Ten tracks, out in the autumn, says Radiohead's manager

Radiohead's new album is finished. Brian Message, one of the band's managers, gave Melody Maker's Ian Watson the news over dinner in Barcelona, the day after the rained-off show at Vaison-la-Romaine. But it's all done. The record's cut, finished. Ten tracks. And it'll be out some time in the autumn.¹

Watson followed the first three dates of the summer, the band's first concerts since the Amnesty International show at Bercy in December 1998. Arles on 13 June drew about 2,500. A thunderstorm held the band back, and the lights failed during “Planet Telex”, the fifth song, so they played on in the dark into “Morning Bell”. At Vaison the next day it was sunny until the soundcheck, when Thom Yorke saw the first dark cloud from the stage. The downpour ran over the equipment, flooded the roads and cut the region's power until 7pm, and ten minutes later Message and his fellow manager Bryce Edge called the show off.

We've spent all day drying out the piano with a hairdryer because all the keys had stuck together.

Brian Message¹

In Barcelona Jonny Greenwood played that piano on “Karma Police”. Asked whether the tent tour in September could be rained off too, Message said only a hurricane could bring down a big closed circus tent with its poles sunk into the ground.

Message calls the record another step forward. To him it is not dark but more enlightening, with a pulse and some tender moments, and the band never wanted to make another OK Computer. This tour, he says, is different from the one in Meeting People Is Easy, which he calls a bit dark. Phil Selway, at the aftershow, said the new songs are more energetic than OK Computer, not darker, and that making the record had been hard but brought the band closer than ever. Melody Maker says the band have 26 new songs to try out on these dates. We're in a good position, in that nobody knows what they sound like. We could be playing any old pile of tripe!¹

The Barcelona show at the Teatre Tivoli on 15 June had no poster or press advert anywhere in the city, yet sold out in five hours, Juan Enrique of the Spanish webzine Indy Rock says. Outside, a fan called Marta gave Yorke a bottle of Cava, and he went from shy to delighted.

Inside, before “Knives Out”, Yorke told the crowd that Stockhausen had played the Tivoli the other night and asked Jonny to tell his Stockhausen joke. Jonny paused, said he didn't think it would be appropriate, and the theatre fell about. During “Everything in Its Right Place”, with Jonny sampling his voice from a remote-control box, Yorke leapt off the stage and ran up the centre aisle slapping hands. The last new song before “Paranoid Android” was the one Melody Maker calls “Egyptian Song”, with Colin Greenwood on double bass and Yorke hammering two piano chords. Steve Lamacq, in Barcelona on holiday, said afterwards he hadn't seen Radiohead enjoy themselves so much in a long time.