Tag: Phil Selway

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Ed O'Brien Phil Selway

Review of 7 Worlds Collide: Phil Sings!

The New Zealand Herald has posted up a review of the first night of 7 World’s Collide, a series of live performances Neil Finn has put on for Oxfam. Radiohead’s Ed and Phil, who took part in Finn’s 2001 version of 7 Worlds Collide, came again to lend their support. Other artists there include Jeff Tweedy, KT Tunstall, Don McGlashan, Bic Runga, Liam Finn, among others.

The second half largely belonged to a combination of the Wilco and Radiohead songbook, a match seemingly made in rock-crit heaven.
It also provided the night’s biggest wobble. Finn snr wrestled manfully with the vocal to Radiohead’s Bodysnatchers, but couldn’t quite pin Thom Yorke’s original hyperventilations over its monster riff. Not one for the live concert DVD perhaps.

Radiohead’s drummer Phil Selway delivered one of the night’s nicest surprises in what was his live singing debut of a rather lovely self-penned song destined for the album.

Read the full review here.
(Thanks to Ollie)

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Ed O'Brien Phil Selway

Ed and Phil to perform with Neil Finn

Neil FinnOld news, we know:

GP reader Simeon sent us the following:

Amazing musicians coming together in 3 New Zealand concerts including Radiohead members (from www.oxfam.org.nz). Concerts are 5, 6 and 7 January at The Powerstation in Auckland. Post if your interested:

Neil Finn announces new Seven Worlds Collide project
Music icon and Crowded House frontman Neil Finn has today announced a follow up to the acclaimed Seven Worlds Collide project, and together with members of the original lineup and other artists, he will record an album of entirely new material in support of Oxfam.

“Seven years ago I invited a few friends and fellow musicians to do a special series of concerts in New Zealand under the banner Seven Worlds Collide. The concerts were an amazing experience for all of us and we are delighted to have found an opportunity to gather again, this time to expand the concept and the lineup too,” said Finn. “What will make these sessions particularly meaningful is that all the proceeds of this recording will go to support the continuing great work of Oxfam International.”

Taking part from the original Seven Worlds Collide lineup will be Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien and Phil Selway, guitar supremo Johnny Marr founder of The Smiths and current member of US alternative rock innovators Modest Mouse, Soul Coughing bassist Sebastian Steinberg, songwriter and violinist Lisa Germano, and Liam Finn. Other artists joining the project include Jeff Tweedy, John Stirrat, Glenn Kotche and Pat Sansone from Wilco, and New Zealand songwriters Bic Runga and Don McGlashan. Behind the mixing desk will be master recording engineer Jim Scott. More names will be added to the lineup in the coming weeks.

“We are honoured to be working with Neil and so many other talented and committed artists on this project, many of whom have supported Oxfam over a number of years,” said Oxfam New Zealand Executive Director Barry Coates. “At a time when the number of people living in extreme poverty is growing, funds generated from this project will be urgently directed to those in need, providing opportunities and hope for a better future.”

The album will be recorded over the next few months in Auckland’s Roundhead Studios and is due for release in 2009.

Like its predecessor, the project will also see a series of concerts featuring many of the artists included in the lineup. The shows will take place in Auckland early in the New Year. Details will be announced soon.

“Everyone is really excited about coming together again with a few new faces and extending the magic we created with Seven Worlds the first time round,” added Finn. “With such an amazing group of people, I’m excited about the music we’ll be making.”

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In Rainbows Jonny Greenwood Phil Selway Radiohead

Radiohead on CNN.com

There is a lengthy article/interview with the band on cnn.com for your reading pleasure.
Here’s a bit:

As unified as “In Rainbows” sounds, it took years to complete. The band began recording it with producer Mark Stent, the first time in years they didn’t work with Nigel Godrich.

The attempt was futile and Radiohead set out on tour to help bring the new songs into shape. When they returned to the studio, they went back to Godrich, considered the unofficial sixth member because of his importance in helping refine the group’s sound. (Colin calls his wealth of gear “like Aladdin’s cave.”)

“The key thing in actually propelling it forward was Nigel coming back into the process,” said Selway, 41. “The reality when we got in there was it still wasn’t good enough. We really had to raise our standards quite a lot.”

Typically, songs begin with Yorke writing something on piano or guitar with vocals and fleshing it out with the multi-instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood. Then the band works together to find the right arrangement, a process that can be tortuous. “Videotape” underwent, Yorke jokes, hundreds of versions before finding the right minimalist sound.

“We still sometimes get overawed by the songs,” said Greenwood. “We’ll get very attached to a song as an idea in its very basic form, but we also know we can’t really leave it like that. So that’s what we spend our time talking about and planning and thinking about. Thom will sit and play ‘Pyramid Song’ on piano, for example, and it’s obviously not finished. It needs a rhythm to propel it along. But what do you do with it and yet not mess it up? So that’s the sort of enjoyable pressure we like to be under.”

Though the method of release overshadowed the music of “In Rainbows” somewhat, it’s been almost universally hailed as a masterpiece. Yorke has been quoted as calling it “our classic album, our ‘Transformer,’ our ‘Revolver,’ our ‘Hunky Dory’ ” — a statement he said is a misquote: “I do talk some … but I didn’t say that.”

His point, he said, is that they strove to make a similarly concise work as those albums.

Read the rest….
(thanks to Alex)

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Colin Greenwood Ed O'Brien Jonny Greenwood Phil Selway Radiohead Thom Yorke

Excellent Radiohead Interview from Word Magazine

Word MagazineIf you get a chance, check out this great interview The Word did with the band. Here’s a snippet:

What do people most often get wrong about Radiohead?

Thom Yorke: We play up to the tortuous thing a bit too much. It’s not quite like that in the band. But also, this idea that there’s some sort of masterplan, that we’ve got some sort of clue what we’re doing… We haven’t.

Ed O’Brien: I used to think that maybe people didn’t know that there’s actually a great sense of humour in the band. But maybe the webcasts and a few of the things we did last year show that we’re not entirely super-serious all the time. You can’t do what we do without humour. It’s a lot easier to be melancholic in music. We struggle with songs of joy. That’s the tough part.

Phil Selway: People have got a pretty accurate take on us, I think. It can be uncomfortable because some of those takes are less than flattering, but they’re probably valid. You know, po-faced and over-serious… fair point, really. People are starting to pick up on the more playful side of Radiohead, which we hope has come to the fore in the past few years but, you know, no smoke without fire.

Jonny Greenwood: That we’re grumpy. People confuse the work with the people who make it. We’re not necessarily like our songs. Also I think they misunderstand Thom, and how really tiresomely energetic and enthusiastic he can be. Even when the rest of us are flagging, he’s the one with the energy and the excitement who’s saying, “Come on, this sounds amazing, what you’re doing is great.” That’s really good for us and I don’t think anyone knows it.
Read the rest…

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Jonny Greenwood Phil Selway

More on the Wyrd Sisters Lawsuit

We were able to get a statement from Kim Baryluk, one of the Wyrd Sisters, on her band’s lawsuit against Warner Bros. To catch up on what is going on, read our previous report.

Kim first wanted to say that they are not really wanting to go after Radiohead. “I believe that if they knew what Warner Bros was doing to a little band though, they would not want to be a part of it.”

Apparently she has been getting a lot of hate mail, and had this to say:

“I’m sorry you are so angry at us. I wish I could take the time to explain. The chart magazine did not fairly represent what happened. What happened is that the lawyers from Warner Bros called us in June and *threatened* us. They told us that if we didn’t sign some papers agreeing to co-exist with them then they’d ‘have their army of lawyers shut our little girl’s band down’.

In the real world, we have trademark rights to our name. Just the same way no one can go around calling themselves Warner Bros if they’re not Warner Bros. Yes, we know other wyrd sisters have popped up. They have not been musical bands, and no one has got the other wyrd sisters confused with us, so we have just let them slide by. Besides, no one has threatened us before, or told us that we should just give them what they want…our name… because they’ll hurt us if we don’t. That’s just not right.

Warner Bros did not do their homework. They have made huge publicity splashes about their wyrd sister band. If we go anywhere new now, people will show up expecting the boys from radiohead to be there. Their wyrd sisters will have global impact. We will be seen as the imposters. Can you imagine the abuse we’ll get then? This is not about greed, because we expect that the money will win as it always does and that is not us.

Warner is only now saying that they won’t use the name in the movie, since we’ve begun legal proceedings. It’s a little late for that. I certainly didn’t want a fight or this bad publicity, but my options are limited. Either way we lose. At least we’ll go down with a little dignity. I hope…”
Kim

(many thanks to Radiocoocoo)

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Phil Selway Radiohead

Phil on msg board

Phil made an appearance on the official Radiohead message board and was asked if the song “Reckoner” was dead, which he simply replied, “and buried RIP.” Then someone asked about “Nude (aka Big Ideas)” and he answered, “it’s just on a sabbatical.”

(thanks Scott)