Radiohead have announced details of their own mini-festival, new single and album exclusively to NME.
The 30-40,000 capacity event is confirmed for July 7 at South Park in Headington, Oxford. Radiohead will play along with Beck, Supergrass and other bands to be confirmed. Tickets are £27.50 and go on sale this Friday at 9am. Proceeds are to be donated to local charities.
New LP, Amnesiac, will be released on June 4, preceded by the single "Pyramid Song" on May 21. Speaking to NME, Radiohead multi-instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood said: "Sorry to get all Smashie and Nicey but we're doing this concert for local charities which is kind of why the council are up for it. We asked Beck and he's agreed to do it. I think he's going to do a solo acoustic set which will be great, very exciting. Supergrass are playing as well because they're fantastic and local. We're going to try and get Lard [from Radio 1] to open the show."
He confirmed that Radiohead have no other UK dates planned this year.
Speaking about Amnesiac, Greenwood told NME: "It's the first album that I've been happy listening to after we've finished it. It's got the same atmosphere in a way as the recordings we made when we first started before we were even signed."
Denying that Amnesiac is more commercial than Kid A, he added: "There's been rumours of it being guitar-based rock 'n' roll. As these rumours spread we've obviously been kind of biting our knuckles. "Knives Out" is very traditional and so - sort of - are "You And Whose Army" and "Pyramid Song". But then "Like Spinning Plates" really isn't. The album's quite clinical, in a nice way. Because it's slightly shorter [than Kid A] and it's also a bit more diverse, it just ends up being a more intense record."
Asked why the band chose "Pyramid Song" as the first single, Greenwood said: "It was a similar kind of reason to us choosing "Paranoid Android" in that it's a good indication of the record. It'a quite lush and atmospheric. With this record we thought it would be good if people got to hear the music. It would be cool if Radio 1 played the single."
Greenwood also confirmed that "I Might Be Wrong" and "Knives Out" are set to be future singles, but there won't be traditional promotional videos. "There's talk of doing a similar one to the blips last time" he said.
Finally, Greenwood spoke about how Thom Yorke's duet with Bjork at this year's Oscars has been pulled because the song was considered too long. Bjork will now perform alone.
Greenwood said: "Thom had been saying all week, 'That's it, I'm A-list, wicked!'. But it's not happening. He doesn't start singing until three minutes in so he'd just have been standing there in his black tie!"
For tickets to the July 7 concert, call 0870 740 7305 or visit www.radiohead.com. There is a booking fee of £2.25 except for cash purchases at the box office at The Zodiac, Cowley Road, Oxford.

