Gear Live Music News: Articles Tagged Ed O'brien

Radiohead to Head Back to the Studio

Radiohead are preparing to record a new album. The "Lotus Flower" band will regroup at the end of the summer to start work on their first new tracks since 2011.

"We're taking some time out whilst people are doing some other stuff, doing their own things, and the plan is to get back together again [at the] end of the summer," bass player Colin Greenwood told BBC Radio 6 Music.

Radiohead - Colin, brother Johnny Greenwood, Thom Yorke, Phil Selway and Ed O'Brien - released their eighth album, The King Of Limbs, in 2011 and played a world tour last year. The band are currently taking a break while the individual members work on different projects.

Perhaps the band will take a more commercial direction with their next album, as Thom has previously admitted The King of Limbs divided their fanbase: "I can see why it's alienated people. I didn't realize it was on its own planet. It was amazing just to put the record out like that. But then it didn't feel like it really existed. But that was the consequence of what we chose to do. You can either get upset about it, or say, 'well, that's not good enough.'"

Gallery: Radiohead to Head Back to the Studio

Lily Allen Opposes Illegal Downloading

Lily Allen has blasted Radiohead for their attitude to illegal downloading.

The “Smile” singer attacked the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) - whose members include the group’s guitarist Ed O’Brien - for not considering new artists when airing their views on file sharing. She wrote on her MySpace blog:

“I think music piracy is having a dangerous effect on British music, but some really rich and successful artists like Nick Mason from Pink Floyd and Ed O’Brien from Radiohead don’t seem to think so. The Featured Artists Coalition also says file sharing’s fine because it ‘means a new generation of fans for us.’ This is great if you’re a big artist at the back end of your career with loads of albums to flog to a new audience, but emerging artists don’t have this luxury. Basically the FAC is saying ‘we’re alright, we’ve made it, so file sharing’s fine,’ which is just so unfair to new acts trying to make it in the industry…I’m going to be writing to British artists, saying just this: File sharing’s not okay for British music. We need to find new ways to help consumers access and buy music legally, but saying file sharing’s fine is not helping anyone - and definitely not helping British music.”

Lily’s comments came after members of the FAC - including Travis singer Fran Healy and Blur drummer Dave Rowntree - called for the government to abandon proposals to cut off the internet connections of people who illegally download music.

Gallery: Lily Allen Opposes Illegal Downloading