Nine B-sides, one unreleased live tune. Here comes the swansong from Radiohead’s EMI years, then. This special Japan-only package Com Lag: 2+2=5 was released to coincide with a recent sold-out tour there. Like most previous Radiohead Japanese tour collectibles (Itch, No Surprises/ Running from Demons, etc), best brace for a correspondingly hefty price to these shiny lil’ imports.

The good news is EMI Malaysia has cornered limited quantities of this import until stocks run out. That means you probably won’t need to pay an arm and a leg to own this Com Lag compilation if you get to local stores fast enough.

Hold the Internet orders! For 36 minutes worth of stray tracks, a brace of remixes, an enhanced CD section and particularly, a barnstorming unreleased live version of 2+2=5 (recorded at Earl’s Court, London last November), the faithful should be out the door and scrambling for these genre-blurring leftovers. If added up, this is far from vintage Radiohead. The ordinary rock masses might be puzzled over the fuss but for the Radiohead trainspotter, a full-length CD of collected rarities has never been so tempting.

Just like the rare American B-sides import Airbag: How Am I Driving EP in 1998, Com Lag is a one-stop for diehards that never had the opportunity to own Radiohead’s Brit/European singles lifted from Hail to the Thief. This import is nicely done, with a new jacket, lyric booklet, fresh artwork and B-sides tracks derived from the band’s three Thief-era singles (There, There, Go to Sleep, 2+2=5). The gaps are nicely plugged and as a marketable consumable, Com Lag is the buzz of Radiohead pages on E-bay.

In fact, pop culture aficionados can be just as snobbish as any classical music fan ever was. Consider the band Radiohead, whose angsty and ornate music is accompanied by a solemn pretentiousness far surpassing many a classical ensemble. Radiohead is one of the most revered bands of the very hip. So no, those in thrall to the Strokes or Interpol are not being kept away from orchestral concerts by elitism. It is only the content of the music -- the aesthetics -- that differ.

Which brings up an inflammatory and un-PC question: Is one genre of art superior to another? I have no grudge against contemporary popular music (with the possible exception of Radiohead). It's ephemerally and ironically fun at its best. But classical music at its best offers works that are dense with meaning, hard to immediately grasp and therefore more interesting for a longer time.

A lucky Oxford audience salivated over a topless Jude Law and bartered over Jonny Depp’s pants last Sunday to raise money for terminally ill children.

Childish Things, a ?50-a-head star-studded event celebrating the joys of childhood, was held at the Oxford Playhouse. Hugh Laurie, Steve Coogan and Radiohead were amongst the celebrity entertainers raising money for Helen House, a hospice for children with life-threatening illnesses, which costs ?1.5 million a year to run.

Over 600 attended the sell-out show, including celebrities such as broadcaster Jeremy Paxman. Offerings included readings by Hugh Laurie of childhood-related Dahl and Blake poems. Rory Bremner received one of the biggest applauses for his trademark political satire, particularly on the issue the Iraq war.

Jonny Depp’s pants and other auctioned film memorabilia alone raised around ?10,000, the original target. A delighted audience also goggled at heart throb Jude Law’s half-naked body, after he sold the undershirt worn in blockbuster Cold Mountain for ?2,500. For the grand finale, an unusual collaboration between Radiohead and Bill Nighy performed Love Is Around Us.

01. Oasis – Definitely Maybe
02. The Beatles – Revolver
03. Sex Pistols – Never Mind The Bollucks – Here’s the Sex Pistols
04. Radiohead – OK Computer
05. The Clash – London Calling
06. David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
07. The Rolling Stones – Beggars Banquet
08. The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead
09. Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin III
10. Massive Attack – Blue Lines
11. Van Morrison – Astral Weeks
12. Blur – Parklife
13. Primal Scream – Screamadelica
14. Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon
15. The Specials – The Specials
16. Queen – A Night At The Opera
17. The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses
18. The Who – My Generation
19. Coldplay – A Rush of Blood to the Head
20. The Jam – All Mod Cons

International Achievement? That's worryingly like one of those ‘you're on your way to retirement prizes'.

After two previous wins when they were unable to attend. Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood along with brother Colin and Phil Selway are at the Ivors. It's good that the Ivor's recognise writing adds Jonny. That's were it all starts, experimenting, making mistakes, breathing new life into what we do. Sorry, it's very dull interviewing us at the moment. We really have nothing new to say as we're on holiday.

Having picked up an International Achievement award, Phil Selway was asked about Radiohead's future: It's not very rock and roll, but we all have families, so we'll be with them until at least the end of summer. We need to press the reset button on everything before we work out what to do next. We've no new songs, not one.

There's been talk that Radiohead's next release would be a series of EP's rather than an album is that something that the dapper Phil can confirm?

Sorry he chuckles. Again, we simply don't know. We could do the EP's, we may do an album, it could be a regular release, it might be just via the web. After a year in tour, we need to not think about the band for a couple of months.

Ok. Any plan to run another Marathon? That I can say. NO!

Speaking from the Ivor Novello awards yesterday Radiohead told us they're taking their time before making any more music.

The band won the International Achievement award at the posh ceremony but Ed told us that the honour won't encourage them to get back into the studio just yet:

We just haven't made any firm plans about what we're going to do yet.

We just wanted to get this past year out of our systems then sit down and once we've had some time to think about it, then actually make some decisions about what comes next.

We're just recharging our batteries and we know that we want to come back and make some music together, hopefully in the not-too-distant future.

Best song Musically And Lyrically – Will Young, Leave Right Now
Best Contemporary Song – Amy Winehouse, Stronger Than Me
Ivors Dance Award – Goldfrapp, Strict Machine
PRS Most Performed Work – Jamelia, Superstar
International Hit Of The Year – Dido, White Flag
Best Selling UK Single – Gary Jules, Mad World
Outstanding Song Collection - Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley, Lol Creme, Graham Gouldman
International Achievement - Radiohead
Outstanding Contribution To British Music - Errol Brown
Songwriters Of The Year - Justin Hawkins, Dan Hawkins, Frankie Poullain, Ed Graham
The Special International Award - Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, Eddie Holland (Holland Dozier Holland)

This month the onedotzero festival returns in its eighth year to London's ICA, bringing together the best in creative filmmaking, innovative music video, motion graphics and live multimedia performance. Artists featured include the brains behind videos for Blur, Radiohead, Coldplay and the Ninja Tunes stable.

From May 28 to June 6 the onedotzero festival returns to the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts, London) to showcase feature-films and documentaries with the slant on twisted narratives and technological overtones.

Acclaimed for its reputation for presenting and producing innovative live club performances, onedotzero will be presenting five live events:

· Music Video Clash 3 With reigning champ Tim Hope (Coldplay, One Giant Leap, R.E.M), Imaginary Tennis Club (Dizzee Rasceal, Junior Senior), Stylewar (Moby, The Hives, Rolling Stones), and Ne-o (Futureshock, Black Strobe).
· onedotzero Ninja Tunes presents an AV assault with Juxta, DJ Food and the legendary AV pioneer Matt Black (Coldcut)
· Nordica! highlights Scandinavian short films, live acts and DJs featuring new electronica acoustic Husky Rescue, influenced by Johnny Cash, Erik Satie (Catskills)
· onedotzero Output Recordings presents acclaimed Output artists Colder, Mu and the pioneoring Trevor Jackson (Playgroup),
· onedotzero Blacktronica special ICA regular Charlie Dark's crew returns for a groundbreaking exploration of black music history and future black sounds with Infinite Lives live ( Big Dada)

Radiohead have completed two new songs despite the band not knowing about them.

A Fan, Pawel Osmolski, has recorded and released two 'OK Computer'- era tracks on the Internet, 'Big Ideas (Don't Get Any) and 'Follow Me Around', using Thom Yorke's vocals and guitar and simply adding the other instruments himself.

Speaking to NME, Osmolski said: I've always been a huge fan and I was always interested in their live concerts. So i got hold of some of their bootlegs and listened to the stuff they never really put out. I thought I'd do a little experiment and put all of the other instruments on them. I never intended to upload it all, but my mates told me I should see what people think and I've been really surprised from the feedback I've got - it's really cool.

The tracks are available to download through Radiohead fan site www.ateaseweb.com and Osmolski is currently working on a version of 'Big Boots'.

He said: What I'm doing is providing people with a slightly more enhanced bootleg, built around that live feel. Thom said once that he'd like to see 'Big Ideas' performed by someone else. I think Thom might be quite interested in what I've done.

There's no better band around that Radiohead. Everything they do is brilliant. They're like a modern day Pink Floyd. They've never failed for me - I've loved every record they've ever done.

01. Ash - Shining Light
02. Blur - Tender
03. British Sea Power - Remember Me
04. Catatonia - Bleed
05. Coldplay - In My Place
06. Cornershop - Brimful Of Asha
07. Doves - The Cedar Room
08. Echo And The Bunnymen - Nothing Lasts Forever
09. Elastica - Connection
10. Elbow - Fugitive Model
11. Embrace - All You Good Good People
12. Feeder - Just The Way I'm Feeling
13. Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out
14. Keane - This Is The Last Time
15. Manic Street Preachers - A Design For Life
16. Morrissey - Boy Racer
17. Oasis - I Am The Walrus
18. Paul Weller - Sunflower
19. Primal Scream - Movin' On Up
20. Pulp - Disco 2000
21. Radiohead - The Bends
22. Spiritualized - Come Together
23. Starsailor - Good Souls
24. Stereophonics - More Life In A Tramps Vest
25. Suede - So Young
26. Super Furry Animals - Something For The Weekend
27. Supergrass - Caught By The Fuzz
28. 22-20s - Devil In Me
29. The Beta Band - Human Being
30. The Charlatans - Just When You're Thinkin' Things Over
31. The Darkness - I Believe In A Thing Called Love
32. The Libertines - Up The Bracket
33. The Verve - The Drugs Don't Work
34. Travis - All I Wanna Do Is Rock

Members of Radiohead were joined by a star-studded cast at the Oxford Playhouse last night (May 23) as they covered Love Is All Around for charity.

As previously reported, drummer Phil Selway, bassist Colin Greenwood and guitarist Ed O' Brien were set to back actor Bill Nighy for the performance in their hometown.

The song was the finale to a night of the arts at the venue which has been organised by Gosford Park actor Tom Hollander in aid of Helen House, Britain’s first children’s hospice. The hospice was founded in the ‘80s and offers respite care, terminal care and bereavement support.

Fans at the performance have told NME that the performance was far more chaotic than anyone would have expected.

One revealed: It was fantastic! It was right at the end of the evening, and they said for our finale we have three members of Radiohead. They started performing the song with Nighy and then all the people who had appeared earlier in the evening came onto the stage!

EMI shares have fallen after the world's third-largest music company forecast zero growth in its troubled industry this year, even though the United States is on the upswing and losses to online piracy have slowed.

The company EMI, home to artists like Norah Jones and Radiohead, said on Monday it expected the global music market to be flat to down four percent by revenue in the current fiscal year.

Its pre-tax profit for the year to March 31, 2004, before exceptional items and goodwill amortisation, fell to 163.3 million pounds from 178.8 million pounds a year earlier. Among the items excluded were restructuring charges and a large one-off gain in the prior year.

Analysts expected profit of 160.1 million on average, with forecasts ranging from 135.4 million to 173.1 million pounds, according to Reuters Research. EMI shares were down 7.4 percent at 228-3/4 pence by 11:48 a.m.

The share price represents a bit of profit taking, said Investec analyst Kingsley Wilson. People have had a very good run with these shares. The stock is up more than 50 percent this year.

The company posted a net loss of 71.6 million pounds, swinging from a profit of 234.2 million pounds the year before due to restructuring charges of 154.8 million pounds and a large one-off gain in the prior year from the sale of retailer HMV.

In the United States, where the music industry has aggressively cracked down on illicit online file trading and more consumers use legal download services like Apple's iTunes Music Store, EMI posted higher sales thanks to albums like Norah Jones's second album Feels Like Home.

But continental Europe continued to struggle, with sales down 13 percent. Germany, France, Denmark, Sweden and Portugal were particularly hard-hit, EMI said, though there were signs of lessening declines.

I think we're through the worst in terms of where Europe is, said Investec's Wilson. If the (global) market could do flat and EMI could outperform the market to the extent they have this year, EMI would be up two or three percent.

I get scared when people say 'concept album' because they think it's really arrogant or pretentious, Skinner says. I mean, I wouldn't want to sound like Radiohead.

A fascinating feature present in Radiohead arrangements is a pronounced use of vibrato and continuous pitch changes to generate sensual backdrops. Prominent examples are the impressive orchestral string glissandi of How to Disappear Completely (Kid A), particularly the unsteady reeling from 5:04 to 5:24, and the gliding siege of Ondes Martenot underlying Where I End and You Begin (Hail To The Thief).

Mr.Greenwood scored the former, and the orchestral repertoire is one of his many enthusiasms:

We haven’t started manipulating sounds of orchestral instruments. I just feel that there are still so many sounds and textures to get out of orchestras that are unlike anything, and can be far more disturbing/magical than most digital manipulation. I think part of me disengages with a sound when I can hear it’s digital. Some people seem to think the orchestra, as a piece of technology, is somehow past it. But microtonal string music and choirs and suchlike are far more affecting to me, because it’s simultaneously natural and unnatural. As a band we listen to a lot of Penderecki.

Members of Radiohead are making a live appearance in Oxford this weekend in aid of charity.

Three members of the band will appear at the Oxford Playhouse this Sunday (May 23), where they will team up with actor Bill Nighy for a performance of Love Is All Around.

Drummer Phil Selway, bassist Colin Greenwood and guitarist Ed O' Brien will back Nighy on the song.

The performance will come as part of a night of the arts at the venue which has been organised by ’Gosford Park’ actor Tom Hollander in aid of Helen House, Britain’s first children’s hospice.

The hospice was founded in the ‘80s and offers respite care, terminal care and bereavement support.

Why be original, in other words?
There’s just as many talented people in this particular generation, but the compromises are too great. The constant message to kids—particularly kids who are starting new bands—is: this is really not that important. The way you look is more important than your song. Being an individual? That’s too much of a problem. Act like you’re an individual, but don’t sacrifice like an individual. Where’s everybody putting their fingers in their ears? When you water down the basic image of what it means to be a rock star into something that’s tattoo-ready and MTV-friendly, where’s the rebellion? There isn’t any. Rebellion is doing something where people like me have our fingers in our ears going, "This is s---." We’re so blind, we don’t even see the genius.

Is anyone on that trajectory?
No. Radiohead is constantly compared to Pink Floyd. I don’t think that’s a comparable comparison. If you’re Radiohead and you’re told now that you’re the Pink Floyd, what else do you have to shoot for? You sort of retreat into your own vision. When Pink Floyd had "Dark Side of the Moon," it told someone like me, "Wow, you can be yourself and you can have all the success in the world." Where is that earth-shattering moment where everything changes? The Beatles did it. Elvis did it. U2 did it. Nirvana did it. Is this generation any less talented? Are they more into their cars or something? No. There’s no reason to step into that light because there’s no reward there for anybody.

This sunday night, the audience at the Oxford Playhouse will witness a unique musical alliance as Radiohead team up with the actor Bill Nighy to perform the saccharine Love is All Around.

The tune will be a suitably quixotic finale to an extraordinary evening that had been one of the best-kept secrets in the arts. It is the brainchild of the actor Tom Hollander, star of Gosford Park, who has assembled talent from theatre, film, comedy and music for Childish Things, a comedy review.

It will feature readings from Francesca Annis, Griff Rhys Jones and Sue Perkins; anecdotes from John Mortimer; a comic speech by Sir Michael Gambon and a song from Hugh Laurie. The comedian Steve Coogan and will close the first half. The second half features Jerry Dammers of the Specials, Sinead Cusack reading Rosemary Norman's Lullaby, her husband, Jeremy Irons, reading The Lion and Albert, and a performance from Rory Bremner.

Proceeds from the show go to Helen House, Britain's first children's hospice. The Oxford institution, which celebrated its 21st birthday last year, is funded entirely by charitable donations and needs ?4,000 every day to run its eight beds. It cares for 150 families.

Radiohead's guitarist Jonny Greenwood has joined the BBC as its composer in residence, which will include writing new work for Radio 3.

The role - previously held by the Art of Noise's Anne Dudley - will allow him to use the BBC's musical resources, including the BBC Concert Orchestra.

Greenwood is expected to be in the role for the next three years. His manager Bryce Edge said the appointment would allow him to learn how an orchestra works.

He will have access to the resources, the archives, the scores, and most importantly the BBC Concert Orchestra, he told BBC News Online.

He will be able to workshop things he has written with the full orchestra. And it is an incredibly flexible arrangement, he said.

Mr Edge said Greenwood is committed to writing a single piece for the BBC, but there was no time limit for this. It could take him two years or six months, and it can be as short or as long as he wants, he said.

Greenwood would continue to be a member of Radiohead and his BBC work would be fitted around the band's recording and touring.

Mr Edge said Greenwood was very excited at his new role. He's going to learn orchestra skills that he would never, ever get, and access to a really amazing orchestra.

Roger Wright, the head of Radio 3, has a passion for new music, said Mr Edge, adding he believed Greenwood would write more pieces for the station.

Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood has been recruited by the BBC to produce a modern day classical pieces with an orchestra.

According to the Sunday Times, the BBC approached Greenwood in a strategy that is all about generating interest in youth and shedding their stuffy image.

If Greenwood takes the job, he will work for the BBC for three years. He would replace Anne Dudley, of Art of Noise fame, whose hits include 'Peter Gun Theme' and 'Kiss' (with Tom Jones).

Greenwood recently dabbled with soundtrack work, releasing the solo album 'Body Song' from music written for the movie of the same name.

The Ingredients: Video: The Terminator, 1984, Audio: Hail To The Thief
The Setup: Program the cd to play Tracks 1-10,13.
Start the album 1 minute 53seconds before Arnie drives the car into the police station (try 0:55:09 for the start time if you have a timer).
CHECKPOINT: if you have it right the guitars after the lyric 'because' (Track 1 at 1:53) should sync with the car crashing through the wall.
Ends at credits.

I play a bit of guitar. It's a great pastime. I write a lot of stuff with a friend. We have a band - guitar-based, punky stuff. I am a great fan of the Stone Roses. I love Radiohead. In the car, my five-year-old boy says: 'Put that mental one on'. He means Radiohead! In the early Eighties, I used to listen to bands like Dexy's Midnight Runners.

Next week, Reid will play a number of the new Masque songs and likely add a cover of Radiohead's The National Anthem from its Kid A album. I have an obsession with Radiohead, Reid says. What kind of musician says his obsessions run from Miles Davis to Radiohead? A unique one.

Radiohead. Little can be said about Thom Yorke and the boys that hasn't been said before. What made this appearance interesting - and more than a little relieving - was the doubt that it would happen at all.

Goldenvoice, Coachella's promoter, had, by all accounts, been trying to snag Radiohead since the festival's inception. This year, it happened - but not without some drama. The band canceled their final show in Australia on April 27 after Yorke was diagnosed with serious vocal chord problems.

Rumors swirled that Radiohead might back out of their long-confirmed Coachella appearance, but all appeared well when they took the stage late Saturday, May 1, and Yorke stayed strong through their 22-song set.

How irritating is it to tour with Radiohead?

I actually found it very easy to tour with Radiohead just because the whole setup between the band and the people that they work with is just easygoing; perhaps a lot more easygoing than smaller gigs or other support kind of situations we've been in, because I don't really think they've got anything to prove so there's no egos involved.

So there aren't legions of robotic fans screaming, Who is this band that is preventing us from seeing Radiohead?

(laughs) We kind of saw it as more of being the obvious underdogs, and [since> people were mainly going to watch Radiohead, we had nothing to lose. And I think the Radiohead audience -- as well as some people being kind of aware of what we'd done -- I think they're an intelligent audience, and they seemed pretty open to what we were doing, so it wasn't a case of being bustled offstage.

You've been called Radiohead's favorite band. Has this brought people out of the woodwork to kiss your asses?

Playing with Radiohead certainly, I think, made our name known, especially to people in America. As I say, with that type of audience, I think if they thought what we did was crap, then they'd soon pass on it, so I think that can get your initial foot in the door, but you have to prove yourself after that.

Do you think music reviewers draw from some sort of comparison database and basically write one review between them, or do you really think you sound like Can, Wire, Velvet Underground, Ennio Morricone, and Laurie Anderson?

(laughs) I think a lot of the time it can seem lazy, the reference points people have with something. And also even that mania to have references to other bands rather than just describe something for what it is in itself. For instance, with playing with Radiohead, I think that then made that an easy comparison for people to make, whereas I don't think that the bands sound alike, so for me, with a lot of journalists it's a case of trying to make their own lives easier.

After some good, old-fashioned hip-hop, I sauntered over to the grass to watch Radiohead from a distance. Rumors had been flying all day that Thom Yorke had lost his voice and Radiohead had pulled out unannounced.

The names I heard thrown around as replacements were mostly the Beastie Boys and David Bowie - neither was true. Yorke's voice was damaged but it didn't come through in the singing until the very end of the set. When speaking, he sounded croaky, keeping his voice below a whisper. It sounded like a good set. Despite expelling my weight in sweat, a great first day.

What does a rock band like Radiohead mean to the world?

The critically revered five-piece from Oxford, England - known for its intense accounts of dislocation and techno-alienation - sells CDs in respectable, though not earth-shattering, numbers. It generates higher-than-average traffic on Internet bulletin boards, with fans endlessly parsing lyrics for hidden meanings. And it does solid business when it performs live, selling its share of T-shirts.

Yet those marketplace indicators don't tell half the story.

For, while Radiohead is still too intense for modern-rock radio and too abstruse to enchant the masses, musicians working across far-flung genres are studying the band's every existential wail. They're taking apart the elaborate productions, examining the unusual chords and twisted-logic structures, excavating the ambient sizzle that surrounds vocalist Thom Yorke's tortured-heart melodies - and finding inspiration in music that might actually deserve to be called timeless.

This is some of the most challenging music being written anywhere, says Christopher O'Riley, the 48-year-old classical pianist who will perform a Radiohead program tomorrow night at the Kimmel Center.

Last year, O'Riley released an album of Radiohead songs, True Love Waits, that became a left-field hit. To prepare, he transcribed the originals note-for-note to assimilate facets of their architecture. Then, he says, he had to figure out how to replicate their orchestral layers and interconnected melodies alone at the piano.

After months of Radiohead immersion, he came away impressed.

What's going on in this music is more than the verse and the chorus, O'Riley said from his home in Los Angeles. Radiohead is thinking about form in ways that are similar to classical composers. Things don't always repeat the way you expect pop songs to repeat. They create this very specific Byzantine mosaic that is infinitely rich, all by itself, in the middle register of the music.

Rolling Stone: Coachella Comes Alive

Hollywood Reporter: Coachella festival

MTV: Cure, Pixies Hottest Things At Coachella (Aside From Weather)

Launch Yahoo: Radiohead, Pixies, Cure & Flaming Lips Rock Coachella Fest

NME: Coachella Festival ends on a high

Detroit Free Press: 50000 people show up for hot Calif. party

Reuters: Concert Review: Coachella Festival

MSNBC: Reunited Pixies live up to hype at Coachella

A record 50,000 fans turned out on Saturday and Sunday for the fifth Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., headlined on respective days by Radiohead and the Cure.

The event also featured the first festival appearance by the reunited Pixies and a sensational Saturday-closing set by pioneering German electronic/rock act Kraftwerk.

Despite a throat problem that forced frontman Thom Yorke and his Radiohead bandmates to cancel a show earlier in the week in Australia, the band was in fine form during its 20-song Saturday set. Six songs from its latest album, Hail To The Thief, were sandwiched in between such favorites as Creep, Paranoid Android, My Iron Lung and the rarity Planet Telex. Coachella is expected to be Radiohead's only North American gig of 2004.

01. There There
02. 2+2=5
03. Lucky
04. Myxomatosis
05. My Iron Lung
06. Exit Music (for a film)
07. The Gloaming
08. Karma Police
09. Sail to the Moon
10. I Might Be Wrong
11. Sit Down. Stand Up.
12. No Surprises
13. The National Anthem
14. Paranoid Android
15. Idioteque
16. Street Spirit (fade out)

Encore:
17. You and Whose Army?
18. Planet Telex
19. Creep
20. Everything in its Right Place