Month: January 2000

Categories
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)

Categories
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.

Categories
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.

Categories
OK Computer Pablo Honey Radiohead tour

News for January 11, 2000

The folks at Music Online have Radiohead’s official website listed as their “Band Site We Love to Hate” for 1999. Here is what was said:

“The official Radiohead website tops the list of sites that leave visitors beautifully confused and vexed. The site is cryptic and clever– and boy is it a bother to navigate. If you can make it inside, you’ll find hidden gems that really are worth the trouble to find. Warning: Be sure to engage brain before entering.”

In Israel, Radiohead scored again on the year-end polls. Israeli Galgaltz Radio and TV Channel 3 have Radiohead’s “Creep” at #3 and “Karma Police” at #98 in their “Top Songs of the Century” poll.

Over in Tel-Aviv, “Creep” made it to #9 in their radio poll. [thanks to Dan]

The French music magazine, Best, is reporting in their January issue that Radiohead has a planned concert date in the summer. They go on and say that there will be “an only date from Radiohead in a big French festival (Les Eurock»ennes?) this summer, before a tour scheduled for fall.”

They also say that the new album has a “release-date scheduled for May or June.”

Now of course, these are just rumors…[thanks to Xavier]

Stay tuned for more info as it becomes available.

While we’re talking about rumors…
Apparently there is a rumor circulating that RH will be touring Australia in July to support the new album. Don’t get excited yet. There will be tons of rumors just like it in the coming months. Just so you know…

Categories
Colin Greenwood OK Computer Pablo Honey Radiohead The Bends

News for January 6, 2000

And the polls go on and on…

The Music Factory, a popular music channel in Holland, has Radiohead listed in their Millennium Top 1000:

“Paranoid Android” (#851), “No Surprises” (#647), “Karma Police” (#188), “Street Spirit” (#121), and “Creep” (#85). [thanks to Jos]

Meanwhile, over in Germany…
The German music channel, Viva-zwei, had “Paranoid Android” listed at #7 in their “best rock songs of the last 2000 years.” [thanks to Kersten]

The official Radiohead website was updated again recently. Colin’s page was updated. Don’t really know what else was included in the update!

The band are still on their holiday break and will return to work on Monday.

Categories
OK Computer Radiohead The Bends

News for January 5, 2000

Well, a new year! Just think, I can now say that the new album will be released this year! OK, enough!

The Grammy nominees were announced yesterday and Radiohead has been nominated for their tour documentary, Meeting People is Easy. The film is nominated for the Best Long Form Music Video award. Other nominees include:

Don’t Stop (Gloria Estefan), The Making of “Ride With Bob” (Asleep at the Wheel), Band of Gypsys – Live at the Fillmore East (Jimi Hendrix), and Popmart – Live From Mexico City (U2).

You can catch the Grammy Awards this February 23, 2000. The complete list of nominees is listed here.

And now for the polls…
Amazon.com recently featured their “Best of the Millennium” poll and Radiohead’s OK Computer came in at #20.
French monthly mag Rock & Folk has their “Ideal Record Collection of the Century.” OK Computer, along with other released albums, were chosen for the best of 1997. [thanks Xavier]
Canada’s music channel, MuchMusic, has Radiohead’s “Just” #12 in their top 100 videos of the century. [thanks Michael]
MTV Asia has four Radiohead videos in their top 200 list: “Just” (#94), “Fake Plastic Trees” (#84), “Street Spirit” (#52), “Paranoid Android” (#40), “Karma Police” (#34), and “No Surprises” (#4). [thanks to Dave]

And finally, the Jubilee 2000 Coalition has recently put out the “People’s Millennium Write-down Book,” a book in which people can write down their feelings about debt in the third world. Thom, who supports Jubilee 2000, wrote this in the book:

ÏAAAAAAARGH Dinosaurs are roaming the earth. Stop them before they destroy us all !!!!! Please realise we the population of this planet are very concerned about the faceless unaccountable forces now ruling the planet like giant cranes roaming the earth kalasnikovs in hand killing indiscriminately. Please help us… thank you.”

You too can sign the book and show your support for this important organization. There are many locations throughout the UK in which you can sign it. Go here for the locations. You can also sign it online here.