Radiohead Lead Singer Thom Yorke was reportedly “hacked,” last week. Now the band will release the stolen music in the name of climate change.
Lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood announced the plan on Twitter early Tuesday morning. “We got hacked last week,” he said. “Someone stole Thom’s minidisk archive from around the time of OK Computer, and reportedly demanded $150,000 on threat of releasing it.”
He continued:
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 casette in the OK Computer reissue) it’s only tangentially interesting. And very, very long. Not a phone download. Rainy out, isn’t it though?
Radical environmentalist activist group Extinction Rebellion responded, thanking Radiohead “for supporting us so that we can continue to build our already far reaching and powerful movement of non violent civil disobedience.”
Yorke has been involved in the global warming debate for years, saying he was inspired by an interview “between a misinformed scientist and a climate change skeptic, in other words a paid professional liar.”
“That was probably in the late ’90s,” he said. “It got me so angry and that’s when I started getting sucked into it.”
Extinction Rebellion is a radical environmentalist organization employing “nonviolent civil disobedience” to raise awareness about the state of the planet.
“We promote civil disobedience and rebellion because we think it is necessary,” the group’s website says. “We are asking people to find their courage and to collectively do what is necessary to bring about change.”