Growing ever popular, buying digital music now comes with a humanitarian purpose as War Child have set up their own mp3 purchasing site. Not only do proceeds go to fund humanitarian projects in war-torn countries around the world, but some of the world’s most acclaimed artists are donating their works exclusively to War Child Music.

One of this month’s exclusive features comes courtesy of Icelandic singer Bjork, who has provided two remixes to War Child Music. It’s also possible to buy Coldplay’s stellar new single “Speed of Sound” from the site, for the standard price of 99p (that’d be pence, it’s British!), plus the welcome addition of karma points.

Most of the sites that most people visit throw you cookies which you accept without realising, unless you have configured your web browser to alert you about this. This information - the pages you visit, the choices you make, the interests you express, where you come from, the frequency of your visits, and so on - is extremely valuable.

There are hundreds of companies, employing countless people, that exist for this very purpose. We don't sell the information that we get from you - instead, stupidly, we use it to make graphs. For no reason at all, except perhaps to alert vigilant visitors to what's being done with the information they volunteer every time they open up their web connection.

FOR THE FIRST TIME, you can buy screenprints of some of the pictures I've done. They are all limited editions, hand-printed by myself and you would not believe how long they took to make. They're all signed and numbered.

There are also various sorts of publications that I've either written or had some sort of involvement with.

There will be more THINGS added to the Manufactory as they're made. More prints, definitely. A spoken-word Compact Disc, definitely. More books, probably. And something extremely weird, eventually. I cannot say anything about the weird THING as it is a secret at the moment. Send your guesses in, please.

Exciting eh? Well, there's more... Stanley offers a full book for download (and it's free!) A chapter of this book can be downloaded every week... well, back to Stanley's wording:

Collect the extremely short chapters of a new story. There will be a new chapter available to download as a typeset PDF every week. The idea being that you print out each chapter on whatever paper you feel like using, and then on the last week you can download the cover, also as a PDF. Then sew it or staple it or make paper aeroplanes. It's a free book, if you discount the cost of the paper, the ink, the printer, the computer, the internet connection and whatever medication you're on to keep you functioning as a member of an advanced capitalist society.

Pianist Franz Liszt brought down the 19th-century house playing souped-up versions of Beethoven's symphonies. Rachmaninoff and Busoni later took similarly obscene liberties with Bach's solo violin music. "The piano's capacity to emulate other instruments, to evoke a whole range of colors, makes it the single most versatile conduit for a whole universe of musical expression," writes pianist Christopher O'Riley. His new album of solo-piano Radiohead covers, "Hold Me to This," is an important, if only sometimes successful, contribution to the grand old tradition of playing non-piano music on the piano.

That's not to say that O'Riley reinterpretations aren't enjoyable. The new album, a follow-up to 2003's "True Love Waits," is satisfying in exactly the same ways as its predecessor. O'Riley turns some of Radiohead's most intriguing songs into virtuosic piano studies that feel like encounters between the bawdy romanticism of Rachmaninoff and the minimal figurations of Philip Glass. Harmonic complexities are added at will -- probably to account for the lack of a distortion pedal on the piano -- while O'Riley's best approximations of Thom Yorke's eerie vocals glide above churning arpeggios.

The songs don't lose anything in terms of energy or forward momentum; O'Riley seems to rock out more than Radiohead. What the songs mostly lack are the individual persona so strongly evident in their original versions. In order to build up heavy waves of sound and approximate the effect of strummed guitars, most tracks are accompanied by lots of turbulent, fast-moving notes. There is not much rhythmic variation within these figures; they go on the same way from beginning to end in almost every song. The introduction to "(Nice Dream)" sounds a whole lot like the introduction to "Like Spinning Plates" when the latter's nightmarish backwards-skittering static is left out. The same applies to the disc's opener, "There There," which lacks the original's peculiarly hollow-sounding floor toms. (O'Riley's liner notes plead that they are "there in spirit.")

Jonny's work with the Sinfonetta was being reviewed on Newsnight. They had some fabulous footage of the rehearsals - the small orchestra making very Jonny-esque noises seemly at random, despite being conducted, while Jonny sat on the floor hunched over a notepad frantically scribbling things down.

The reviewers spent a few hours in rehearsals and despite thinking it was "beyond them" musically they seemed very impressed and quite fascinated. They commented specifically on Jonny's ability to built up a semingly random siren-type sound and then resolve it into a beautiful, peaceful moment.

Following Thom Yorke’s performance at the Trade Justice Movement rally in London, MP3s of the new songs have found their way onto the internet. Recordings of new track ‘House Of Cards’ and rarity ‘Last Flowers’ are now available online, while the band’s complete back catalogue is now available for purchase at War Child’s online music store.

An MP3 of Thom Yorke's solo performance of the new Radiohead track 'House of Cards' has surfaced on the net. The recording from the Methodist Central Hall gig last Friday (April 15) is currently being hosted by one of the chief Radiohead fansites.

Alongside the new track, there is also a recording of a lost rarity that’s been knocking around in the Radiohead camp for a number of years known variously as either 'Glass Flowers' or 'Last Flowers (Til The Hospital)'.

Both tracks are currently available from www.ateaseweb.com.

The protest included an all-night vigil in London and culminated in a candlelight vigil near Downing Street. Thousands of people including Yorke took part in the demonstration designed to stop the UK Government pushing poor countries to open up their economies and enforce rules that would protect their trade rights and protect their environment and prevent a worsening of poverty.

York played a five song acoustic set at Methodist Central Hall which included Radiohead classic 'No Surprises', rare tracks 'Big Ideas' and 'Reckoner' and a brand new previously unheard song entitled 'House Of Cards'.

According to www.ateaseweb.com Yorke also revealed Radiohead are also working another new track called 'Arpeggi' (which the band debuted live at the Ether Festival) with the singer explaining that the song is nearly finished, but couldn't say if it will appear on Radiohead's next album.

And in slightly more legal download news, Radiohead's full back catalogue is now available at www.warchildmusic.com. Included for purchase are every album the band have released as well as all the singles, B-sides (excepting the ‘Pablo Honey’ A-sides) and Jonny Greenwood's remix of the live version of 'Go to Sleep'.

Two years after releasing his first covers album, True Love Waits, O'Riley returns with another batch, titled Hold Me to This.

Compared to Mehldau, who often records as one member of a trio, O'Riley is something of a purist: His arrangements are strictly for solo piano, with no overdubs or guest musicians. These are impressionist covers, loosely translating rather than strictly transcribing tone and atmosphere into the more constrained setting. O'Riley fares best when his piano merely suggests a melody, as on "The Tourist" and "No Surprises".

Conversely, bold melodic lines don't work very well. On "Like Spinning Plates", while one hand plays the low, rumbling pattern, the other bangs out the central melody in glaring chords that sound altogether out of place amid the subtler texture.

You don't see this every day. On Saturday night, octogenarian dance icon Merce Cunningham will roll dice -- on stage -- to determine the order of choreography, sets, lighting and music for the performance of his work, "Split Sides." Mathematically, there are 32 different possible versions of "Split Sides," so chances are the work will be performed as never seen before.

This is business as usual for the choreographer, who has incorporated "chance operations" into his complex, pure dance work since the 1960s. What makes "Split Sides" so hot is Cunningham's choice of collaborators this time: British phenom Radiohead composed one set of music, Icelandic electronic group Sigur Rós composed the other, and some of the photography is by Robert Heishman, a 19-year-old from Kansas.

Plus, the piece is only 40 minutes long. Clearly, this is Cunningham for the Drive 105 and 89.3 Current crowd.

Can you dance to it? That's not the point. Since he started the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in 1953, Cunningham, now 85, has always kept the creation of choreography, music, lights, costumes and décor separate; the components come together, for the first time, during the first performance. John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns were long his co-captains on this artistic adventure; Cunningham has never stopped.

Trent McMartin special report>In the new April issue of Rolling Stone magazine, singer/songwriter Dave Matthews has written an essay on British rock band Radiohead.

The article is part of the “Immortals’ project where musicians write about musical legends past and present. In the article Matthews gets candid and in depth over his love and frustration with Radiohead. Every time I buy a Radiohead album, I have a moment where I say to myself, maybe this is the one that will suck. But it never does, Matthews says. I wonder if it's even possible for them to be bad on record.

Matthews goes on further by saying My reaction to Radiohead isn't as simple as jealousy. Jealousy just burns; Radiohead infuriate me. But if it were only that, I wouldn't go back and listen to those records again and again. Listening to Radiohead makes me fell like I'm a Salieri to their Mozart. Yorke's lyrics make me want to give up. I could never in my wildest dreams find something as beautiful as they find for a single song - let alone album after album.

Matthews than adds, And every time, they raise their finger to the press and the critics and say, nothing we do is for you! They followed their most critically acclaimed record, OK Computer, with their most radical change, Kid A. It's not that they're indifferent: It's just that the strength of character in their music is beyond their control.

Radiohead are currently working on new material for an untitled album set for release possibly next year. As for Dave Matthews he’s currently working with the Dave Matthews Band on a new studio album that is to be released this summer followed by a large tour.

Schmoll: Is anyone relevant to you in the current music scene?

Trent: Relevant? You know, I've always thought in the last several years that Radiohead's been probably the best band out as far as having something to say, having an interesting way to say it....placing, seemingly placing art first. You know, it's been a nice alternative to prepackaged nonsense.

Thousands of campaigners demanding "trade justice" for the world's poorest workers have staged a night of protest. The overnight candlelit vigil in Whitehall, London, was followed by an early morning march on Downing Street.

Campaigners have also held talks with the three main political parties to call for improved trade conditions. The protest began at Westminster Abbey, with readings and performances from Ronan Keating, Beverley Knight, Vanessa Redgrave and Pete Postlethwaite.

The Wake Up to Trade Justice event was organised by the Trade Justice Movement - a coalition of 65 UK organisations - and was part of a series of global events held from 10-16 April.

Protesters want to see an end to trade conditions which, they say, force farmers in developing countries to compete with cheaper foreign imports.

Ronan Keating, who travelled to Ghana last May with the charity Christian Aid to see the effects of "unjust" trade, told Friday's gathering: I wanted to educate myself and bring my message back. What I saw blew my mind.

I went to a quarry where guys were working for less than one euro a day, it was heartbreaking. They were working without a break in the sun.

Radiohead singer Thom Yorke, who also performed at the abbey, said he did not think the group's demands were naive or anything like that but that they were seeking an end to a series of misguided economic policies.

I would like to introduce myself as I'm now working with Stanley Donwood as his publicist. As you know he is an exceptional artist and has collaborated with Radiohead producing all the artwork for the band since The Bends.

Stanley has been working on something very special since the end of last year that we are launching at the beginning of May. We will be in touch again shortly to bring you the news!

Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien and the Super Furries Animals' frontman Gruff Rhys will join Thom Yorke, various stars from stage and screen, and thousands of protesters on an overnight carnival of music, art and protest for Trade Justice.

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.

As previously reported, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke is to be joining Vanessa Redgrave and Pete Postlethwaite for the nighttime protest march itself which will include a protest outside Downing Street.

Now Xfm can confirm that Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien will be joining the rally. For his part O'Brien will be serving up tea coffee and cakes when he pops in to help the Women’s Institute at their Fair Trade Café. No really.

Elsewhere, Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys will be joining the line up at the Marquee Club in Leicester Square when he plays a special acoustic set. Other special guests are yet to be announced to be joining the bill with rumours predictably centring round another singer with a political conscience.

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.

Radiohead drummer Phil Selway reacted in fury when he was kept awake by a loud party held by Green Day - but was locked inside his hotel room by the basket case stars as a result.

The dispute was sparked when Green Day partied into the night at Los Angeles' infamous Chateau Marmont hotel, forcing tired Selway - who was trying to sleep in a nearby room - to knock on the door and beg tre cool to turn down the noise.

In response to the request, Cool turned off the music, but blasted out a different album moments later - Radiohead's OK Computer. And in a further act of mischief, Cool tied a rope around Selway's door - keeping him trapped inside.

Cool says, (Selway said), You let me out you f**ker! I'm telling Thom.

(I said), Dude, if you walk into a room of hot chicks and they're blasting out you're album, you're like, What up? Right?.

Radiohead is a good example of a band that you really have to put a bit of energy into listening to their records in order to figure out exactly what their intention was. And then if you wanna dig deeper to figure out what it is that they're trying to say ...

I would apply that to Around The Sun, certainly, and actually to most of what we do. We've never been a band that connects on the first listen, you have to put a little bit of energy into it, and it's around the sixth or seventh or eighth hearing of a song or an album that you start to move below the surface.

Thom Yorke wandered on stage to rapturous applause, looking slightly ill at ease. When he started singing, his voice was initially weak and thin, and perhaps slightly uncertain, but as the Ondes-Martenot arpeggios and orchestration grew stronger, so did Thom's voice. He closed his eyes and mimed playing a keyboard: a classicist's air guitar, if you will.

On Sunday, Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke performed a song called "Arpeggi" backed by the Nazareth Orchestra. By Tuesday, thanks to rabid Radiohead fans and a bevy of YouSendIteers, this performance was available to, and heard by, anyone who could click a mouse. There's something amazing and crass about the way an unreleased demo or an album advance or a live track can be downloaded and uploaded and passed on to an exponentially expanding circle of strangers. In some cases, taking advantage of this unbounded access is like seeing your parents put Christmas presents under the tree for the first time.

On this track Greenwood plays the Ondes-Martenot, an electronic keyboarded developed by Maurice Martenot, a colleague of Leon Theremin. The Ondes-Martenot produces elegiac tones that sound like a cross between the warm buzz of a Rhodes piano and the resonant blare of a pipe organ. Such tones are perfect for Yorke's tremulous voice and his equally tremulous words-- "Your eyes, they turn me/ Why should I stay here?" The Orchestra joins the fray slowly, xylophones and trumpets giving way to gliding gilded strings bowed and plucked. The confluence of these swirling bits produces a bit of dissonance, with Yorke's voice rubbing awkwardly against the Orchestra near the end of the performance. Given that "Arpeggi" ends on a questioning tone-- Yorke repeating the word "escape" in a weak, wispy manner as a two-note pattern is repeatedly plucked-- that friction is no doubt intentional.