Author: Jonathan

Could Radiohead be headlining the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California this year? VirginMegaMagazine says that it is rumored that Radiohead has been negotiating with festival organizers:

Rumors are starting to fly around 2003’s Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, CA, the closest event America has to Europe’s ever-popular festival culture. The dates have not been made official but sources won’t confirm or deny that it’s the weekend of Apr 26. Hotel prices in the Indio-Palm Springs area, where the event takes place on polo fields deep in the palm tree shrouded desert, have already been hiked up for that weekend and places are filling up quickly. One rumor had it that Radiohead were in negotiation as a headliner, but people in their camp (who probably hadn’t been to the event to understand its full grandeur) were not in full support of the maneuver. The dance tent possibilities look fantastic with talk of Underworld, Deep Dish, Groove Armada and Timo Maas ? if they add Satoshi Tomiie, Danny Howells, John Cramer and Stephane K, it would be unflappable. Last year The Strokes, Foo Fighters, Oasis, Queens of the Stone Age, Bjork, John Digweed and Prodigy all rocked the two-day event, which was held in stunning weather and went off with few complications. This year will mark the fourth annual event. Stay tuned for breaking news as things unfolds.

(thanks to Dan)

Many thanks to Ali for the following info:

Colin was present at the launch of DBC Pierre’s excellent debut novel “Vernon God Little” on Tuesday 22nd January.
The book, published by Faber & Faber, is out this month and was the subject of a buzzing launch party held at the independent publishers head offices in centralLondon.
A mention of the legendary Oxford event in 2001, headlined and organised by Radiohead drew a humorously humble response from Colin “Oh, I’m sorry about the rain. And the queues!?”
By and large he looked keen to keep a low profile, a very fair reaction given the focus of the evening, DBC Pierre. And what a debut this author has delivered. Any fans of beautiful, razor sharp writing with an acidic deconstruction of US News Media should certainly have a read. The book also contains one of the finest evocations of angry, heartbroken youth committed to writing. An essential book.

Straight from Capitol Records:

The votes are in…Thom Yorke is one of MTV2’s Top 22 Voices!
MTV2 wants to film a few Thom Yorke fans telling them how his voice has shaped your life, influenced you or inspired you in any way. If your answers are strong, you will be representing the Thom Yorke fans on MTV2!
If you’re interested, please answer the questions below and submit your answers to mtv.production.casting@mtvstaff.com. Filming begins next week! 1/28-2/4
“Top 22 Voices” Questions
1. Who is your pick for greatest voice & why?
2. How has the artist personally touched/inspired/affected you?
3. What kind of memorabilia do you have of that artist (photo, autograph, e-mail, letters, tickets, room full of posters, CD/record collection, etc) visually showing that you are a huge fan? (your opinion carries weight)
4. How many times have you seen this artist live? What was the artist’s defining moment?
5. Include your name, phone #, address, pictures of memorabilia / souvenirs & of yourself.
http://capitolrecords.com/radiohead
http://www.radiohead.com

Apologies for the lack of news posts lately. We’ve been busy working on the new GP. What will be new with the new site? Well, it will still be same site… but with a new look. Also, some new sections will be added and old ones will finally be updated. Oh, lots and lots of ad banners too. Haha.. Just kidding.

So, here’s what’s been going on in Radiohead news:

– Stanley Donwood’s site has been updated so go check it out.
– The video for “Karma Police” came in at #54 in Slant Magazine’s 100 Greatest Music Videos special. Here’s what was said:

Before Jonathan Glazer made the successful transition from music videos to feature films, he was directing commericals for Levi’s, Volkswagen and Nike. The London native has also produced some of the more cinematic videos to hit the MTV airwaves. Though his clip for Jamiroquai’s “Virtual Insanity” won the 1997 Video Music Award for Video of the Year, it is his work for Radiohead and U.N.K.L.E. that remains his most daring. Glazer claims that his video for Radiohead’s “Karma Police” was inspired by a bad dream. In this creepy revenge clip, a car slowly follows a man running down a desolate road. When the man turns to face his potential killer, the car pulls back only to reveal a gas leakage in its wake. Glazer’s remarkable use of point-of-view implicates the spectator in the clip’s action but it’s the spooky way with which he fashions a M?bius strip from karmic irony that makes “Karma Police” one of the more memorable clips of the last few years.

– “Creep” came in at 99 in Q’s 100 Songs that Changed the World.
– Bjork recently commented on Thom Yorke and copycats her official message board at http://www.bjork.com:

“what really really hurts and i know i am speaking for a lot of people here , video directors , musicians , photographers and so on , is when a lifetime of work get?s copied in 5 minutes with absolutely no guilt . that expression : imitation is the sincerest form of flattery , it might be true but it is the kind of flattery that robs you . i spoke quite a lot about this with thom from the radiohead couple of years ago when every other singer on the radio was trying to be him and he said it really confused him , after hearing all that , next time he stood by the mike he didn?t know anymore what was him and what was all those copycats . it is one of the reasons kid a was so hard to make.”

– The January/February issue of Blender has named Thom in the 50 Top Rock Geniuses list. Thom came in at #44 and there is a full page picture of him. Bob Dylan came in at #1.
– Back to Stanley Donwood now. Stanley has designed the EP cover for singer/songwriter John Matthias. Here’s some info:

John Matthias made a welcome return to Lifelike in November with ‘The Insurance Man’, a 12″ on Lifelike featuring two new songs and a Herbert remix of the title track. John Matthias: “These new tracks were recorded earlier in the year at the studio in the basement of Island Records in London where Bob Marley’s ‘Exodus’ and The Smiths’ first album among others were recorded. ‘The Insurance Man’ was finished at Star Barton, an old country manor house in Devon where 3 herds of deer roamed freely around as the music was recorded. We recorded everything through the strings of the Grand piano which gives the drums and violin extra resonances because of the harmonies of the strings. The E.P. has a general theme of money-borrowing, spending and saving and the general murkiness which surrounds any transaction. My website http://www.smalltownshining.com is based around the idea of exchange – in this case, taking an amount of money (?100) and changing this into francs, then into marks then into deutschmarks etc. until all the money had vanished into commission and all I had were 15 transaction receipts. The website is a series of receipts linked together and hidden in them is also some information about me, my band and several well-known mathematical physicists. The cover for the EP was specially made by Stanley Donwood who won an American Grammy award in 2002.”

– Time for a break, and a chuckle. Read Random Perspective’s (fake) Radiohead album review.
– In the February issue of Esquire magazine, there is an article called “34 Reasons to be Optimistic in 2003” and #33 was “a new Radiohead record.”
– And finally, we’re pleased to report that Christopher O’Riley, the classical pianist who has been doing amazing Radiohead transcriptions, has signed a contract with Sony Classical to record an album of his transcriptions. He’ll record the Radiohead songs in NYC and we should expect a Spring release. We’ll keep you updated…
(thanks to everyone that sent us news!)

Here’s some information we’ve received about the movie Jonny has contributed music to:

BodySong . A Feature Film and Web Site http://www.bodysong.com Certifcate 18
The movie Bodysong, scored by Jonny Greenwood, has its world premiere in competition at the International Film Festival Rotterdam on January 27th 2003.
Bodysong is the epic story of love,sex, violence,death and dreams.
A movie that tells the story of an archetypal human life using images taken from All around the World and The Last 100 Years of Cinema.
Bodysong will be screened in Rotterdam on the following dates:
Monday 27th January 2003 10.15pm
Tuesday 28th January 2003 12.00 noon
Thursday 30th January 2003 5.00pm
Saturday 1st February 2004 2.45pm
For ticket info contact the International film festival Rotterdam after January 16th http://www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com or tel: 00 31 10 890 90 00
Written and Directed by Simon Pummell.
Music written and produced by Jonny Greenwood
Produced by Janine Marmot
A Film by Hot Property Films for FilmFour and The Film Council.