[recording starts here]

[plays We Are Scientists – After Hours]

Mark: "Well, I think that's really good, or else I wouldn't have picked it for Pick & Mix, would I?

Stuart: "Ah ha, evidently, yeah

Mark: "And so, yeah, right, that's We Are Scientists and After Hours, and it comes out on the third of March. So shall we... ..well we should say welcome to Colin Greenwood from Radiohead. How are you?

Colin: "I'm alright

Mark: "Yeah, good, very nice to see you

Stuart: "Colin would be better if we hadn't given him some poisoned tea

Mark: "Have we?

Stuart: "Yeah

Colin: "I don't want to make a fuss...

Stuart: "No, I'll make a fuss on your behalf

Mark: "What's wrong with the tea?

Stuart: "Unless it's the BBC's Earl Grey

Mark: "Is it curdled milk or something?

Stuart: "No. I think it's got...

Colin: "You tried it, didn't you?

Stuart: "Fairy liquid I think it is...yeah, anyway

Mark: "Oh, well. Anyway, how are you, Colin? Are you good, apart from the tea?

Colin: "I'm great, yeah

Mark: "(laughs) Yeah good! Right, good to see you. I tell you what, we'll recap our Pick & Mix, these are our contenders for next weeks record of the week. Everybody can... we have a vote on this, so I don't see any reason why you can't have a vote, Colin

Colin: "Oh, yeah, definitely

Mark: "So we can have a listen through, and do a recap. (to SM) What are you doing? What do you want?

Stuart: "Just carry on!

Mark: "Right. Oh, I see, right, ok, you're doing that bit from round here

Stuart: "Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

Mark: "What?

Stuart: "Yeah, yeah. That's fine now

Mark: "What?

Stuart: "That's fine now

Mark: "Right, ok (laughs)

Stuart: "(laughs)

Mark: "Here we go recapping on the contenders for next weeks record of the week through the miracle of Pick & Mix

[plays Grand National – Animal Sounds]

Stuart: "This was my choice on Monday, this is Grand National and Animal Sounds

Mark: "Grand National, Colin do you like them?

Colin: "Don't know it

Mark: "Ok

[track continues playing]

Mark: "Liking it?

Colin: "Yep

[plays The Felice Brothers – Roll On Arte]

Mark: "The Felice Brothers, do you know them? Bit like The Band. Mates of Levon Helm. This is my suggestion, anyway for Tuesday. I love this, Roll On Arte

(Mark sings along)

Stuart: "All together now!

Mark: "Oh, I love it. (Noddy Laughs) This your kind of thing, Colin?

Colin: "Yeah, it's cool

Mark: "Yeah

[plays Teedo – You Were My Girl]

Stuart: "Ok, I picked this last night, this is Teedo from New York, You Were My Girl

Mark: "We've picked some good ones this week, I tell you

Stuart: "This is great, isn't it, yeah

[plays We Are Scientists – After Hours]

Mark: "We Are Scientists. You must have come across them?

Colin: "Yeah, yeah

Mark: "This is tonight's one, After Hours. I think they... I mean, you know, I mean... oooh I'm torn myself on that one, really

Stuart: "Teedo

Mark: "Teedo?

Stuart: "That's my fave

Mark: "I would still go for Felice Brothers, I think, but what do you like, Colin?

Colin: "Yeah, I like the one you were singing along to

Mark: "The Felice Brothers?

Colin: "Yeah, that's right

Mark: "Alright then. So, what about you, Nod?

Noddy Holder: "I like that one

Mark: "Right, ok then

Stuart: "There you go

Mark: "So that, though I'm not trying to lead the way... that...that has the added endorsement of Noddy Holder and Colin Greenwood

Stuart: "Yeah

Noddy: "Big Band fan though, I was

Mark: "Oh yeah, well... Have you got that new Levon Helm album, Dirt Farmer?

Noddy: "No!

Mark: "I've got it here, I'll lend it ya, you will love it

Noddy: "Nice one

Stuart: "Dirt Farmer?

Mark: "Love it

Stuart: "Dirt farming's a stupid idea

Noddy: "(laughs)

Mark: "(laughs) Alright then, so you just choose that through the website and pick which one you like

Stuart: "You do. Pick which one of the four you like best... Teedo. My new entry Teedo, and we'll play it next week

Mark: "Right, yeah right. I tell you what, to just... should we need a reminder, let's have a burst of a track from In Rainbows, and then we can talk to Colin and find out what he's been up to, and more importantly for us, what we're going to be doing

Stuart: "Yeah

Mark: "Righto, ok, so I thought Nude... .Colin?

Colin: "Oh, yeah, that's great

Mark: "Ok

[plays Nude]

Mark: "It's very similar to the vocal approach you used to use with Slade, isn't it, Nod?

Noddy: "(laughs a lot)

Mark: "I mean, that's just so beautiful, Colin. I mean, are you saying that that's all just Thom's voice?

Colin: "Yeah that's right

Mark: "Just multi-layered then is it?

Colin: "That's right, yeah

Mark: "And when he's doing that, do you kind of sit in the other room vaguely in awe, as he puts another track on and another track on?

Colin: "Well, you just see him like go into the zone and you try not to step on the... get in the way, do you know what I mean, it's like...

Stuart: "Right

Mark: "Yeah

Stuart: "Or do you... .are you just idly leafing through Exchange & Mart?

Colin: "(laughs) That's it, yeah! Looking at the Habitat catalogue again, yeah, that's right

Stuart: "That's right, yeah

Mark: "I mean, it kind of took people by surprise a bit when the album came out, because you didn't have to go through all the kind of release schedules...

Colin: "Yeah, yeah

Mark: "And the machinations and all that. I think I was reading in an interview, probably with Thom where he was saying you know, you were really excited because people were talking about records, and all those people didn't know the new Radiohead record was ready and coming out next week sort of thing...

Colin: "Yeah, yeah

Mark: "Was it like that?

Colin: "It was great because everyone could hear it and could talk about it at the same time whether it was you on your show...

Stuart: "That's true, yeah

Colin: "Or whether it was like someone at home just downloading it and listening to it, so everyone could like join in and talk about it, you know, what they like about it, what they didn't like about it, where they are when they listened to it at the same time, and it's really exciting

Mark: "Did it cross your mind that everybody might download it and pay you nothing?

Colin: "(laughs) Yeah

Mark: "(laughs)

Colin: "That did...

Mark: "And some people did, didn't they?

Colin: "Yeah well, yeah some people did, yeah but then those people probably wouldn't have bought it in the first place anyway, so maybe some of them would have liked what they heard when they got it for nothing

Stuart: "Yeah

Mark: "And bought into the...

Colin: "Yeah

Mark: "Oh, ok

Stuart: "And is... I'm guessing that you'll say "yes", but is the consensus amongst the band and beyond that it was a great success, and a great thing to do?

Colin: "Yeah, I mean it was an unexpected thing for us as well to do, and it's worked out like brilliantly like for us, you know, and it's made everything... it's thrown... it's like thrown open the doors and like just let in some fresh air and it's like been you know

Stuart: "I was just going to say...

Noddy: "Well it's like a whole new concept, isn't it? It's a whole new...

Colin: "Yeah

Stuart: "In the fullness of time, people might say that it was one of the most significant moments in the history of music

Noddy: "Well, it probably will go down in pop history like that, because you've got to have this change, the change is coming now in the whole business...

Stuart: "But you were the first people to actually do it, yeah

Colin: "Yeah

Noddy: "All this thing that's going on with EMI and everything now, there's got to be a major change

Colin: "Yeah

Mark: "I mean the thing that I'm interested in, one of the ideas, that it seems to kind of... there seems to be a slight dichotomy in it, we've got the blessed Guy Garvey who's waiting to release his new album today from Elbow, who's saying that the upcoming album, The Seldom Seen Kid will be the last album they release like that

Colin: "Yeah

Mark: "He said that the MP3 culture of download has meant that songs are sold on an individual song basis, quality of an individual song...

Colin: "Yeah

Mark: "But he wanted to make one last album, you know, so he's sort of saying that you know, in the future, people are talking about this, it will just be certain songs, and yet the Radiohead In Rainbows...

Colin: "Yeah

Mark: "Is very much a sequenced album.

Colin: "Yeah

Mark: "And I think, well, what I hope, is that when people say "no, the album is dead", I'm hoping that In Rainbows is the saviour of the album format

Noddy: "I think there's a place for both, don't you, Colin, yeah?

Colin: "Absolutely, it's like another... it's like a framework, isn't it?

Noddy: "Yeah

Colin: "You choose what framework you want to like put your work in, don't you, whether it's an album or whether it's like an EP or whatever

Noddy: "Well, I mean, you can do both anyway

Colin: "Well exactly

Noddy: "In the old days, I mean certainly in the Sixties, The Beatles very rarely put the singles on albums anyway

Stuart: "That's right, yeah

Colin: "Right

Noddy: "They made albums, and the singles were a different entity, and we did in our very early days

Colin: "Right

Noddy: "We never put our singles on albums, they were totally different

Colin: "And how quickly could you turn things around as well?

Noddy: "Oh, very quickly, incredibly quickly

Colin: "Could you go into the studio and it would be out?

Noddy: "With a single we could finish the track on a Monday and it could be in the shops by Friday in those days

Colin: "Right

Stuart: "Wow!

Noddy: "Oh yeah, definitely

Colin: "And that's what everyone's trying to get back to now, you know, what you did then, you know what I mean?

Noddy: "And I think it should do, because the artists having to wait six months for your product to come out...

Colin: "Absolutely, yeah

Noddy: "You know, it's no good

Stuart: "You're obviously into this idea of a kind of immediacy, because I was really delighted by a thing, I've plugged it a couple of times, on YouTube that on New Year's Eve I was surfing around for some stuff about you, and suddenly there was a huge fifty odd minute film called Scotch Mist that you posted on YouTube..

Colin: "Oh, yeah

Stuart: "So you're obviously into this idea of just almost... not guerrilla marketing tactics, but that kind of thing...

Colin: "Yeah

Stuart: "Of bypassing conventional structures, yeah

Colin: "Or bypassing... that's right yeah, so you don't have like adverts, like people aren't selling soft drinks either side of your songs and stuff, you know

Stuart: "Right, yeah

Colin: "And it's just... and you're just giving something directly to people who are interested, like your fans watching it, and listening to it and then they edit it themselves, they edit the fifty minutes...they take the bits they like and they rate it...

Stuart: "Absolutely

Colin: "And say, "I love that", or "this bit's great", and then they show it to someone else and that's brilliant, because that's what we all do growing up with listening to music, you just enjoy it and you share it and you rate it, and it's...and that's what's happening, that's all that's happening

Mark: "So where are you at at the moment with the band then, I mean this is all done, and it's kind of got fantastic reviews and albums of the year, and all that kind of thing, so I mean you must be kind of really itching to go out and do it all

Colin: "Yeah, but I mean it's like Noddy was saying about like putting a single out and turning it around, I mean that's kind of where we're trying to get to, like so if we want to do something like an EP later on in the year, or record something and then turn it around and put it out like that so that we sort of keep everything sort of fresh and people know that we're into it for the new things, then that would be you know, our aim, but we're also going to be playing lots of shows this year, which is like, you know, such a massive thing for us...

Mark: "Right and a massive thing for us...

Stuart: "Ah yes!

Mark: "And we must say, we cannot reveal the date as yet. We're not being...

Colin: "Oh yeah, well we only started talking about it yesterday in the meeting, but yeah...

Mark: "Yeah, but you have decided...

Colin: "Yeah, we're getting some plans together to play a show and play some songs from the record for the radio, for BBC radio, for Radio 2, hopefully in the next couple of months, so that's the plan..

Mark: "Yeah, alright then. So there will be some kind of concert at an intimate venue?

Stuart: "Mmmm hmm

Colin: "Yes

Mark: "And you know, try keeping us... well, we will be there (laughs)

Stuart: "Yeah, we'll be there

Mark: "And it'll be in this slot, won't it?

Stuart: "It'll be in this show, yeah

Mark: "In this show, so we're utterly thrilled about that, that's fantastic. Well, you know, so we'll see you and talk for longer and hear much more of you in the coming months, but thanks for dropping in

Colin: "Thank you

Mark: "Oh! Just a minute, Alison who's the soprano in the BBC symphony chorus said "I met Colin last Sunday at the Barbican where he'd come to watch a concert I was performing in. Say hello, and ask him if he enjoyed it"

Colin: "I did, actually

Mark: "Did you? Oh, right, yeah

Colin: "Sam West was narrating over a piece by Judith Weir which was about the rise of the city of London again through the years

Stuart: "They're doing a lot of Judith Weir stuff, aren't they, yeah

Mark: "Yeah, yeah. Ok, great. So we will have Radiohead on this programme. We think we know when it is, but we can't give the date yet, but people will get the chance to have tickets for this thing and everything, won't they?

Stuart: "Yeah

Mark: "There'll be a bit of a scramble. Bit like Led Zep at the O2

Stuart: "We'll allow a kind of insane ferment of rumour to go around the country, yeah

Noddy: "(laughs)

Mark: "Ok. Perfect. Alright Colin, lovely to see you

Colin: "Thank you

Mark: "Thanks very much, alright then

[recording ends]