Colin Greenwood
Colin Greenwood, Bonnaroo, 17 June, 2006
Background information
Birth name	Colin Charles Greenwood
Born	June 26, 1969 (1969-06-26) (age 38)
Origin	Oxford, England
Genre(s)	Alternative rock Art rock Electronic music
Occupation(s)	Musician, Bassist
Instrument(s)	Bass Guitar, Keyboards
Years active	1988 - Present
Associated acts	Radiohead
Website	http://www.radiohead.com
Notable instrument(s)
Fender Precision Bass

Colin Greenwood (born Colin Charles Greenwood, 26 June 1969, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England), also known as Coz, is a member of English rock band Radiohead. He is best known as their bass player, although he does play other instruments (see below). He is the older brother of fellow band member, guitarist Jonny Greenwood.

In December 1998, Greenwood married Molly McGrann, an American literary critic and novelist. They have two sons, Jesse, born in December 2003 and Asa, born in December 2005. They live in a small village in Oxfordshire.

Contents 1 Early years 2 Radiohead 2.1 Band beginnings 2.2 Contribution to the band's sound 3 Gear 3.1 Electric Basses 3.2 Amps / combos used live and in the studio 3.3 Effects Pedals 3.4 Stage technical specs 4 Work outside of Radiohead 4.1 Music 4.2 Other projects 5 References 6 External links

Early years

Greenwood, whose father served in the Army, lived in Germany as a child for enough time to become fluent in the language. The family historically had ties to both the British Communist Party and the Fabian Society. His father passed away when Greenwood was seven years old. He has credited his older sister, Susan, with greatly influencing his taste in music as an adolescent. Said Greenwood, "She’s responsible for our precocious love of miserable music. The Fall, Magazine, Joy Division. We were ostracized at school because everyone else was into Iron Maiden.”

When Greenwood was 12 years old, he met future band mate Thom Yorke at the public Abingdon School for boys. Future band mates Ed O'Brien, who Greenwood met during a production of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Trial by Jury", and Phil Selway also attended the school. When Greenwood was 15 years old he bought his first guitar, studying classical guitar with influential teacher Terence Gilmore-James. It was Gilmore-James who introduced him and the other future members of Radiohead to jazz, film scores, post World War II era avant-garde music, and twentieth century classical music. Said Greenwood, "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, it was due to necessity that he first picked up a bass, teaching himself by playing along to New Order, Joy Division and Otis Redding. “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. I don’t think of myself as a bass player anyway. I’m just in a band with other people." Among his greatest musical influences are Booker T and the MGs. “I’m really more of a soulboy. Bill Withers and Curtis Mayfield, those are the people who informed me in playing the bass. That combination of rhythm and melody.”

Radiohead

Main article: Radiohead

Band beginnings

Greenwood first teamed up with classmate Thom Yorke in 1988 to start a band, then known as On A Friday; Ed O'Brien was then recruited, and finally, older student Phil Selway was approached to join the band. Later, Greenwood's younger brother Jonny, then 14 years old, also joined the band. Of being in a band with his brother, Greenwood has said, "...beyond the normal brotherly thing, I respect him as a person and a musician," and has quipped, “It’s wonderful, it’s good, it makes my promise to keep an eye on him for my mother a lot easier, having him right next to me all the time. But he’s very easy to look after anyway, cos he’s very well behaved.”

While an undergraduate studying English at Peterhouse, Cambridge between 1988 and 1991, Greenwood read modern American literature, including Raymond Carver, John Cheever and other writers “dealing with the tensions of post-war American society." At Peterhouse, Greenwood served as the college's entertainment officer, and helped arrange several gigs for On A Friday. Later, whilst working at the music chain store, Our Price, he had a hand in helping the band get off the ground. When Keith Wozencroft, as a sales rep for EMI, entered the store one day, Greenwood said, "You should sign my band," and handed him their demo tape. That got it all started for the band, with EMI. At this time the band renamed themselves Radiohead.

Contribution to the band's sound

Greenwood plays a number of instruments for Radiohead including electric and acoustic bass, double bass, keyboards, samplers, and synthesizers, and a variety of percussive instruments. He favors Fender basses. Said Greenwood, "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."

• Greenwood was instrumental in creating the song "Dollars and Cents", which arose when he played his bassline over an Alice Coltrane record he particularly liked; brother Jonny set about creating an original string arrangement with the same vibe. "'Dollars and Cents' is Curtis Mayfield. When I play fuzz bass on 'Packt Like Sardines' and 'Exit Music' on OK Computer it’s all, I think his name is Henry Thomson, something like that. Curtis’s bass player, yeah, who is God, fine man."
• The bass line in "The National Anthem", perhaps Radiohead's most recognizable, was actually played in the Kid A recording by Thom Yorke. However, Greenwood plays it live.
• Airbag is Greenwood's own favorite of his bass lines. He has said that he played the distinctive fragments heard in the song, and planned to come up with something to fill all the gaps, but never got around to it.

Gear

Electric Basses

• cream Fender Precision Bass [1], made in 1973

According to Radiohead's guitar tech, Peter "Plank" Clements, it is Greenwood's favorite. "...apart from vol (volume) pot) and jack, it's all original including the pickup(s), fitted with Stadium Elites 45,65,85,105 (strings) whilst touring, with other combinations used in the studio."

• Fender Jazz Bass [2] (shown here to the left of the above Precision Bass) with Seymour Duncan STR-J1 pickups in neck and bridge.
• tobacco sunburst Fender Coronado bass [3]
• black Fender Telecaster Bass [4], made in 1971
• cherry sunburst Guild Bass [5]
• La Bella Deep talkin' 760RL strings
• Stadium Elites 45,65,85,105 strings
• Tortex '88's guitar picks

Amps / combos used live and in the studio

• 240v Ampeg SVT-CLU classic head with standard valves into an Ampeg 8x10 cab
• some rehearsing and recording done with a blue diamond finish Ampeg B-15RW

Effects Pedals

• Lovetone Big Cheese effects pedal
• Shin Ei Companion Fuzz
• Boss DD5 Digital Delay
• Boss LS2 Line Selector
• Tech 21 SansAmp Bass Driver
• Akai Headrush E2, an E1 has also been used.

Stage technical specs

• Radiohead's stage set up for the 2006 Tour
• DI unit and Mics:

According to Graham Lees, Radiohead's touring audio engineer, "The Bass guitar is DI-ed and Mic-ed with a Sennheiser 609."

• Monitors:

Lees: "Colin uses Wedges alone, he has never tried in ears up to now, but has shown a lot of interest in trying them on the next tour. He also has a sub bass unit behind him to add extra weight on the low frequencies, mainly the kick drum and the drum machines. He has a full mix of everything on stage."

• Colin's gear at Bonnaroo, 17 June 2006.

Work outside of Radiohead

Music

In 2003, Greenwood was credited on Jonny Greenwood’s debut solo album Bodysong for playing bass on the track “24 Hour Charleston.”

Other projects

In 1997 Greenwood participated in a marketing campaign for alma mater Cambridge University, posing for a photo with then-current students from both state and private schools for a poster entitled “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 state school applicants.”

In 2003 Greenwood, an amateur photographer whose images are often posted on Radiohead's website, Dead Air Space, discussed his favorite images in the V&A’s photography gallery, a collection “ranging from early daguerreotype and calotype prints through to modern digital prints,” as part of their accompanying website’s Personal Tours. Greenwood chose images by Frederick Sommer and Harold Edgerton among several others.

In 2004 Greenwood served as a judge for the Next Generation Poets talent contest, sponsored by the Arts Council of England. The same year, he 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 "the views of an artist, someone without whom there would be no music to share in the first place," according to David Smith, at that time a professor at Radley.

References

External links

• Talk in Maths: A Not Even Remotely Official RADIOHEAD FAQ
• How to Be Like Colin Greenwood - In Ten Easy Steps

v • d • e Radiohead
Thom Yorke • Jonny Greenwood • Ed O'Brien • Colin Greenwood • Phil Selway
Discography
Albums: Pablo Honey • The Bends • OK Computer • Kid A • Amnesiac • Hail to the Thief • Radiohead's seventh studio album
EPs: Manic Hedgehog • Drill • Itch • My Iron Lung • No Surprises/Running from Demons • Airbag/How Am I Driving? • I Might Be Wrong • COM LAG (2plus2isfive)
Singles: "Creep" • "Anyone Can Play Guitar" • "Pop Is Dead" • "Stop Whispering" • "My Iron Lung" • "High and Dry" • "Planet Telex" • "Fake Plastic Trees" • "Just" • "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" • "Lucky" • "Paranoid Android" • "Karma Police" • "No Surprises" • "Pyramid Song" • "Knives Out" • "There There" • "Go to Sleep" • "2 + 2 = 5"
DVDs: Live at the Astoria • 7 Television Commercials • Meeting People Is Easy • The Most Gigantic Lying Mouth of All Time
Related articles
Covers of Radiohead songs • Dead Air Space • Stanley Donwood • Nigel Godrich • Rare songs
Other projects
Jonny Greenwood: Bodysong • Jonny Greenwood Is the Controller Thom Yorke: The Eraser • Spitting Feathers

Persondata
NAME	Greenwood, Colin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Bass player for rock band Radiohead
DATE OF BIRTH	June 24, 1969
PLACE OF BIRTH	Oxford, England
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH