Radiohaded album cover image taken in hospital basement

Radiohad Frontman Thom York and artist Stanley Donwood have revealed the front cover of their album, The Bends, which came after the pair entered the hospital basement.

York and Donwood told the story ahead in an interview A new exhibition of his work At the Ashmolion Museum in Oxford.

30 years after The Bends was released this year, and Donwood said the cover was going to be based on the title of the lead single of the album.

“It was a literal thing, because the song was called my iron lung, and I was so,” Let’s go and find a real iron lung and film it, “he said.

His victim took him to the basement of John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, where he found the dummy seen on the cover.

Talking to the exhibition curator, Leena Frites, York said it was “probably” Donwood’s fault, the way it happened.

York said: “We managed to join the basement of John Radcliffe Hospital … We should not have it.

“I don’t know how we came in. We were not there.”

Donwood said he moved into a “terrible storage area”, which was like “something from a low -budget horror film”. But, when they found iron lungs, they thought it is “very boring … just a metal box”.

But nearby they found that an effigy was used to train people to CPR and to train the defibrilator.

“There were some of them, in fact. The revival dummy was literally lying there,” York said.

The radiohad was formed in the mid -1980s at Abbingdon, Oxfordshire – which included Frontman Thom Yorke, Brothers Johnny and Colin Greenwood, Ed O’Brien and Philip Saleway.

York and Donwood became friends at the University, where they were both studying English literature and fine arts.

He first joined the Forces in 1994 to design the single, My Iron Lung and his second album, The Bends covers in 1994.

Donwood, whose real name is Dan Ricwood, has also worked for other music projects in Radioheads as well as other music projects in York.

Describing his artistic process during The Bends, Donwood said: “We had a video camera and filming materials, all kinds of things, it really doesn’t matter what it was. We played it back on Thom’s TV and photographed on TV screen with a film camera.

“At that time, all TV analogues were. So, when you got closer to them, their performance was really interesting, such as an east-pixel world.”

York said: “It will be pixellet by flying it. Then we extended the image, distorted it slightly to exaggerate the expression.”

“Not too much, however, because I think we had a time limit the next day … to the record company,” Donwood said.

The pair admitted that they only discovered how to use Photoshop and the color on the image went wrong.

“They all looked great on the screen, but when you print it on the real record, it was, ‘What is that sloppy mauve color?” ‘This is your blue.’

“So, good work is not too blue on the front cover,” Donwood said.

“Good job records were sold properly. It seemed that we mean,” York said laughing.

The exhibition you get is in the Ashmolion Museum in Oxford from 6 August to 11 January.