Drop the Debt!
Today millions of people around the world who support Jubilee 2000, including Thom Yorke, launched an email action against world leaders telling them to drop the debt owed by the world’s poorest countries.
For more information about this, and what you can do to help out, click here.
Thom Yorke’s remarks about G7 in NME
From NME.com:
RADIOHEAD’s THOM YORKE has deflected attention from the band’s unanimously well-received comeback tour by again embroiling himself in the campaign to end third world debt.
Yorke, a longtime and vocal supporter of the Jubilee 2000 movement, has posted a message on his page on Radiohead’s website www.radiohead.com/thom.html attacking the leaders of the world’s richest nations – the G7 – for not fulfilling promises made last year to cancel debts and crippling interest repayments owed by developing countries to the West.
He has also encouraged fans to send an email to Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President Bill Clinton urging them to act before this year’s G7 summit due to begin in Japan on July 21.
The Radiohead frontman wrote: “Dear whoever is reading this. Please do the following if you agree with Jubilee 2000. The G7 have snaked their way out of most of the promises they made last year and this is the best way to shit them up for this yearÌs summit. The G7 in its apathy and ineffectual gesturing is now responsible directly for the deaths of millions of people this year. Years of misguided economic policy and thinly-veiled imperialism must be changed.”
The attached message to be sent to the world leaders calls it an “outrage” that children die because “money that should go on clean water and medicines is STILL being used to pay off foreign debt to rich countries.” It claims that the action, if successful, can save the lives of more than 19,000 children a day.
Yorke signs off saying: “I suggest we stick this in the G7Îs pipe and make em smoke it, love Thom.”
Yorke is just one of a number of high-profile world names to become involved with Jubilee 2000. Led by U2’s Bono, the movement has seen R.E.M’s Michael Stipe, Muhammad Ali and even the Pope pledge support.
Meanwhile, the band have posted several photographs of themselves taken during time off from the opening nights of the tour on the website. They can be seen wandering in and around Milan and Barcelona.
Radiohead play their only UK show of the current leg of the tour next Saturday (July 1) at London’s Royal Festival Hall. The night, part of Scott Walker’s Meltdown Festival, has already sold out.
RADIOHEAD’s THOM YORKE sings a duet with POLLY HARVEY on her new album and provides backing vocals for two more tracks, nme.com can reveal.
Following speculation that the two had collaborated, Harvey rang nme.com to explain that she wrote the duet, called “This Mess We’re In”, specifically with Yorke in mind. She said of Yorke: “He just came over to the studio for a couple of days. He’s an extremely wonderful musician, he came up with some very unusual ideas for the songs. He’s
Yorke also sings on two more tracks, “Beautiful Feeling” and “One Line”. Other track titles include “Big Exit”, “Kamikaze” and “The Whores Hustle And The Hustlers Whore”.
Recent Radiohead Shows
Time for catch up here…
For the setlists and other info on recent shows in Frejus, France, and the two Milan shows, head on over to the brand spankin’ new 2000 Radiohead Tour Guide! Just click on the date of your choice.
If you were lucky enough to catch one of the recent shows, why don’t you spread the wealth the rest of the world! Please send us your concert reviews, setlists, photos, audio, or anything else deemed interesting and ‘head.
Speaking of the Frejus show, Sam over at okcomputer.ctw.cc has put up the mp3’s of that show!
Nigel speaks
The dynamic duo of Aurelien and Mona, maintainers of the French Radiohead fanclub ne pas a.v.a.l.e.r., recently talked to Nigel Godrich (Radiohead’s producer) at the Arles, France show last week. He said that the new album will be released at the beginning of October, but there is still no exact date set. He was really excited to see what the new songs will be like in front of an audience, and was seen dancing along with the concert in the sound booth. He couldn’t reveal the title of the album, but said it “will all make sense”.
[check out ne pas a.v.a.l.e.r.]
RealAudio of new songs
For those who can’t bother with the hassles of downloading the mp3’s recorded and encoded by Sam at okcomputer.ctw.cc, go to the Green Plastic Audio section for all the new songs in streaming realaudio, along with some of the Eureka Street soundtrack songs that Ed worked with, courtesy of James Ballardie.
Did you get yours?
Tickets for the Newport, London, Glasgow, and Cheshire Tent shows went on sale last Saturday and all three London dates sold out like hot cakes. Ticket still remain for the other three cities, so check out www.radiohead.com/03.html for info on purchasing tickets.
If you would like to purchase a package deal that includes hotel stay for one or more nights and a ticket to one or all of the September London shows, go to latestevents.com!
Bjork Slots Soundtrack Date, Chat
“Selmasongs,” Bjork’s soundtrack to “Dancer In The Dark,” the award-winning film in which she also stars, is now set for release on September 19.
Songs from the album will be culled entirely from music and dialogue in the film and, according to Bjork’s spokesperson at Elektra Records, “will be more like a Broadway cast recording than a soundtrack.”
“I’ve Scene It All,” a duet between Bjork and Radiohead singer Thom Yorke, also will be included on the soundtrack.
Last month, Bjork earned Best Actress honors at the Cannes Film Festival for her portrayal of “Selma,” a Czech immigrant living in the United States who has a hereditary disease which causes blindness. The musical, which was helmed by “Breaking The Waves” director Lars Von Trier, also won the festival’s Palme D’Or for best film.
“Dancer In The Dark” is scheduled to hit U.S. theaters in the fall.
Bjork will discuss the soundtrack and other topics during a live Web chat on the ARTISTdirect network (www.artistdirect.com) on Thursday at 4 p.m. (ET).
[from MTV]
The band played to a sold out audience last night in Barcelona. The setlist is quite similar to Tuesday night’s gig in Arles, France, with the exception of another new song, “Egyptian Song.” Due to some technical difficulties with Jonny’s keyboard, the band had to improvise on certain songs, including a beautiful version of “Exit Music (for a film” with Jonny on the Rhodes organ.
Last night’s setlist:
01. Talk Show Host
02. Bones
03. Optimistic
04. Karma Police
05. Morning Bell
06. Dollars and Cents
07. Street Spirit (fade out)
08. National Anthem
09. My Iron Lung
10. No Surprises
11. Climbing Up the Walls
12. Lucky
13. In Limbo
14. Exit Music (for a film)
15. Airbag
16. Everything In It’s Right Place
17. Just [encore]
18. Egyptian Song [encore]
19. Lurgee [encore]
20. Paranoid Android [encore]
Head on over to IndyRock for pictures and a review in Spanish. Also, No Data has a French version.
You can see more photos taken with Thom’s digital camera on Jonny’s page at www.radiohead.com.
Q Online had a poll about Radiohead’s attempt to tour in a tent this Fall:
Radiohead on tour in a bloody big tent. Good idea?
No : 27%
Yes : 73%
[thanks to Elizabeth]
Sam from okcomputer.ctw.cc has encoded the entire concert from Arles, France onto mp3 and has it up on his website. Go and get them!
Though it was nobody’s fault but Mother Nature’s, Thom Yorke appeared on the official Radiohead message board and apologized for last night’s cancellation. “that was hard work getting it together. we’ve had a shit day. can you pass on apologies to all who came a long way for today show. it was just too dangerous with the thundr and lightning very very frightning. im off to sleep goodnight.”
Ed also apologized in his diary, saying,”we had to cancel the vaison show…………so firstly apologies to everyone who had tickets and were looking forward to the gig……we’d even got the set list done with different new songs from last night and soundchecked them……….and what an amazing place…..a roman theatre like last night in arles. the freak rain was of course to blame…….the stage had a good three inches of the stuff from a twenty minute downpour and with another storm forecast for 9.30pm and alot of the equipment still damaged from last night’s storm in arles the decision was made to pull the show………somehow we got away with it last night but today just seemed as if it wasn’t meant to be…….sorry again to those in vaison …..”
Unfortunately, the show will not be rescheduled and fans who bought tickets will have to get their refunds from the point of sale. If you bought tickets through w.a.s.t.e., email them at stuff@waste.uk.com.
Tonight… Barcelona!
Even if torrential rains make it nasty in Barcelona tonight, fans don’t have to worry about any cancellations because Radiohead will be performing with a roof overhead. We will bring you news about this show later in the day.
Oh, pictures!
Head on over to www.radiohead.com/jonny.html to see pictures that Thom took of the crowd at their first show the other night in Arles, France.
[thanks to Benrio and Kim]
OK Computer was “Empire Strikes Back”
An interview that Jonny and Colin did with German Television Viva Zewi last week aired yesterday. In the interview, which is featured on the show Fast Forward, the brothers were asked how they would describe the new album and Jonny said that they always thought OK Computer was the “Empire Strikes Back” compared to The Bends, which was “Star Wars.” Then Jonny added, “But that would mean that the new album is the ‘Phantom Menace’, but that film was pants so we’ll have to think of another film…”
Colin mentioned that if you liked OK Computer, you will like the new album.
The interviewer then asked about the use of stings, in which Jonny replied that he had made a mess of things cause he could not make eye contact with the string players. Jonny worked on the strings for 3 months and even played the viola himself to see what it would sound like before he had others play it.
[thanks to radiohead@oceanfree.net]
Radiohead have been forced to scrap their gig tonight (June 14th) at the THEATRE ANTIQUE DE VAISON LA ROMANE in the South Of France after torrential rain made conditions impossible for them to play.
Yesterday’s gig, the band’s first of the Millennium, was played in the Theatre Antique D’Arles, a Roman amphitheater.
A spokesperson for the band told nme.com: “The whole site is now flooded and there’s lightning and everything. The band had to pull the whole thing for safety reasons. They’re trying to reschedule the date as we speak.”
As exclusively revealed by nme.com yesterday, the band debuted seven new songs at their show in Arles last night – though even then, there were worries that rain might stop play, though the weather turned clement just before the band took to the stage.
[from NME]
Here are some more quick notes about last night’s show in Arles, France:
Right before Radiohead came on stage, the rain was so heavy that the lights went out and the band played without lighting.
For the new song “In Limbo”, Ed plays keyboards.
“Everything In It’s Right Place”, another new song, had Jonny using a touch screen sampler.
We will bring you information as it comes in about tonight’s show in Vaison La Romaine, France, later today! Stay tuned!
In other news…
It is rumored that Radiohead maybe adding another tent date to their European tour this fall, this time at the Punchestown Racecourse in Dublin, Ireland, on October 7.
Nothing has been confirmed yet, so stay tuned!
Here’s an article from Rollingstone.com:
Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood has revealed to Belgium’s Humo and Holland’s Oor magazines that the band has recorded enough songs with producer Nigel Godrich to release two albums. The first, which will have about ten to eleven tracks, is expected to come out on schedule this fall, followed by a second a year later. Though Radiohead had about thirty songs in the can, they nixed the idea of a double album because “We want to avoid the classic rock & roll traps,” Greenwood told Humo. “Even the best double albums . . . would have been even better if half the songs had been deleted . . . If the White Album had been one single album, no one would dare say Sgt. Pepper’s is the best Beatles record.” As of yet, the upcoming fourth album remains untitled. Song titles include “How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found,” “Kid A,” “Everything in Its Right Place,” “Everyone (National Anthem),” “Motion Picture Soundtrack,” “Idioteque,” “Morning Bell” and “Nothing to Fear (Egyptian Song).” Two tracks feature an extensive string section, one track includes backing by a jazz band and another, with the aid of ProTools, has Thom Yorke singing backwards. Now all they have to do is figure out how to pull that last one off live . . .
[thanks to Ultragrrrl]