April 3, 2003 10:37

MESSAGE TO THE THIEF Radiohead Tickets

Those copies of 'Hail To The Thief' doing the rounds on the Internet have "pissed off" the band...

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The leaked version of the new RADIOHEAD album 'HAIL TO THE THIEF' is a collection of "stolen recordings of early work", bandmember JONNY GREENWOOD has said.

Songs from the album have appeared on the Internet over the last week, sparking a frenzy of downloading from fans across the globe, eager to hear the band's new material.

However, Greenwood said the group are "pissed off" about the leak, not because they're against file sharing, but because the songs fans are downloading are not the songs on the finished album.

According toateaseweb.com, he said: "So it turns out the leaked music is a stolen copy of early, unmixed edits and roughs - so we're kind of pissed off about it, to be honest.

"I see it like this: there's Napster-style file sharing of released music, then there's early Internet distribution of what we at least consider to be a finished body of work. Then there's this - work we've not finished, being released in this sloppy way, ten weeks before the real version is even available. It doesn't even exist as a record yet.

"So yes, we're annoyed - the songs are good on the recordings, which you can hear. But we worked on them after this point until we were happy with them. This is why we're pissed off - we didn't give up on them in February (which is what you're hearing) and it's just a shame that, to your ears, we did.

"So of course people will still download them and hear them, I can understand the temptation. It's not you lot I'm pissed off about, it's just the situation I guess. It's stolen work, fer fuck's sake. What do you all think? I know it'll come out for real eventually, and it'll all be fine, but I though you all might as well know what's in my head."