Colin Greenwood

English musicianTemplate:SHORTDESC:English musician

**Colin Charles Greenwood** (born 26 June 1969) is an English musician and the bassist for the alternative rock band Radiohead. Along with his younger brother, the Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, Greenwood attended Abingdon School in Abingdon, England, where he met the future band members. Radiohead have since achieved critical acclaim and have sold over 30 million albums. Along with bass guitar, Greenwood plays upright bass and electronic instruments.

## Early life

Colin Greenwood is the older brother of the Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood. Their father served in the British Army as a bomb disposal expert. The Greenwood family has historical ties to the British Communist Party and the socialist Fabian Society.

Greenwood lived in Germany as a child and became fluent in German. Greenwood credited his older sister, Susan, with influencing his and Jonny's taste in music as adolescents: "She's responsible for our precocious love of miserable music. The Fall, Magazine, Joy Division. We were ostracised at school because everyone else was into Iron Maiden."

When Greenwood was 12, he met the future Radiohead singer Thom Yorke at Abingdon School, an independent school for boys in Oxford. Their future bandmates Ed O'Brien, whom Greenwood met during a school production of the opera *Trial by Jury*, and Philip Selway also attended the school.

Greenwood bought his first guitar when he was 15. He studied classical guitar under the Abingdon music teacher Terence Gilmore-James, who introduced him and the other future members of Radiohead to jazz, film scores, postwar avant-garde music, and 20th-century classical music. Greenwood said: "When we started, it was very important that we got support from him, because we weren't getting any from the headmaster. You know, the man once sent us a bill, charging us for the use of school property, because we practiced in one of the music rooms on a Sunday."

According to Greenwood, he began playing bass out of necessity, teaching himself by playing along to New Order, Joy Division and Otis Redding. Among his musical influences are Booker T and the MGs, Bill Withers and Curtis Mayfield. He said: "We were people who picked up their respective instruments because we wanted to play music together, rather than just because we wanted to play that particular instrument. So it was more of a collective angle, and if you could contribute by having someone else play your instrument, then that was really cool."

Greenwood read English at Peterhouse, Cambridge, between 1987 and 1990, and read modern American literature including Raymond Carver, John Cheever and other postwar American writers. While at Peterhouse, he worked as an events and entertainments officer.

## Radiohead

 File:Colin Greenwood of Radiohead Bristow 2008 02.jpg
In late 1991, after a chance meeting between Colin Greenwood and the A&R representative Keith Wozencroft at Our Price, the record shop where Greenwood worked, On a Friday signed a six-album recording contract with EMI and changed their name to Radiohead. By 2011, Radiohead had sold more than 30 million albums worldwide. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2019.

Greenwood mostly plays fingerstyle, and described himself as "rubbish" with plectrums. He mainly uses Fender basses and Ampeg and Ashdown amplifiers. He also plays double bass and synthesisers. He said: "My involvement is to play bass guitar, but our ideas and suggestions in certain areas, as to where the music should go or develop, are listened to. We are very much a band." In another interview, he said he did not think of himself as a bass player and was "just in a band with other people". On being in a band with his younger brother Jonny, Colin said: "Beyond the normal brotherly thing, I respect him as a person and a musician."

## Other work

In 1997, Greenwood participated in a marketing campaign for his alma mater Cambridge University, posing for a photo with students from both state and private schools for a poster titled "Put Yourself in the Picture". The poster was "designed to break down some of the stereotypes that deter able students from applying to Cambridge" and encourage more applicants from state schools.

Greenwood contributed bass to Jonny Greenwood's debut solo work *Bodysong* (2003), the score for the 2008 film *Woodpecker.* He played bass on the 2018 album *Amir* by the Belgian-Egyptian singer Tamino, and on the album *World's Strongest Man* (2018) by Gaz Coombes. He also played bass on "Brasil" from *Earth* (2020), the debut solo album by his Radiohead bandmate Ed O'Brien. He contributed beat programming to Thom Yorke's song "Hearing Damage" from the soundtrack to *The Twilight Saga: New Moon*, and on a track from Yorke's album *Tomorrow's Modern Boxes* (2014).

In 2004, Greenwood participated on a panel in the annual sixth form conference run by Radley College in collaboration with School of St Helen and St Katharine, speaking on digital-rights management (DRM) from. In 2013, Greenwood soundtracked a Dries van Noten runway show, performing solo bass guitar. In 2018, he reviewed Michael Palin's book *Erebus: The Story of a Ship* for the *Spectator*.

## Personal life

Greenwood enjoys writers such as Thomas Pynchon, V.S. Naipaul and Delmore Schwartz. In December 1998, he married Molly McGrann, an American literary critic and novelist. They have three sons, Jesse, born in December 2003, Asa, born in December 2005, and Henry, born in December 2009. They live in Oxford.

Greenwood is an amateur photographer. In 2003, he discussed his favourite photographs in the Victoria and Albert Museum, choosing images by Frederick Sommer and Harold Edgerton among others.

## References

1. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Davis, Jason (1 February 1998). "Interview with Colin Greenwood". *Channel V, Australia*. Archived from the original on 15 January 2007. Retrieved 17 June 2007.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Ross, Alex (20 August 2001). "The Searchers: Radiohead's unquiet revolution". *The New Yorker*. Archived from the original on 14 February 2008. Retrieved 22 February 2012.
3. ↑ Buxton, Adam (2016). Ep. 22B – Jonny Greenwood (bonus Jonny bits).
4. ↑ Dalton, Stephen (2016-03-18). Radiohead: 'We were spitting and fighting and crying…' (en-GB).
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Eshun, Kodwo (21 June 2001). "The A-Z on Radiohead: An interview with Colin Greenwood". *Culture Lab UK*. Archived from the original on 7 February 2012. Retrieved 14 June 2007.
6. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Hendrickson, Matt (16 October 1997). "Dream Weavers". *Rolling Stone*. Archived from the original on 21 February 2012. Retrieved 17 June 2007.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Kelly, John (15 September 2001). "Taking Music To Strange Places". *The Irish Times*. Retrieved 16 June 2007.
8. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Myers, Caren (1 November 1993). "Dork Radio". *Details*. Archived from the original on 21 February 2012. Retrieved 16 June 2007.
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Clark, Stewart (12 July 1995). "Transistor Act". *Hot Press*. Retrieved 16 June 2007.
10. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Kent, Nick (1 June 2001). "Happy Now?". *MOJO*. Archived from the original on 6 February 2012. Retrieved 26 March 2007.
11. ↑ Template:Cite journal
12. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>"Radiohead, Foals and 25 years of discovering Oxford music - BBC News". *BBC News*. 13 March 2016. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
13. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Ross, Alex (21 August 2001). "The Searchers: Radiohead's unquiet revolution". *The New Yorker*. Archived from the original on 25 May 2007. Retrieved 14 June 2007.
14. ↑ Jonathan, Emma. "BBC Worldwide takes exclusive Radiohead performance to the world". BBC. 3 May 2011. Retrieved 15 June 2011.
15. ↑ Greene, Andy (2019-03-30). Radiohead, Stevie Nicks, The Cure, Janet Jackson Enter Rock Hall at Epic Ceremony (en-US).
16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 D'Auria, Jon. Colin Greenwood: How To Disappear Completely (en-us).
17. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>MacDonald, Patrick (4 February 1998). "Radio wave: Britain's band rides crest of superstardom with low-wattage egos". *The Seattle Times*. Archived from the original on 6 February 2012. Retrieved 17 June 2007.
18. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>"Annual Report: All Access". *University of Cambridge Annual Report*. 21 August 1997. Archived from the original on 17 March 2007. Retrieved 14 June 2007.
19. ↑ Solarski, Matthew (2008-08-05). Radiohead, Clap Your Hands guys team for soundtrack.
20. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>"Is Tamino the heir to Jeff Buckley?". *The Independent*. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
21. ↑ Cooking with Gaz: Gaz Coombes returns to Truck Festival with 'World's Strongest Man' (en) (19 July 2018).
22. ↑ Schatz, Lake (2019-12-02). Radiohead's Ed O'Brien to release debut solo album in 2020, new single "Brasil" coming this week (en-US).
23. ↑ *Tomorrow's Modern Boxes* vinyl packaging
24. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Smith, David (8 November 2006). "Today, Truth!". *Preoccupations*. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 16 June 2007.
25. ↑ Watch: Radiohead's Colin Greenwood Performs Solo at Dries van Noten Fashion Show (en).
26. ↑ Radiohead's Colin Greenwood Reviews New Michael Palin Book | Pitchfork (en).
27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Kim, Wook. "School of Rock: 10 Supersmart Musicians". *Time*. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
28. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>"Class Notes 2000". *Skidmore Scope Magazine*. 1 August 2000. Retrieved 16 June 2007.
29. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Klosterman, Chuck (1 June 2003). "Fitter Happier: Radiohead Return". *Spin*. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 17 June 2007.
30. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Greenwood, Colin (1 April 2005). "Operatic". *Thrasher Magazine*. Archived from the original on 12 October 2007. Retrieved 17 June 2007.
31. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>"Giving Back From The Bassline". *Mail & Guardian*. 1 February 2013. Retrieved 1 February 2013.
32. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>"Photography collection at the V&A redisplayed and online". *Cognitive Applications News*. 1 May 2003. Archived from the original on 6 July 2007. Retrieved 15 June 2007.

## External links

* Talk in Maths: Fansite
* How to Be Like Colin Greenwood – In Ten Easy Steps
* Colin Greenwood News

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