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Music

11th Jun 2019

Radiohead release 18 hours of previously unheard music after extortion attempt

Carl Kinsella

Radiohead

Not 18 songs. 18 hours.

Jonny Greenwood, the lead guitarist of rock band Radiohead, has issued a statement following an extortion attempt that has been made against the band in the past week.

In a statement on Twitter, Greenwood wrote: “We got hacked last week – someone stole Thom’s minidisk archive from around the time of OK Computer, and reportedly demanded $150,000 on threat of releasing it.” The 1997 album is one of the band’s most iconic, and was nominated for the Best Album Grammy.

Greenwood goes on to say: “Instead of complaining – much – or ignoring it, we’re releasing all 18 hours on Bandcamp in aid of Extinction Rebellion. Just for the next 18 days. So for £18 you can find out if we should have paid that ransom.”

The statement also confirms that the band never had any plans for the public to hear the sessions, though some of the tracks were on the cassette re-release of OK Computer.

Greenwood describes the sessions as “only tangentially interesting, and very, very long. Not a phone download.”

Extinction Rebellion is a socio-political movement which uses nonviolent resistance to protest against climate breakdown, biodiversity loss, and the risk of human extinction and ecological collapse.

The music can be listened to here.

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