Marty: Hey, it’s me Marty Lennartz live backstage at Lollapallooza, and boy, I’m here with one of the members of Radiohead: guitarist Ed O’Brien. Good afternoon. Welcome.

Ed: Thank you.

Marty: It’s so nice to have you here.

Ed: It’s very nice to be here. We haven’t been... we had about three weeks off from the touring, and it’s our first day of the second leg in America. So it’s good, it feels good to be here.

Marty: And what a nice place to kick it off, right here in Chicago.

Ed: Fabulous.

Marty: At the scene of your show that happened here in Hutchinson Field (Ed: yeah) in 2001 (Ed: yeah), and what a triumphant show that was. It’s a show that people still talk about here in Chicago, it’s become a legendary show.

Ed: Really.

Marty: Oh, absolutely

Ed: Wow OK. Whoa, that’s good.

Marty: And I don’t, I’m not sure whether you’re aware of this, but that show actually opened the gates to Lollapallooza. This city, for many many years would not allow big rock concerts in this park (Ed: OK), and because they went of so well (Ed: yeah), Lollapallooza then came in a few years later and the rest is history and here you are tonight.

Ed: Oh that’s cool. Well, that feels nice. Is it – was it – is it MAYOR DALE (?), is he the guy who’s is in charge of it?

Marty: Mayor Dale actually is the mayor here, yes.

Ed: Yeah. And is he the guy who says “yay” or “nay”?

Marty: He puts his big thumb up and

Ed: Yeah, OK.

Marty: If he wants it to happen it’s gonna happen.

Ed: Yeah, good.

Marty: And, so, so, so, so tell me of your memories of playing on that night, and what it was like for you to play in a city center like this.

Ed: It’s – I remember it was hot, like it was. Chicago, I mean, I guess it’s humid and hot in the summer, and there’s something great about – you know, doing a gig in a city center, where you don’t – you know, you can walk from a bar, you don’t have to get in a car, you might get on a bus or whatever or, do you have a metro here or is there a subway..?

Marty: Yes we do. Public transportation. We’re urging people to take public transportation...

Ed: Nice, good. So that’s ideal. And there’s something nice about doing... doing a gig with a backdrop of the city. You know, it’s a... It creates a good atmosphere. You know, it’s very picturesque, the lights go down, the skyscrapers twinkle...

Marty: Alright, and here the backdrop, it’s not only the buildings and the skyline, but here you have the lake, just on the other side (Ed: yeah), it’s really an ideal spot (Ed: yeah, great). And there’s so much anticipation about your show tonight, I mean that’s really – like I said, people were talking about the old show, they’re really talking about this show tonight, and tonight is sold out. 75000 people will be here and you’re playing a stand-alone show, no one else is playing (Ed: right), you’re it. So what do you have planned for us tonight?

Ed: Well, we’re going to play all the new songs off In Rainbows. That’s what we’ve been doing, which is – I think one of the really good things about this tour, we were chatting about this the other day, is that – We’ve now been touring for about three months, we’ve only got another month and a half to go, but the reaction that we’ve been getting from people is, and it’s been the first time for a while, that people have actually, they actually really want to hear the new songs more than they want to here Karma Police or Idioteque or Paranoid Android. There’s a real sense of – you know, when we play one of the new songs the cheer goes up. So, that’s been a while.

Marty: I think we actually found that out on the last tour, because you did debut many of the songs (Ed: yeah). On that tour we saw you (Ed: yeah) at Bonnaroo and also here in Chicago in the auditorium theater. And it was interesting then because those songs were so new (Ed: yeah) and they have changed a bit.

Ed: Yeah. They’ve changed, yeah they have changed a bit, inevitably. You know, when we did that tour two years ago, we basically went straight off the road an in to the studio, and basically put down on tape – and it was tape, not a hard disc – on tape, what we’d been playing live. And it didn’t work. And we knew that, you know, that, the good thing about that tour was that it... we had the opportunity to play new material. But the problem was, that we’ve got such a partisan audience, who seemed to be hungry to hear new stuff. They’re not discerning and kind of like – you know, the arrangement’d not be right, but they’d go “Waay!” so we go “Oh, that must be good!” You know, so, you know, our audiences are brilliant but they’re not the best critics of our material you know. And it was evident when we got back in the studio and put it down on tape that it’s like “Oh, hang on a sec, that’s not right.” So, I mean there are a few: Bodysnatchers is pretty much the same, House of Cards is pretty much the same, um, 15 step is actually the same, but things like Arpeggi and stuff are different and you know, so yeah, and Jigsaw.

Marty: That’s like on the last tour, that seemed to be a real favorite among fans, was Bangers’n’Mash (Ed: yeah), but that didn’t make it to the album.

Ed: No, well you know, it’s one of those things where it’s like... when we tracklisted the records, it’s a tough call you know, it’s like picking your best eleven. And you’re not... It’s like, it is, I mean – the others are going to crucify me for using a soccer analogy, because I’m a bit of a soccer... I love football. But it is like, you know, it’s not necessarily the best eleven songs that go on the record, it’s the best songs that fit together. So it’s like a team, you’ve got to... and we tried, you know and Down Is The New Up is another one that didn’t make it. And we did our best to, you know, to put them on though, but it just didn’t work. So we put the eleven on the record and then of course we got by, we got on with it, and did the box, did the limited edition. So, they’re out there and people know them.

Marty: We’re talking about Ed O’Brien of Radiohead just hours before Radiohead’s set here at Lollapallooza, and I want to ask you one more question about the album In Rainbows, when you released that in somewhat of an unconventional way, by making it available to people, if they wanted to pay for it or not. Then it was released as an album in January, but now, here we are, months and months and months after the initial release – was it a success, the way that you rolled it out?

Ed: Well, it’s interesting, because we’ve been talking about this and – you know, it was a complete success. And it wasn’t, we’re not measuring it... people tend to measure success now in terms of – you know, how finance... it’s a financial thing, how successful it is. Yeah, you know, it was a success financially. It wasn’t as successful as if – you know, we had the opportunity to sign for a major and get an advance for 20 million, you know, pounds on that record. But the successful thing about it was that it breathed new life into us, and it... The most important thing for us is – we actually measure success by how much creativity, you know, whether we can keep the creativity bubbling over. If we’d taken that 20 million advance from a major record company, I think those kinds of things kill you creatively. So it was a complete and utter success because – you know, we see a future now, for how we can proceed, it’s incredibly empowering, and, you know, and it, it, it, yeah. And it was so, just so exciting I, I can’t, sort of, overstress how brilliant it was to be – you know, having a meeting on that Friday, the day before the Monday that we announced it, and I remember seeing in a music publication in the UK, and they penciled in a Radiohead release schedule for 2008. April. And knowing that we were going to drop this thing and not quite knowing what the effects would be, but knowing that you know, well we’ve got some fans who want to hear it and they know nothing about it. You know, we couldn’t... we sat on this thing for about three months throughout last summer, couldn’t tell our friends – I mean, I only told my wife – we didn’t tell the rest of our families, you know, and to sit on this thing and then just, sort of, Jonny posts a little message on our message board on the Monday morning and it was just like, it was like a wildfire that spread and it was... Those kinds of things are so empowering you know, you don’t... you know, it was, there was... There was a core group of us, that was the band, the management, you know, and our, the people who do our merchandise, who distribute – W.A.S.T.E. –and our publicist, and that’s it. So it was a core group about nine of us, having these meetings, and – you know, there wasn’t a big bureaucracy to deal with. It was brilliant! It’s what it should be about. It was, it’s rock’n’roll. I mean, that is rock’n’roll.

Marty: It certainly is. And you guys have always done everything the way you wanted to do it anyways.

Ed: Yeah, we’ve been very lucky. I mean, you know... We were talking about, on Creep, you go back to Creep – Creep meant a... you know, although we were sort of, we got pissed off at it, it gave us... because on our first record we recouped, which means you don’t owe the record company any money. It meant that they weren’t breathing down our necks, so we could make The Bends without very little interference, which then lead on to OK Computer which lead on to Kid A. So, you know, we’ve been very lucky.

Marty: Yes you have. And so have we, to have such great music from you guys. So, I know you’re going to go on stage in just a little bit, so I want to thank you for stopping by today, and have a great show.

Ed: Thank you.

Marty: And I can’t wait to see it.

Ed: That’s great, thanks for kind words. We’re looking forward to this one, you know. It’s – it looks quite big!

Marty: Yes it does. Ed O’Brien of Radiohead, I’m Marty Lennartz. Live backstage at Lollapallooza, here on 93 XRT.