at number one, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Before the release of 1997’s ‘OK Computer’, Radiohead road-tested songs from the album during a support tour with Alanis Morrisette.

Despite the worldwide success of ‘OK Computer’, Radiohead disappeared from the spotlight following the completion of touring the album in 1998. Thom Yorke, who was suffering from writer’s block, has since said that the band came close to splitting up.

Although Yorke in the predominant songwriter, all of Radiohead’s songs are credited to ‘Radiohead’ because the writing process becomes collaborative when the band are in the studio together.

The band eventually returned in 2000 with the spare, minimalistic ‘Kid A’. The album earned them a number one in America thanks largely to the interest generated by ‘OK Computer’ and its advance leak on the then popular illegal file-sharing website, Napster. Still, much to Yorke’s confusion at the time, critics were left divided the what they saw as the band being “intentionally difficult” with their music.

Radiohead’s commercial success continued quickly the following year with the release of ‘Amnesiac’. The album contains a number of songs left over from sessions for ‘Kid A’.

Radiohead’s influences have changed vastly depending on which album they have been recording. Early in the band’s career, they cited Queen and Elvis Costello as inspiration, but those changed radically as their music became more electronic. ‘Kid A’ and ‘Amnesiac’ were both heavily inspired by Yorke’s new-found interest in ambient techno, including the music of Aphex Twin.

Radiohead’s 2003 album ‘Hail To The Thief’ was their fifth straight release to be nominated for a Grammy for Best Alternative Album. It didn’t win, but Nigel Godrich and engineer Darrell Thorp did collect the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album.

In between his work with Radiohead, Jonny Greenwood has become an acclaimed film composer, and was behind the scores for the movies There Will Be Blood and Norwegian Wood. He is also a "composer-in-residence" for the BBC Concert Orchestra.

The Oxford five-piece shock the foundations of the music industry when they sold their 2007 album ‘In Rainbows’ via their website using an honesty box policy, meaning fans could pay what they wanted for the record. It worked, the album shifted 1.2million copies on its first day of release before being sold through traditional mediums.

Radiohead have always been supportive of charity. One of their most recent contributions was in aid of Harry Patch, the recently deceased last surviving British soldier to have fought in the First World War. The track ‘(In Memory Of) Harry Patch’ was sold online for £1.

As well as Godrich, Radiohead already have a close relationship with the graphic artist Stanley Donwood, who has produced all of Radiohead's album covers and visual artwork since 1994.

In February 2010, Yorke launched a new band Atoms For Peace, whose line-up includes Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers on bass, R.E.M. all-round session drummer Joey Waronker and Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich on keyboards and treatments.

Yorke is a spokesman for Friends of the Earth and has been vocal in their campaign to reduce carbon emissions, The Big Ask.

Ed O’Brien is one of the founding members of the Featured Artists’ Coalition (FAC), which aims to help established and up-and-coming musicians. He was influential in securing the On Air, On Sale initiative with Universial and Sony.

Radiohead will once again push boundaries with new album ‘The King Of Limbs’, which they have billed as the world’s first (possibly) newspaper album. The digital version was released in February 2011, while the newspaper is set to be delivered in May.

The album’s title is thought to refer to an oak tree in Wiltshire's Savernake Forest aged over 1000 years old.