OK Computer is finished, Radiohead tell their fan club

Colin Greenwood is writing for the thirteenth W.A.S.T.E. newsletter, the band's mail-order and fan club, three days after Radiohead finished the new record. It has taken almost a year, he says, with two American tours and a run of European festivals along the way. OK Computer is out on 16 June. “Paranoid Android” comes first, on 26 May, and gets its first play on Radio 1's Evening Session on 30 April.

With the album done and nothing yet happening, Jonny Greenwood is getting up early enough to hear the farming programmes, flying a kite when there is wind and picking through Messiaen, slowly, on the first piano he has ever hired. He can't wait for the first concert. Ed O'Brien, offered a quick, merely OK album or a better one that takes longer, would take the second every time.

Phil Selway traces the route. Recording began at Jane Seymour's secluded house outside Bath, a productive stay that felt by the end a little too much like The Shining, then moved to their manager's studio for a short time and on to two London studios, with six months of arguing over every note.

I think it's the most accurate representation of us to date, and I really hope that you enjoy it.

Phil Selway¹

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