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Fan-Girling Over the Radiohead Leaked Tapes for 800 Words Straight

Hi hello,

We all know I’m a huge Radiohead fan - if you did not know then, surprise I’m a huge Radiohead fan.

I did not need any other reason to support and love them more than I do but this is quite possibly the most respectable and unprecedented move of their career in a long time. I am excited and I want to share that excitement and adoration with my readers.

The general consensus of being a Radiohead fan is that getting direct information, updates or public appearances from the band are becoming more and more few and far between. Interviews are a very rare occurrence, new music is drip fed with no warning or press, and they’re generally very minimal in their fan communication.



This week has been a crazy week for the band. Session tapes dating back to the recordings of their iconic OK Computer album, owned by lead singer Thom Yorke and dating between 1995 and around 1998, were hacked and began to be illegally released to the public, with a ransom threat of $150,000 for them to be taken down. More and more were becoming accessible and in a fan base that experience little excitement and new releases, they were seemingly up in arms. 

Being very non-communicative people, I expected that the band members would handle this quietly, whether that be by paying the ransom or getting legal teams involved, and we wouldn’t hear more about it. I was, as a huge fan, under a dilemma of whether to listen or not. I was unbelievably intrigued yet felt personally offended for Thom that music he owned, that was never intended for public consumption, was suddenly on blast with no warning. 

Amazingly and to my and many fan’s great surprise, guitarist Jonny Greenwood, via their band’s social media, officially confirmed the hacking and said that in order to deal with it, they would release all 18 hours (!!!) of the tapes for £18, with all proceeds going to the incredible charity Extinction Rebellion, only available for purchase for, you guessed it, 18 days.

If ever my respect for this band could grow larger, it’s with this incredible move. Rather than complaining or creating a public uproar, they have peacefully played the hacker at their own game, whilst undoubtedly making a fortune for charity. Even the phrasing of Jonny’s announcement, which is signed off so whimsically with the phrase ‘Rainy out, isn’t it though?’ as if what he’s just provided music with isn’t totally iconic and unprecedented, is almost laughably sarcastic; ‘it’s only tangentially interesting’ - yeah right. 

This is something that may only interest a handful of my readers if that, but think about this way:
Imagine your favourite band or artist, no matter the genre or era, and imagine your favourite music produced by that artist. Is it not the most exciting concept that you, a civilian who previously has access to only the clean-cut, perfectly mixed and mastered versions of their music, is now given access to the bare bones of that music. The first planted seed of a song idea in which the lyrics are totally different to what became the end result, yet still the essence is totally recognisable. I don’t know, but for me that feels like being given access to something so exclusive and special. Even though anyone could buy these tapes, everyone is going to be drawn to different parts of it - there is after all 18 hours to play with. A two minute clip in the 12th tape may pass by one person, and totally encapsulate the next. All I know is that that is an exciting concept to me and whilst this access was born from a money-hungry hacker who violated the privacy of my favourite musicians, they remain my favourite musicians with how they have chosen to handle such a violation - and from that, we have been given what I consider to be the greatest gift a musician could give their fans. 

Having bought the tapes only a few hours prior to writing this, I have not even scratched the surface of what is to come. All I know is that in a world were more and more people in the public eye miss the mark, become ‘cancelled’, or do something controversial; good old-fashioned Radiohead have turned a disaster into a daydream for their fans and I couldn’t be more grateful, even if they see this as no more than a minor inconvenience to their seemingly quiet lives. 

This is a self-indulgent post if ever there was one but I just had to rant a second - Radiohead do not do things like this and I just had to chat about it. Anyone who is equally excited about this (I don’t know if anyone has that much of an unexciting life like me), I hope this was relatable/enjoyable to read lol.

Normal posting were I will come across a little calmer will resume I promise, so just give me this one.

Love ya, (buy the leaked tapes here for Extinction Rebellion pls thanks radiohead.bandcamp.com)

H x

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