Archives for posts with tag: waste

radiohead2009

My whole day was taken up by one long, stupid runaround. So considering I kept hearing for the past few months that Radiohead was not going to make full albums anymore – this piece of news in my mailbox was the kind of it-ain’t-so-bad-salve I needed.

From w.a.s.t.e.

There’s been a lot of speculation on Radiohead’s next album. Would it ever be recorded? Or would be just get digital tracks, EP’s or whatever made the press. Ed O’Brien confirmed that a new Radiohead album (yes, album) is in the making.

It was the interview in The Believer that kick-started a lot of rumours on Radiohead’s future. Thom Yorke told the magazine: “None of us want to go into that creative hoo-ha of a long-play record again.(…) But we’ve all said that we can’t possibly dive into that again. It’ll kill us.” The news hit the press worldwide.

Radiohead have spent this Summer in the studio, releasing tracks online like ‘Harry Patch (In Memory Of)’ and ‘These Are My Twisted Words’. This sort of seemed like they were serious about not releasing albums in the future. But guitarist Ed O’Brien has confirmed that the band is in fact interested in recording more albums and the follow-up to ‘In Rainbows’ is actually in the making.

Ed O’Brien told NME that with sessions planned this winter the band would “definitely” be releasing a full album physically next year. “We were misquoted,” claimed O’Brien of Yorke’s comments, loudly adding, “WE WILL BE MAKING AN ALBUM!” Although he said the band hadn’t decided how it would be released, he said the album would come out on vinyl and CD whether it first arrived as a download or not.

“We love the artwork; that’s really important, the physicality,” he explanied. “And we all like vinyl. That’s not going to go away. I still like CDs as well. I got the Speech Debelle CD the other day – I nearly downloaded it from iTunes but I thought, ‘No. I want the physical thing.’”

O’Brien wouldn’t be drawn on specific tracks, but suggested that recent free download ‘There Are My Twisted Words’ was not a marker for the album.

On releasing ‘These Are My Twisted Words’ online he said: “It’s a kind of one-off. It could have been a darker side of ‘In Rainbows’ – it’s got that autumnal vibe, we’re leaving the summer and going into the darkness.”

He added that with Radiohead set to reconvene in their Oxfordshire studio this winter, the season might similarly affect the new songs. “Typical Radiohead,” he laughed. “We’re going into the studio in winter. It’s always miserable! Are we at the whim of the seasons? We are! When you’re in a studio in the countryside, the music you make is definitely affected by what season it is.”

Happy!

Last weekend the last surviving soldier of World War I, Harry Patch, died at the age of 111.

Today, Radiohead has released a new song on their website in his honor and as a tribute to the soldiers of a gritty, brutal war.  The song costs one British pound and all proceeds go to the Royal British Legion.

Taken from Radioheads website:

Harry Patch (In Memory Of)

“i am the only one that got through
the others died where ever they fell
it was an ambush
they came up from all sides
give your leaders each a gun and then let them fight it out themselves
i’ve seen devils coming up from the ground
i’ve seen hell upon this earth
the next will be chemical but they will never learn”

Recently the last remaining UK veteran of the 1st world war Harry Patch died at the age of 111.
I had heard a very emotional interview with him a few years ago on the Today program on Radio4.
The way he talked about war had a profound effect on me.
It became the inspiration for a song that we happened to record a few weeks before his death.
It was done live in an abbey. The strings were arranged by Jonny.
I very much hope the song does justice to his memory as the last survivor.

It would be very easy for our generation to forget the true horror of war, without the likes of Harry to remind us.
I hope we do not forget.

As Harry himself said
“Irrespective of the uniforms we wore, we were all victims”.