Andy Yorke (born 10 January 1972) is an English musician and former lead singer and guitarist for the band

Unbelievable Truth Unbelievable Truth were a British rock band, led by Andy Yorke, with Nigel Powell, Jason Moulster, and Jim Crosskey. Their sound has been described as "slow, melancholy, country-tinged ballads, wrapped in a soft blanket of acoustic guitars an ...

. He is the younger brother of

Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...

frontman

Thom Yorke Thomas Edward Yorke (born 7 October 1968) is an English musician and the main vocalist and songwriter of the rock band Radiohead. A multi-instrumentalist, he mainly plays guitar and keyboards and is noted for his falsetto. He has been describe ...

Early life

Yorke began singing when he was ten. At the age of sixteen, Yorke met

Nigel Powell Nigel Powell (born 1 October 1971) is an English multi-instrumental musician from Abingdon. Powell was born in Bromley, London, and educated at Abingdon School. While at school he was in a band called Illiterate Hands, which also featured futu ...

Abingdon School Abingdon School is a day and boarding independent school for boys in Abingdon-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England. The twentieth oldest independent British school, it celebrated its 750th anniversary in 2006. The school was described as "highly ...

, with whom he would eventually form the band

. The name of the band was inspired by

Hal Hartley Hal Hartley (born November 3, 1959) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and composer who became a key figure in the American independent film movement of the 1980s and '90s. He is best known for his films '' The Unbelievable T ...

's 1989 movie of the same name. At this time, Yorke also began learning Russian. He traveled to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

in 1987, at the age of 15. Yorke studied Russian at university, and spent a year living in Moscow during 1992–1993. He returned to Moscow in 1996 to work as a translator for

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...

. He went back to university in 2000 to study Russian politics and business, and had been working in that field until returning to the recording studio to begin work on his debut solo album, ''

Simple Simple or SIMPLE may refer to: *Simplicity, the state or quality of being simple Arts and entertainment * ''Simple'' (album), by Andy Yorke, 2008, and its title track * "Simple" (Florida Georgia Line song), 2018 * "Simple", a song by Johnn ...

''. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Government at the London School of Economics.

Career

Unbelievable Truth (1993–2000)

were a three-piece band from

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, with Yorke on lead guitar and vocals. The band signed a record deal with

Virgin Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...

and released their debut album '' Almost Here'' in 1998. In 2000, they released their second album ''sorrythankyou'' on

Shifty Disco Shifty Disco was a British independent record label based in Oxford, England. The record label was started by local enthusiasts in January 1997 and their early releases were often featured by John Peel on his BBC Radio 1 show. Shifty Disco has r ...

, the same Oxford

independent label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...

that released their first single. This album received mixed reviews from critics and failed to make any commercial inroads. That same year, Yorke left the group to go back to work involving Russia. A posthumous double live and b-sides album, ''

Misc. Music ''Misc. Music'' is a compilation album by Unbelievable Truth, released on the Shifty Disco label in 2001. It consists of two CDs, the first containing unreleased tracks and B-sides from throughout their career, the second a recording of their ...

'', was subsequently released in 2001. On 19 February 2005, at

Zodiac The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north or south (as measured in celestial latitude) of the ecliptic, the Sun path, apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. ...

, Unbelievable Truth reunited for a single show where they played fifteen songs as a tribute to victims of the

Asian tsunami An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Suma ...

that had hit

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

in late 2004. They also reformed briefly to play the final night at the Zodiac in May 2007, before it closed down to be converted into a

Carling Academy Academy Music Group (AMG) is a leading owner-operator An owner-operator is a small business or microbusiness owner who also runs the day-to-day operations of the company. Owner-operators are found in many business models and franchising comp ...

venue.

Simple (2007–present)

Andy Yorke released a solo album called ''

'' on 14 July 2008. Live shows in support of his solo material have featured former Unbelievable Truth members as backing musicians.

Collaborations

In 2009, Andy recorded a cover of the

Miracle Legion Miracle Legion was an American college rock band formed in 1983 in New Haven, Connecticut. They earned modest renown, especially in their native New England region, but also in the UK, where they were feted by music media such as '' NME'' and ''Me ...

song "All for the Best" with his brother Thom for the compilation '' Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy''.

Discography

Albums

*''

'' (2008), Aktiv Records (UK), Chocolate Lab Records (US), Vinyl Junkie (JP)

Singles

*"Rise and Fall" (6 May 2007) # Rise and Fall (3.30) # Bring You Home (2.20) *"One in a Million" (13 October 2008) # One in a Million (4.15) # Roses (3.25) # Twist of the Knife (3.33)

References

External links

Andy Yorke's US LabelOfficial Unbelievable Truth Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yorke, Andy 1972 births 20th-century English singers 21st-century English singers English male singers Living people Music in Oxford People educated at Abingdon School 20th-century British male singers 21st-century British male singers English expatriates in Russia