Ahead of the release of their new album 'Amnesiac' Steve Lamacq got Colin Greenwood, Thom Yorke, Ed O'Brien into a studio to talk about it. He also invited three Radiohead fans, who had won the chance to come meet the band, ask questions and tell them what they thought about it. 

Here you can hear the full, unedited, recording of the interview and clips of the songs which were played on the Evening Session. We've transribed a lot of what was said, but you do need to listen to the audio to hear all of the discussions. 

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or click on the listen icons below to start listening at that point 

The reviewing panel:

• Mark Higgenson, 21, Graphic Designer, from Manchester

Track which got him into the band:
"Creep, on an indie compilation album. I thought right I'll go out ang buy the album, and bought 'The Bends' by mistake, and got into them from there."
What's your favourite Radiohead song?
"Single 'Paranoid Android', and album track 'Exit Music For A Film'." 
• John Clues, A-level student, from Rugby

First Radiohead moment:
"Around the time of 'Creep', but 'The Bends' was when I really got into it. 'Street Sprit' was an absolutely blinding track." 
• Amy Garrick, Highers Student, from the Shetland Islands

Favourite Radiohead track:
"'Knives Out', I heard the webcast version of it and liked it so much. I thought that one is going to be a cracker when it comes out." 

What did you think of 'Kid A', was it a shock?
Mark: "Not really, I'd been on the internet and got some of the stuff they'd played in Athens. Because it wasn't like 'OK Computer' it took a bit getting used to, but now it is my favourite over 'OK Computer'."
Amy: "I just loved the way it was put together, it fitted so well. I'd bought all the albums before it, but that one seemed to make a lot more sense, and it makes more sense every time you hear it... I was discussing it with one of my friends and we were saying it was a very good record to relax to because by the last track you could fall asleep."
John: "Shocked and disappointed, a bit of both. The first time I heard it I thought they'd gone too far, this is wrong. After such a success as 'OK Computer' I thought they were developing into a really good band, then 'Kid A' goes very experimental and I thought, first impression, it was a bit of a mistake for them. It really is a grower, and I've got into it now." 

Track: You and Whose Army?

What did you think of that track?
John: "To be honest it's not one of my favourites off the album, they gone all very deep on it. [I like] the jazzy drumming in the background, apart from that I'm not a fan. There's been a lot of criticism that Thom doesn't pronounce the words right on the album, and I think that's where it comes from."
Amy: "It helps if you know what the words are, because then you can make them out." 

Are the lyrics important to you Amy?
Amy: "It helps you to understand what the mood of the tune is. I mean you can be singing so happily about something that's really sad, and you'd never get it if you didn't know what the lyrics were. It was very important for 'Street Spirit'." 

I think the scary thing about this record is some of the tracks are almost brighter in texture, and some of the lyrics are quite scary...
John: "I think it's definitely important if you are a Radiohead fan to know the lyrics because they are such a huge part of their whole manifesto of being a pop band. It's like 'we write the lyrics, beautiful words" and the fans really need to embrace it. If they cannot hear it or don't understand it I don't think it works as a song or album." 

The effect it creates with the lyrics is slightly more sinister...
John: "I think what they have to say on this album is a change, and in some cases it isn't exactly what you want to hear, and on the other albums it has been."
Amy: "It was a pity they didn't put the words in 'Kid A' because it made it harder to understand." 

The band - Colin, Thom, Ed - join the group

We are going to play 'Knives Out' which is one of the tracks which didn't make it onto 'Kid A', why?
"It didn't fit on 'Kid A', and obviously you had to be there at the meeting to understand our artistic reasons." 

Would you ever record 'True Love Waits'?
"We'd love to record that. We'd love to find a way to do it, other than on an acoustic guitar. We have an entire section in our tape store just for 'True Love Waits' versions."
"That was a song we first did around 'OK Computer'."
"Every time we start a version of it we get a different song. For 'OK Computer' we got 'Push Pull' out of it." 

Is that it now? Is there no third album, no more stuff around from this?
"There's always recycling going on, but no. There's lots of old songs kicking around that we will attempt to do at some point, but it's nice to get it all out of the way and move on." 

Track - Knives Out

What's the most rare Radiohead record?
"Drill, the first EP. EMI pressed it up with Joe Cocker on the sleeve." 

Talking about bootlegs of stuff, have you guys got any live bootlegs?
"Yeah, I used to buy shed-loads of REM bootlegs, them doing 'Lion Sleeps Tonite' stuff." 

(They then went on to talk about Napster and downloading music off the net.)

Track - Morning Bell

Were you conscious of trying to find a balance between something that was forging ahead and something that would be too safe?
"If you spend a lot of time and energy to be different you'll end up repeating yourself endlessly. Every which way is a track, and you just have to try and be a little bit objective. Especially in our band it tends to operate that if someone's got a particular fever about a song, and really wants to pursue it, then it gets done." 

Question from Amy:
You said you had a bag of live CDs, will we ever see them individually like Pearl Jam did?
"The thing is they are all on the net now. I thought that Pearl Jam thing was really cool. But, it's all free now to download."
"We have talked about it. We've got all the DATs of the gigs. In a way it's worth doing, the problem is some poor person has got to volunteer to sit through it all and select the good stuff. We wouldn't just put it out as it is. I think we will have to do it, especially because there are certain songs that are so different live, like 'Dollars & Cents', and it would be great for people to hear those versions. 

Track - Dollars & Cents

Question from John:
I heard you actually split up and reformed, what made you go back into the studio and become a band again?
"I think ever since we've been a signed band there's been a thing of nearly splitting up. Whatever it is [that's causing problems] we see it through. And I think it's a good thing we have that edge, almost breaking up because it means you don't carry on doing it for the wrong reasons. You don't do it for a lifestyle, you do it because either the music's not happening or it's not working out between the five of you." 

Question from Radiohead to our guest reviewers:
Do you ever think we get up our own arses?
John: "To be honest no. If you read NME, or anything like that, they try and portray you as though you constantly live up there. Having met you now I wouldn't say that at all?....I know a lot of people do believe [what they read], anti-Radiohead people, but you have to take everything with a pinch of salt." 

You have come out of your shell a little bit, Mr. Yorke?
"I don't know. The aftermath of 'Kid A' was a shock to the system, I couldn't quite get my head around it. I think you have to be resilient enough to cope with criticisms, and there's points where you are going to be down no matter what you do. But, I found it quite difficult, really personal, and I couldn't understand what we'd done to deserve it. [I thought] I'd actually quite like to answer these people back rather than let them get on with their little feast." 

Did you feel vindicated with the success of 'Kid A'? Were you sitting there thinking 'come on, you and who's army'?
"A little bit, yeah. Sort of that and sort 'there you go, we've burst the bubble now, so let's start over'. That felt quite good. The pressure was so stupid, and the level of scrutiny, so it's good to not have that anymore, because it's never going to be like that again. That is all over now. We are just carrying on." 

Track: Like Spinning Plates

Question from Mark:
The choppy spiky feel [of 'Spinning Plates'] is that something you wanted?
"Yeah, because as soon as we started getting into the sampling, the electronics and stuff, there was lots of thinking that maybe we should issue some things under a different name. But I just think that would be a real cop-out. I think people should be allowed to go off and do whatever inspires them. Especially now, I think the way music seems to work is everything has it's particular protective section - electronica protects itself from everything else, indie does - nobody shares any ideas. Briefly during the Mad-chester there was a cross over going on, all the guitar bands like the [Happy] Monday's were getting into E and listening to dance music, something was happening. Then it all fell to bits."
"I think for us it was just really important that we had licence to go where we chose. I thought we were in a corner, and it was great for everybody else. Personally speaking I didn't enjoy the sound of my own voice, I wasn't enjoying playing guitar and it had all gone completely hay-wire. So the idea of going in and having to make a guitar, drums and bass record was just not going to happen. That's why I'm so proud of 'Spinning Plates' because it was the most skew-whiff way of ever writing a song you could possibly imagine. Basically it was fragments of another song ['I Will'] spun backwards - rewriting the melody that's backwards and having to change it. It was great, that's the sort of stuff I get off on. Still at the end of the day it's a song, and I think coherent. 

(There was then some discussion about what the reviewers and the band want Radiohead to do next.)

Do the two albums 'Kid A' and 'Amnesiac' make it more difficult, or give you more freedom to do anything?
"Nigel [Godrich] has laid the rules down, for the next one he's setting up a time limit, otherwise we will kill him. It would help if next time we went in [the studio] we had a rough clue about what we are going to do!" 

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