Josie:Welcome back to the show. Is it nice to be back?
Ed: Yeah, it seems like a very long time ago that we were here - and it was!

Josie:Let's talk about the new album, 'Amnesiac' which was recorded in the same session that you did 'Kid A'. People said that 'Kid A' was notable because you filtered out the "true" Radiohead fans. What was the approach to 'Amnesiac'?
Ed: It was exactly the same. Basically we spent a lot of time arguing. We had 26 songs finished. Everyone's got their own favourites and we were trying to make it work. 'Pyramid Song' didn't work on 'Kid A' and stuff like that. The way it was resolved was one of our managers said "Why don't you do 2 records?" . 

Josie:'Pyramid Song' is like a hymn - was it a natural choice for the single?
Phil: I think with first singles, we tend to veer towards songs which we would play to our friends and say "this is what we've been doing" . It's nice to have a single out and hear our song on the radio again!
Ed: 3 weeks after 'Kid A' came out, we didn't hear any of our songs on the radio. It might sound a bit vain, but it's nice to hear your songs played on the radio. 

Josie:Were you surprised by the critical reaction to 'Kid A' and are you in any way worried about the way that the new set will be treated?
Ed: Yeah, definitely, I think that every time you have a new record out...you're nervous because you make it in isolation and you hope that other people like it. The thing with 'Kid A' is that we had to record in this way, we had to make it. But when people say "Oh Radiohead are being wilfully perverse, they're making music for their bedrooms - why don't they just eff off back to their bedrooms" - that really hurts! We're not trying to alienate people - that's ridiculous! We're just trying to do something different and when you do that, you hope that people will understand it. So, yeah! We're really nervous about how it's going to be received.

Josie:You chose not to do any videos or promotion for 'Kid A'. Was that because the response to 'Ok Computer' was so overwhelming? 
Phil: Definitely, I mean I think that kind of spectre was definitely hanging over us during the recording of 'Kid A' and 'Amnesica - certainly for the first half of it and it slowed us up considerably. But, as you say, the kind of press that 'OK Computer' had put us in a very strong position for the release of 'Kid A', really. It meant that we could actually look at it and come back out and be enthusiastic. We did what we felt was appropriate for the record.
Ed: What was great about 'Kid A' for us was that we just dabbled in a bit of promotion but it was great to release music and not have to do the rest of it because the rest of it had always got in the way...we could stay relatively sane and normal!

Josie:When people like Michael Stipe say that you're so good it scares him - how does that sit with you? 
Ed: It's great! It's brilliant! When you first hear an accolade like that, you're so chuffed. But the other side is that people then expect all the trappings that go with that - big stadium tours. 'OK Computer' was about as big as we wanted to get. We never wanted to be in the realms of R.E.M. and U2 - partly because those fellas work so hhard and we're lazy bastards! We'd much rather stay in Oxfordshire.

Josie:Harping back to last year's tour and the diaries that were posted on the website - is the Internet a very important mediium for you? 
Ed: Yes. When we were making the record it was the first time that we could go away in isolation for 2 and a half years and still have contact. The thing that's brilliant about the diaries is that you could spend the whole day working and then you write your bit up and it's immediately on the website. I remember when I was a teenager and bands would disappear and you'd wonder if there was some kind of sorcery going on - some kind of witchcraft. It's not like that at all, it's sheer hard work! 

Josie:So it's 'Radiohead's Diary' as opposed to 'Bridget Jones's Diary'?
Ed: A lot less sex and more eating, probably!

Josie:Going back to the tour that you did last year, what was it like when they were all singing 'Karma Police' back at you? 
Phil: It's great now that we've got the material from 5 albums and actually being able to paste all those together, because it breathes new life into all the old material. 

Josie:So what was the business with the tent?
Ed: One of the disagreeable things about playing arenas is the sound. Audiences put up with really crap acoustics, so it was a way of getting enough people in and controlling the environment so that the sound was great. There weren't any black spots.

Josie:The crowd cry out for it, but you resist - will you ever play 'Creep' again?
Phil: Who knows? If we find a way back into the song. When it was released, it felt like somebody else's song. Now nearly 8 years on from it, it's that times 10 and whenever we play it, it feels like a bit of a cabaret song. I think that the song seems to mean a lot to some people and I don't think we'd do justice to it at the moment. But maybe one day...

Josie:So it won't appear on the set when you play Oxford?
Phil: Well, you never know!

Josie:Is that the one-off gig or will we get to see you play live anywhere else?
Ed: That's it for the moment. We did quite a few shows last year - well for us! We haven't played in Oxford for 6 years - a bit like doing TOTP again. It's quite big, so hopefully enough people will be able to see it.