MESSIAEN Ascension (4th mvt); PART Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten; HERRMANN Psycho; GORECKI Harpsichord Concerto; JONNY GREENWOOD Superhet Popcorn Receiver (World Premiere); JOHN ADAMS Shaker Loops (excerpt); CARL RUGGLES Portals; LIGETI Continuum and Hungarian Rock; BARTOK Rumanian Dances;
Jane Chapman harpsichord
Pete Wyman sax
Robert Ziegler conductor

Is he conducting? "NOt conducting.. don't have the steeley glare. *frown* see ?"

How has band practice been? "v.v. good. we're all kind of *hungry* for new new new at the moment. Good songs.."

Annoyed by Radiohead fans attending Ether? "Not at all...why would we ? There'll be a couple of radiohead songs after all."

Still playing the ondes martenot? "I think I'm playing it at the concerts this weekend."

Details on the Messaien piece being performed this weekend: "All 6 ondes martenots on one stage - no sound on earth like it. They're only doing the part that went on to become the cello/piano section of quartet for the end of time - but that's fine. The rest of it is, supposedly, a little too long."

How he shakes hands: "We were once shown at school how to do it propperly...can you believe it ? I was 'too soft' and didn't use eye contact. Probably still am."

About Ether: "Well, the music for the weekend's all printed now...too late to change now....aaaagh!"

Where does he want to tour next? "I want to go back to hk (Hong Kong) very much. And we must go to s america, iceland, and e. europe too.."

Smaller venues? "a fanclub tour'd be a blast... I'd need to persuade everyone though."

Releasing anything soon? "Well, we'll have to do *something* with all the new songs.."

Following Thom Yorke’s cryptic message explaining that his band were back at work, comes an interview with Jonny Greenwood explaining that Radiohead are indeed rehearsing again.

Greenwood was interviewed by the Guardian about his involvement as curator of the upcoming Ether Festival at the Royal Festival Hall, where he will be performing his classical works ‘Smear’ and ‘Piano for Children’ with the London Sinfonietta. And it seems his love of classical composers has leaked into his work with Radiohead.

I get these enthusiasms which can drive the band crazy, he explained, but I just say: listen, French horns are amazing, we've got to find a way of using them. Or I'll say, it would be great if this song sounded like (Krzysztof) Penderecki (acclaimed Polish modern classical composer), or Alice Coltrane (famed jazz instrumentalist).

And it's childish because none of us can play jazz like Alice Coltrane, and none of us can write the kind of music that Penderecki does. We've only got guitars and a basic knowledge of music, but we reach for these things and miss. That's what's cool about it.

However, alongside his role at Ether and his new position as composer in residence with the BBC Concert Orchestra, Greenwood was clear to point out that Radiohead still remain his overriding passion.

Radiohead is always going to be the centre of what I do, he continued, Everything starts with songs, and with Thom, and with the excitement you can get in the band when you hear new music, and you know you've got the chance to watch it mutate and change.

There's nothing like that, nothing as exciting. We're rehearsing at the moment, and again it's fun. We all want to push forward, and when you have five people who are all like that, you couldn't ask for a better thing.

The London Sinfonietta & Jonny Greenwood plus special guests Thom Yorke, members of the Nazareth Orchestra & Lubna Salame plus Radiohead Television Sun 27 & Mon 28 March Royal Festival Hall 7.30pm

Following on from sold out concerts for the last two Ether Festivals, the London Sinfonietta returns for two evenings of cross-genre juxtaposition with contributions from Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke. Radiohead Television will also be screened throughout the night, featuring video, animations and music from the band's Hail To The Thief album as well as unreleased tracks. Plus live sonic generated visuals.

Tickets available from www.rfh.org.uk/ether Box Office : 08703 800 400

I wanted to put some of my favourite artists in to a more suitable arrangement for djs by preying upon the potentially break worthy aspects of their work. This is my first attempt and depending on the legal trouble it gets me in to I'd love to do more of these things. I can tell you that if all goes well Beck, Bjork, and RATM are on the horizon.

How big a Radiohead fan are you? Did you ever feel nervous or daunted by the task of recreating something by a band which has such a hardcore fanbase?

I have to admit I'm not a hardcore fan. Hardcore Bjork fan, YES, but I am still a Radiohead fan. I owe it to my buddy White Lotus for getting me in to them. Growing up I never could figure out why people were so crazy about them, but finally with "Hail to the Thief" I came around. I was worried about people's perceptions of this record, thinking that it was more of an "original production" then anything else. It's not. But for those same people I was unsure about I decided to create a mix cd that features myself reconstructing their work with the 12" and some remixes that didn't make the record. That will be out a little later this year.

What era of the bands discography does the 12" borrow from the most, or have you taken stuff from all over their work?

I'm definitely all over the place with the source material. There is a lot from OK Computer on there. A little from Hail to the Thief. There was a lot of stuff that I deemed too obvious or too complete to put on the 12". I figured that tracks like "National Anthem" and "Idioteque" can stand on there own if you just rock doubles of the originals.

What kind of use do you think those that purchase it will get from it? Simply something to listen to, to DJ with, to rhyme over?

I am hoping that people will get creative with it. It's a versatile record with a lot of artistic potential. It works well for the tablists looking for something different to skratch & drum. It works well for dj's backing up emcees at shows. And there are a few segments that I guess could stand on their own as listening experiences, but the mix cd I'm dropping should fill in that gap.

Fans of Radiohead take their love of the band very seriously. Classical pianist Christopher O'Riley, however, has taken his admiration further.

O'Riley has recorded two full albums of Radiohead transcriptions for solo piano. His latest CD, Hold Me to This, will be released by Harmonia Mundi's World Village imprint April 12. The new album, which follows 2003's "True Love Waits" (released on Sony Classical Odyssey), features many of the band's B-sides and rarities.

I'm not arranging these songs just to have arranged them, says O'Riley, who also hosts the Public Radio International syndicated show "From the Top," which showcases young classical musicians from across the United States. I'm doing the best I can to approximate the energy of a full rock band. And that's really always been part of the conceit and the seduction of piano reductions or arrangements of any kind of music. That possible range of color, and vitality, is the same thing that drives, say, Liszt's transcriptions of the Beethoven symphonies.

Hold Me to This isn't O'Riley's only new Radiohead project; the pianist is also publishing all the arrangements he has recorded on both of his transcription albums in a striking LP-size book (available through his Web site, christopheroriley.com).

It's an incredibly beautiful book, O'Riley raves. It's really a collaboration with Steve Byram, who designed the package for both of my Radiohead discs; for this book, he created incredible art for every page. I think it will be attractive as a work of art on its own.

O'Riley's tastes are famously diverse, and his repertoire ranges from Beethoven to new music by Aaron Jay Kernis to collaborations with tango pianist Pablo Ziegler. I've continually been writing arrangements, O'Riley says. I'm not just doing Radiohead, but also other artists. Right now, I'm hard at work at a lot of Elliott Smith's songs. The common thread is what sends chills down my spine.

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke will be joining various stars from stage and screen, and thousands of protesters on an overnight carnival of music, art and protest for Trade Justice next month.

The all-night event takes place on April 15 and forms part of a week of global action for Trade Justice. In London the day will include a gig at the Marquee Club in Leicester Square featuring Nitin Sawhney, DJ Bobby Friction and other as-yet-confirmed artists.

Yorke will be joining Vanessa Redgrave and Pete Postlethwaite for the nighttime protest march itself which will include a protest outside Downing Street.

It's an overnight 'happening' Yorke explained in a statement, And it’s happening at the same time as many events all around the world. I'm going with a sleeping bag and a paint brush and maybe even a guitar if I can get it in the suitcase.

The protest has been staged to call on the UK Government to stop pushing poor countries to open up their economies and respect their right to decide on trade policies that will help them end poverty and protect their environment. The vigil will continue all night, culminating in a dawn procession and delegations meeting representatives from the main political parties.

For more information check out www.tjm.org.uk.

Hold Me To This is classical crossover pianist Christopher O'Riley's second album of transcriptions of alt-rockers Radiohead's music -- and it is another humdinger.

Here we have a tumultuous collection of music of astounding density and inventiveness, by turns lyrical and numbing, of simple and of humongous complexity, soothing and irritating.

Just what the Radiohead folks have in mind, I should think.

O'Riley has taken it upon himself to create transcriptions of music for which no written scores exist. In his first Radiohead CD, "True Love Waits," he performed favorites from the band's repertoire, and in doing so made some of the murkiest of their original tracks into crystalline miniatures, practically Chopin.

This new collection, billed as Radiohead "rarities," is rare, indeed.

On Hold Me To This, O'Riley has tackled the almost-impossible task of analyzing a torrent of overlaid notes, ambient sounds, dissonant vocals and rhythmic frenzy, then organizing these in such a way that they can be expressed in piano tone, something he calls "covetous re-imagining" of the music.

: Have a cookie.
THAT

would be a bad idea

hey weve started work.(speaking of cookies)

no really.

vee shall make zem PAY for zer mistake. ha ha ha. they vill never get avay viz ziss. vee are verrry verrry precious about are little KID A yu know and also zee others and you mr job jobs are no exception ya?
unbundle zis KID A record anda vee vill unbundle yor face.

H HA HA ha HA ha HA ha ha

(cough)

A band that left behind their roots and squeaked their way to newer pastures. A band that took their biggest selling single and refused to play it at gigs. A band that freely cursed about the queen mother on live Radio. And a band that still manages to pull in the fans. Coldnews opens the can of worms that is Thom Yorke's solo album.

Thom sits himself in the corner of a local Oxford watering hole. The other punters wail away on their mobile phones, play giant Jenga and sneer like panthers at the local pig wrestling that is happening in the corner. Thom doesn't bat an eyelid, his eyes have seen stranger things. Bjork, for example. And Michael Stipes bedroom, its enough to leave a man peculiar. I switch the tape on "Ed made me do it" he blurts.

After several years of breaking boundaries, the recent release of Radiohead.tv on DVD and the whole Chieftan Mews shebangle, Radiohead have got a lot to answer for. "The Radiohead.tv DVD was a bit of a joke that went too far" he states "I swear, its the last time we mix mushies and coke.". He continues to explain about how Ed wrote down the ideas for Radiohead.tv on the back of a Marlboro lights packet and continued to pull it out when Radiohead were monged on fizzy crack and pesto milkshakes. "After Radiohead.tv came out, we all went back into the studio. I sellotaped myself into a room and smoked myself sick" "Nigel [Godrich, the bands producer>, listened as I spaced out and ripped apart a brand new piano, while Protools recorded all the chaos". Needless to say, Thom's new album sounds promising. "I wrote a 5 minute track using bicycle wheels and a prosthetic arm. But people don't take this stuff seriously anymore. We continually called weird when walking down the street.". Thoms eye starts to wander and stops upon the view of a 20 something young Oxford student "People just have to realise we aren't young anymore, we have to move onto greener pastures.". He wipes a solitary tear from his eye.

Jonny and Ed waltz into the pub, fitting into the student crowd well with their hemp pants, first edition Dante novels and "save the whales" t-shirts. Ed sits down and lights up one of the 40 cigarettes he is to smoke in the next 30minutes. "All of us have been recording our own stuff in one way or another, its just that Thom decided to release his first" Jonny coos. I ask what it sounds like in relation to the other Radiohead music. "Its typical Thom" Ed states, "The studio's full of odd bits and bobs, like his Pikatchu doll that's running through a guitar amp, or the pair of badgers that he pokes on the solo for 'Well Wish the Wish Man Must'". Thom cringes, "its not the process, its the end result". "Johnny does a trombone part in one, its really great. But, being Johnny, he manages to control it from his computer, which makes it a little more interesting" He steps up to order himself another Flaming Sambuca, paying the barwench in used copies of OKComputer. When he sits back down I fire more questions at them but they seem unresponsive. "I cant tell you what its called because it'll be all over the NME tomorrow. And they can fuck off an' all." Thom spouts, "They'll be the last to fucking know". Jonny and Ed chuckle, the chuckle turns into a hearty guffaw and they stand up to leave. I ask them where they are going. "Its Thom's bedtime" they jest and put their coats back on. Thom stands up and gives me a defeated shrug. "we're a democracy" he states "and I wouldn't go against that". Before he leaves I point out that he has only been interviewed for 15 minutes. He laughs and replies "you just don't get it do you?" All three of them turn around and skip through the door in something reminiscent of a Morcombe and Wise sketch.

The album will be released on June 4th in the UK.

The London Sinfonietta and Jonny Greenwood with members of the Nazareth Orchestra and Lubna Salame. Sunday 27 and Monday 28 March 2005 (Easter Weekend) at 7.30pm, ?15 - ?25.

Following the success of its sold-out concerts for the last two ETHER festivals, the London Sinfonietta returns for two evenings of experimentation, collaboration and cross-genre juxtaposition on 27 and 28 March 2005. The concerts include traditional Arabic song, new music from Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke, plus pieces by pioneering classical composers Ligeti, Penderecki and Messiaen, chosen by Greenwood as music which has inspired him and Radiohead.

Radiohead Television will also be screened throughout the night, featuring video, animations and music from the band’s Hail to the Thief as well as unreleased tracks.