Phil Selway says the In Rainbows download was decided a fortnight out

Radiohead decided to release In Rainbows as a download only a week and a half to two weeks before they announced it, Phil Selway has told Mike Diver of Drowned In Sound, and at that point they wondered whether anyone would be interested at all. The conversation took place during rehearsals for the In Rainbows tour.

Other acts are now said to be following the band's lead. I don't think we ever expected that. The release did seem to gather a head of steam that was in some ways way beyond the release itself.¹ Selway accepts it could have been taken for a gimmick, but the record took three years to make, and the band were as sure of it as anyone can be before a release. Having stepped outside the usual first-week push for a chart place, they were a little surprised when the CD went to number one.

The band started rehearsing with some 70 songs from across their records and have trimmed the list to 55, so the sets can change from night to night. Oh God, the thought of us on a greatest hits tour… I couldn't see that somehow.² Asked whether they would play “High & Dry”, he said no. It's not on the list I'm afraid! It's wearing jeans and can't get in I'm afraid.²

New ideas are coming through in rehearsal, and the band are looking for time in the studio with Nigel Godrich during the tour or just after it, though nothing is fixed. XL, their new label, has been fantastic, he says, and with families in the band the touring schedule is a civilised one.

Drowned In Sound's readers voted In Rainbows their album of 2007. Selway's answer was Aw, bless them.²