Radiohead hit back

Band slam claims they asked EMI for big bucks

30 Dec 07 - Thom Yorke has hit back at claims that Radiohead asked EMI for huge sums of cash to re-sign to the label.

In a new posting on their official site, he gets stuck in to the label boss, and The Times newspaper for printing the story on Friday:

“We did not ask for a load of cash from our old record label EMI to re-sign. That is a lie. The Times in the UK should check its facts before it prints such dirt.

What we wanted was some control over our work and how it was used in the future by them, that seemed reasonable to us, as we cared about it a great deal.”

He says label chief Mr Guy Hands was not interested in this particular deal, and so neither were they as a band, which is why they had to walk away, and they have now put their physical album In Rainbows, out with independent label XL instead.

“We did not ask for a load of cash from our old record label EMI to re-sign. That is a lie. "
Thom Yorke

Thom says this isn’t a decision they took lightly and writes:

“We are extremely upset that this cr** is being spread about.To be digging up such bullsh**, or more politely airing yer dirty laundry in public, seems a very strange way for the head of an international record label to be proceeding.”

He reckons by giving XL the chance to put their record out, no big money changed hands, or as he refers to it in the posting as, ‘Bread-head’. He also goes on to accuse EMI of behaving like confused bulls in a china shop.

You can get your copy of their album tomorrow, and the band are also doing a very special New Years Eve webcast of it as well.

Watch it here

Jo Youle