Radiohead have officially released 18 hours of material from the sessions for their legendary third album OK Computer. The sessions, which leaked online last week, are now available for download on Radiohead’s Bandcamp page. According to a note that guitarist Jonny Greenwood posted on the band’s Instagram this morning, they’ll only be downloadable for the next 18 days, and will cost you £18 (or about $23 U.S.). All proceeds will benefit the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion.
Greenwood’s note confirms that the files were initially hacked from a minidisc archive belonging to Thom Yorke, and makes reference to a rumor that the hacker demanded a $150,000 ransom from the band to refrain from releasing the material. Read it in full below:
We got hacked last week – someone stole Thom’s minidisk archive from around the time of OK Computer, and reportedly demanded $150,000 on threat of releasing it.
So instead of complaining – much – or ignoring it, we’re releasing all 18 hours on Bandcamp in aid of Extinction Rebellion. Just for the next 18 days. So for £18 you can find out if we should have paid that ransom.
Never intended for public consumption (though some clips did reach the cassette in the OK computer reissue) it’s only tangentially interesting. And very, very long. Not a phone download. Rainy out, isn’t it though?
Jonny
https://www.instagram.com/p/BykT-NOA6_m/
Stream and download the sessions, which Radiohead are dubbing MINIDISCS [HACKED], at their Bandcamp page.
