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Kid A Radiohead Thom Yorke

News for February 8, 2000

It appears that three new Radiohead songs have been copyrighted and licensed by Warner/Chappell, one of the biggest music publishing companies in the world.

The songs are:
Follow Me Around
Big Ideas (Don’t Get Any)
Living in a Glass House

Hopefully this means that the above songs are finished. This, however, doesn’t necessarily mean that they will appear on the new album. It’s still early.
(thanks to GP special correspondent Xavier) 🙂

Speaking of the New Album…

Thom mentioned on the official message board the other day that they had just finished recording some strings in a church.

Your Humor For the Day

Is Thom Yorke really Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin?

Go here! Make sure to read the guestbook there too!

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Ed O'Brien Radiohead

News for February 4, 2000

Alan Greenspan: #1 Radiohead fan

Well, maybe not. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and Radiohead were mentioned in the same paragraph (who would have guessed!) in an article from smartmoney.com. Here’s an excerpt of this rather humorous bonding:

“OOH, THAT GREENSPAN is a trickster, isn’t he? In a move that shocked absolutely nobody, the Fed raised rates by a quarter-point and said in its policy statement that risks are weighted toward conditions that may generate heightened inflation pressures (translation: the dreaded old tightening bias). I never would have guessed it, but Greenspan must be a huge fan of the British rock band Radiohead. Their lyric, “No alarms and no surprises please,” could be Greenspan’s motto.”

Hee hee. If you care, you can read the rest of the article, even though Radiohead isn’t mentioned again, here.

Hey, what’s going on with the band? Relax guys. Ed’s diary has been updated and each one of band members has been sent to “time out”. 🙂

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Ed O'Brien Kid A Radiohead tour

News for February 2, 2000

Interview with Nigel Godrich

NigelRadiohead’s producer Nigel Godrich, who’s also produced albums for artists such as Beck, Pavement, and Natalie Imbruglia, is interviewed in this months Les Inrockuptibles, a French music magazine.

When asked about the upcoming Radiohead album, Nigel said,”We’re starting to have a better idea. We spent all 1999 looking for a direction, experimenting and, at the end of the year, we realized that finally had an great lead. I don’t know if we’ll get it to the end, but at least now we have a roadmap.”

He then went on to say,”During the recordings, we’ve been perturbed by external considerations. It’s been four years since we met together in the studio and, in this hostile environment, we felt uncomfortable and in danger. To relieve the stress at first, it was tempting to use the recipes we know work. Therefore, we had to unlearn and get out of the routine. The first step was to break the mould and find new working ways. Look at the Beatles: they reinvented themselves at each album – the only way to ensure longevity. An artist has the duty to always express new ideas, or else he stutters and drivels. Of course, sometimes, some explored ways were wrong. We once thought about not using any guitars on this album, but that’s was just a way to force ourselves out. Since they triumphed with a so-called complicated album as OK Computer they have an unbelievable freedom. They can try anything. But with so much room to maneuver has it’s bad side: we’ll have no excuses if we mess up. It’s frightening and fascinating at the same time. Our future is really in our hands, it’s our only responsibility.”

To read the full interview, click here.
(many thanks to Xavier)

Ed: “We are not playing this year.”
Ed stated in his latest diary entry that the band were not going to play at this year’s Glastonbury Festival. “There have been a few rumours flying around that we are, so we thought we’d better say something sooner rather than later. It would however be great to play it another year…”

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OK Computer Radiohead Thom Yorke tour

News for January 24, 2000

EMI and Warner to Merge.

Radiohead’s record label, EMI, and the Time Warner Group will announce today that they will merge their companies to form one of the world’s largest record labels in a deal worth about $20 billion. You may remember that it was only less than two weeks ago when AOL announced that it would buy Time Warner. The combined company will cut the number of major record companies to 4.

Thom commented on the merger while on the official message board: “That fucking sucks and i am deeply worried and angry and helpless. Bastards.”

At this time we do not know if the merger will affect Radiohead in anyway. Stay tuned to Green Plastic for the latest news.

You can read more about the merger at the following sites:
http://www.sonicnet.com/news/archive/story.jhtml?id=620652&pid=608471
http://www.canoe.ca/JamMusic/jan23_merger.html
http://biz.yahoo.com/apf/000123/warner_emi_1.html
http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/000122/dv.html
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000123/bs/emi_time_2.html
http://cnnfn.com/2000/01/23/deals/emi/
(thanks to Xavier)

Radiohead not to play Glastonbury
The official Glastonbury Festival website is reporting that Radiohead will not be performing at this year’s festival:
“Further information about that ongoing and ever growing Radiohead rumour….. record company insiders have let us know that, due to their album not being finished in time, Radiohead will not be performing this year.”

They go on to say that the information was not from official sources.
(thanks to Whitehead)

Dancing Up the Walls
You might have heard about Denise Clarke, the woman who has put on a “physical lecture” to Radiohead’s OK Computer. The woman is running a show in Calgary, Canada, called Radioheaded, in which she dances to the full album.

(thanks again to Xavier)

Radiohead in Newsweek
Radiohead is mentioned in an article about U2 singer Bono’s help with relieving third-world debt:
“Shriver’s brother-in-law Arnold Schwarzenegger made calls to key Republicans, including House Budget Committee chairman John Kasich. ‘John Kasich started raving about Radiohead,’ says Shriver with a laugh, referring to the British alternative-rock band. ‘I said, ‘Did Arnold put you up to this?’ Then I realized Arnold doesn’t know who the hell Radiohead is.”
(thanks to Eric)

More of those poll things…

The band were listed in the Atlanta entertainment paper, Insite. They were included in a list of 20 “talents we can’t wait to watch in the 21st century.” Here is the top 5:
1. Angelina Jolie (actress)
2. Sam Mendes (director, American Beauty)
3. Radiohead (band)
4. Beth Orton (singer)
5. Chuck Palahniuk (writer, Fight Club)
(thanks to Adam)

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Ed O'Brien Kid A OK Computer Radiohead tour

News for January 21, 2000

Ed’s diary has been updated again. The band are back in the studio but Nigel, their producer, has had them working strictly with electronic equipment.

Nigel, who has been spending some time on the official message board lately, had this to add: “The works going well. Everyone had a good 2k and we’ve done a week back at our studio. Experimental electronica week it’s been. V interesting.” He also said, “We’re working hard on our new jazz funck direction which is and isn’t bringing forth goodies. Much fun stuff in the bag though I must say.”

Ed mentioned that “True Love Waits” has been given a new life, which is good news.

Radiohead made #4 in alapage.com’s “100 Best Albums of the Century” with OK Computer.

Muse’s singer Matt, had this to say in the latest issue of Rock & Folk Magazine: “I also think that our second album will/should relieve us from comparisons with Radiohead which, I think, are mostly due the John Leckie’s producing.” [thanks to Xavier]

Tons of rumors floating around that Radiohead will be headlining this year’s Glastonbury Festival. In the recent issue of Melody Maker, event organizer Michael Evis said that he thinks that there is a very good chance that Radiohead will play Glasto. He also said the only thing that will stop the band from playing there is if they turn it down. [thanks to Matt]

For those in the United States and Canada who have been searching for the coveted 7 Television Commercials video, w.a.s.t.e. had some specially made for ya! Go there now and consume.

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Colin Greenwood Kid A OK Computer Pablo Honey Radiohead The Bends

News for January 12, 2000

Itching to see the “Pop is Dead” video? How about “Lucky”? Here’s some exciting news to those who haven’t seen all the Radiohead videos. If you have MTV’s sister channel, MTV2, you’ll be able to watch their tremendous effort to show each and every video in the MTV and MTV2 libraries. The special started on January 1, and they’re already at letter B. That means you’ve missed “Anyone Can Play Guitar.” Don’t know what MTV2 is or how to get it? Easy. It’s a 24 hour station that plays videos all the time. No Real World here. Only select cable companies in the US have it… you’re better off just buying a Direct TV satellite dish. For more info, go to MTV2’s website. [thanks to followmearound.com]

Rock & Folk, a French music magazine, has printed in their January issue that Radiohead are about to work with a symphonic orchestra and are pushing back the release of the new album to September 2000. [thanks to Julien]

Just to clarify something: No release date has been set for the new album. I repeat. No release date. The dates that these magazines are printing are purely speculation and have no significant evidence to back them.

Rock & Folk also had Radiohead listed in their “Best Bands of the Century” poll. Radiohead came in at #4, following The Beatles (#1), the Rolling Stones (#2), Led Zepplin (#3), and preceding Pink Floyd (#5), U2 (#6), and the Jimi Hendrix Experience (#7). [thanks to Xavier]

The internet has been flooded with a number of rumors that Radiohead will be having another webcast in the coming days. All this started when Colin posted in his webpage last week that he had purchased some albums in Philadelphia and was hoping “to be spinning some of my ‘ finds ‘ on the web-cast next fortnight…” Fortnight, which means “two weeks”, was taken by many as to mean that there would be a webcast in two weeks. Max K from the great Planet Telex cleared up some of this on the official message board yesterday:

“the ‘fortnight’ word on colin’s page was nothing to do with timing – it was to do with the fact that the webcast server they are using used to run on fortnightly slots – it doesn’t any more, but colin used the phrase, meaning ‘on our next slot on the webcast’. since they have free run of the server now – it could happen ANY TIME!”

Some of you have asked, “Why do they have to be bastards and not tell us when a webcast will occur?!” Radiohead will not schedule or notify a webcast date and time with their fans for many good reasons. One reason is that they feel if everyone knew ahead of time, the press would show up, along with tons of other people and would probably crash their server. My advice: check the official site often for a link to the webcast page.

Spin.com has an article about the possibility of another webcast here. [thanks to Sarah and Xavier]

Every year, listener’s of 2FM’s (Ireland’s national radio) David Fanning’s show vote on their favorite song’s of all time. Radiohead did well in the poll: “High and Dry” (#38), “Karma Police” (#29), “Street Spirit” (#10), “Fake Plastic Trees” (#9), “Paranoid Android” (#5), and “Creep” (#2). [thanks to Miriam]

Radiohead also did well in 2FM’s Millennium 500 poll: “Paranoid Android” came in at #266, while “Creep” at #10.