Bono takes Radiohead's side against U2's own manager

Bono has written to NME to defend Radiohead's pay-what-you-want release of In Rainbows, two weeks after U2's manager, Paul McGuinness, said it had backfired. The magazine prints the letter in full in tomorrow's issue.

He calls Radiohead courageous and imaginative in trying to figure out some new relationship with their audience¹, and says imagination and courage like that are scarce at the moment. The band are a sacred talent¹, he writes, and U2 feel blessed to be around at the same time.

McGuinness gave his verdict to BBC 6 Music earlier this month. We should all be aware that Radiohead's honesty box release of their album to some extent backfired⁴. He said U2 would not follow Radiohead's example, and Rolling Stone reports that their next album will not be released that way. His figure was that 60 to 70 per cent of the people who downloaded In Rainbows took it without paying, even though they could have paid nothing.