We never got to know thom or the other guys very well, says Jonsi. We did around ten concerts with them and it was like two bands in separate corners doing their own thing. there was very little interaction, although we did chat quite a bit with Colin. He is an absolute top guy.

Kjartan remembers the immense crew that followed Radiohead. with walkie-talkie security guys everywhere, it's no wonder the interaction was so little. during tours like these you first and foremost interact with your crew. it's not a given that two groups travelling together will mingle.

Earlier that year, the band had toured with the Canadian band 'Godspeed you black emperor!'. Jonsi says touring with bands as different as these two was a valuable experience. It was a learning experience for us to see how these things are done. Godspeed did everything themselves and they were really serious about everything. Radiohead on the other hand were surrounded by this huge staff, which surprised me a little.

Radiohead's album OK Computer has been named the best of the past 20 years by US music magazine Spin.
The British band beat Nirvana's Nevermind and Public Enemy's It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back in the publication's 20th birthday issue.

The band's 1997 release was chosen because it "uncannily predicted our global culture of communal distress".

Other British acts to make it into the magazine's special issue were The Smiths and singer PJ Harvey.

More than a quarter of the top 100 albums were from hip hop artists, while Spin is primarily a magazine for rock music.

Editor-in-chief Sia Michel said releases from 1985 were chosen for their "basic brilliance, innovation and overall relevance".

She added that record sales did not affect the choices. The Pixies, who landed at number six with Surfer Rosa, did not sell millions before their initial split in 1993.

The Spin list contrasts to the Rolling Stone top 500 list, which included The Beatles, The Beach Boys and The Rolling Stones in its upper echelons.

Forget the album charts or the hard fought ‘Biggest Band In The World’ title, some of the world’s most famous musicians, including Thom Yorke, Chris Martin and Anthony Kiedis, are up against each other for the title of World's Sexiest Vegetarian.

Oh yes, this is the poll the world’s biggest acts have been waiting for. Forget about creating a truly legendary and emotionally resonant album attempting to publicise the plight of the world’s starving millions in the medium of song, as PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) have launched their fifth annual poll to find out the world’s sexiest vegetarian.

As such there's many a famous mung bean muncher from the world of music in the list with Andre 3000, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Anthony Kiedis, Bryan Adams, Chris Martin, Damon Albarn, Eddie Vedder, Moby, Morrissey, Paul McCartney, Perry Farrell, Prince, Thom Yorke and Kenny 'Dangerzone' Loggins all go head-to-head for the title.

But there's some names for the boys too, as you’ll be able to vote in the Girls category for a myriad of hotties like Avril Lavigne, The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde, Erykah Badu, Brigitte Bardot (?), the appropriatly named Fiona Apple, Annie Lennox, Joan Jett, k.d. lang, Natalie Imbruglia, Pamela Anderson, Thora Birch and Sadie Bloody Frost.

Hold Me to This, pianist Christopher O'Riley's second CD of music by the rock band Radiohead, made its first appearance on the Billboard classical crossover chart this week at number 18.

Like its predecessor, True Love Waits, Hold Me to This consists of expanded "reimaginings," rather than transcriptions, of its source materials. O'Riley, host of the public radio program From the Top, has also produced a book of his Radiohead arrangements.

Otherwise, very little changed on the crossover chart: Il Divo's self-titled album remained at number one, with the soundtrack to Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith at number two and Josh Groban's Closer at number three.

Yo-Yo Ma continued his reign on the classical chart, with Silk Road Journeys: Beyond the Horizon at number one for the tenth straight week, Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone at number four, and Vivaldo's Cello at number 10.

Radiohead have broken the silence over their new album.

Singer Thom Yorke has told NME sessions for their new album remind him of working on Kid A.

The band recently regrouped to start rehearsing and recording new songs for the follow-up to 2003’s Hail To The Thief.

The album, not due until next year, will be the band’s seventh. Yorke told NME that early sessions had seen the band changing the way they work, reminding him of the change between 1997 LP OK Computer and Kid A.

He said: It’s going well. It’s a bit like Kid A – we’re going through a period of change. But that’s good. We’ll get there.

RADIOHEAD turned down an offer to play at LIVE 8, it has emerged.

The band, who have been vocal on many of the global development issues that the shows are aiming to raise awareness about, were given the chance by organiser Bob Geldof, according to BBC News.

But guitarist Jonny Greenwood’s recent parenthood is among the reasons why the band were unable to take part.

Radiohead’s spokesman said: They were asked but they can’t do it. Jonny is out of action because he and his wife have just had a baby and the rest of the band are spread out all over the place at that time.

The UK leg of Live 8 takes place at London Hyde Park on July 2, and would-be audience members have until midnight on Sunday (June 12) to enter the text lottery for tickets.

The source can be found here.

Other articles available at BBC, Miami Herald, antiMUSIC.com, Contactmusic.com and Glasgow Daily Record.

touch Myself by the Divinyls, a gloriously sleazy 80s single, is hardly an obvious choice of material for a chorus of teenage Belgian maidens. But that's the kind of song the Scala choir chooses to cover. Even more surprisingly, in their innocent mouths itbecomes a spiritual psychodrama of quite unsettling power.

The Scala choir was formed in 1996 in the Belgian village of Aar-schot by two brothers, Steven and Stijn Kolacny. They chose 60 girls, who were then given intense vocal training. The watershed in the choir's history came in 2000 when the girls started performing pop songs, both standard and obscure. As Scala aficionados know, there are few things as electrifying as a chorus of wide-eyed sixth-formers sweetly enunciating, as if it were Verdi's Requiem, the words "her boyfriend's a dick, he brings a gun to school" (from Wheatus's Teenage Dirtbag).

Since then, Scala have attained cult status, much of it via the internet. Their shows are sold out; their albums of cover versions (like Scala on the Rocks) have done well in France and the Benelux countries; their inexplicably moving versions of Travis, Jacques Brel and U2 have been on the radio; and now, with a big European tour (see www.kolacny.com), they threaten to break into the English-speaking world.

Martin: If Coldplay was the UN, I'd be America. Chris Martin has duplicated Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke's idea to compare his band to the United Nations (UN) - and Martin insists he would represent the military might of America.

The Coldplay singer-turned-political campaigner admits he steals many ideas from Yorke - and this is one of his favourites, as he knows exactly which powerful country each member of Coldplay would be.

Martin says, Thom Yorke once drew a parallel between his band and the UN, and he said, 'Well, I'm America.'

And with our band, I'm America. Jonny (Buckland) is definitely China: actually more intelligent and better than me; he just doesn't talk as much.

Guy (Berryman) is probably Italy or Spain: somewhere you have a good time that adds the artistic creativity. And Will (Champion) is definitely Russia: hardcore, solid, hard to win over, but once won, loyal as royal.

It's a very good parallel. And not the first thing we've stolen from Radiohead.