Dr Rachel Owen, former partner of Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, has passed away from cancer. She was 48 years old.
Yorke and Owen spent 23 years together, during which they had one son and one daughter, Noah and Agnes. Last August it was announced that the pair had split. An official statement from Yorke read,“Rachel and I have separated. After 23 highly creative and happy years, for various reasons we have gone our separate ways. It’s perfectly amicable and has been common knowledge for some time.”
Their relationship was heavily referenced in their intimate, inwards-looking 2016 album A Moon Shaped Pool.
Undoubtedly, the album’s themes of lost love and change will take on new meaning, now that its thematic basis has changed; think back to how you perceived Bowie’s Blackstar before and after his passing.
According to an obituary posted to the website of Pembroke College, University of Oxford, where was a Retained Lecturer in Italian, Owen passed away this Sunday.
Her obituary reads as follows:
It is with great sadness that the College marks the death of Dr Rachel Owen, who was a Retained Lecturer in Italian here at Pembroke.
Dr Owen was an internationally renowned artist – mixing photography and printmaking – and at the same time a scholar in medieval Italian literature. As Retained Lecturer, she used to teach Dante’s Divine Comedy to Pembroke’s finalists in Italian.
Dr Owen’s parallel passion for art and literature was already established in her university years at Exeter, where she studied Italian and Fine Art. She then moved to Royal Holloway, London, where she completed a PhD on the illustrations of the early manuscripts of Dante’s Divine Comedy.
Each year, her Pembroke students enjoyed the pleasure and the privilege of a guided tour through the manuscripts of the Divine Comedy held at the Bodleian Library.
Despite her declining health from cancer in the last year, she asked to continue to teach, which she did right until the end of last Michaelmas term. She was 48 years old and leaves behind a son, Noah, and a daughter, Agnes, aged 15 and 12.
One of her latest artistic productions was a series of prints inspired by the Cantos of Dante’s first book of the Divine Comedy. The prints will be exhibited at Pembroke’s JCR Art Gallery during Trinity term.
Rachel Owen, died on Sunday 18th December.
Our thoughts are with Owen’s family, Yorke, Noah and Agnes.
Image: Consequence of Sound
Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke wants you to Go To Sleep – and he’s here to help even the most stubborn insomniacs. This week, Yorke released a special half hour Bedtime Mix as part of radio presenter Phil Taggart’s three hour Sunday night program on BBC Radio 1.
The Bedtime Mix begins with kind of robotic sounding voice, not unlike Fitter Happier from OK Computer. It then travels through a series of slow moving ambient and electronic tunes, the perfect tones and tempos needed to lull you into a deep, warm slumber. The middle of the mix features a beautiful version of Bloom recorded when Yorke performed a solo set at a Pathway to Paris concert last year.
In related news, Radiohead have announced that a selection of recordings from Pathway to Paris – a charity concert to fight climate change – will be released this Wednesday, July 27. As well as Yorke, it will include recorded performances from Patti Smith, Flea, Warren Ellis and many more – order it here.
Thom Yorke Bedtime Mix:
Charlemagne Palestine & Robert Feldmen, Electronic and Flute
Luke Abott, Dumb
Thom Yorke, Bloom (live at Le Trianon, Paris)
James Holden, Triangle Folds Inside Out
Laurie Spiegel, The Unquestioned Answer
Radiohead released their long awaited ninth album A Moon Shaped Pool earlier this year – read our review here.
Image: Twitter
As the saying goes, it’s who you know, not what you know.
That statement certainly ran true for the neighbours of Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, with reports emerging last week via Reddit that the singer had appeared at a next door garden party to provide some light entertainment.
Naturally, the internet was equal parts fanatically excited and extremely skeptical, although one photo was posted with the texts.
This is the Thom Yorke, famous for shying away from public adoration and telling his fans to “fuck off” in the streets.
However, footage has now surfaced from the event, providing us all with proof that Yorke did indeed perform for a bunch of strangers in a backyard.
In the grainy video, a relaxed Yorke can be seen having some casual banter with the audience before busting out an acoustic version of Reckoner. Watch below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX_Z1C3BsT0
According to NME, Yorke went on to perform Desert Island Disk, No Surprises, Street Spirit and I Might Be Wrong in a 30 minute set that covered a surprising amount of ground in the band’s catalogue.
The garden party set is just another surprise to add to the list of recent Radiohead activity, with all manner of wild things going down on the bands latest tour, including Johnny Greenwood making a mistake onstage and the band busting out Creep for the first time in seven years.
We’ve been buzzing about Radiohead these past few months, after they dropped their long-awaited ninth LP A Moon Shaped Pool at the beginning of last month. You can read our full review here.
Radiohead are also delivering a special streaming event to record stores across the world tomorrow, with some special prizes in store for a few lucky fans. Check all the details here.
Image: Reddit
A Radiohead fan’s ultimate fantasy: an ultra private, acoustic solo set from Thom Yorke in front of a handful of unassuming middle aged folk.
To some lucky people living in Oxford (and one very unlucky megafan stuck at work), this just happened.
Although there’s little more context than a single text and photo, yesterday, Thom Yorke reportedly played for half an hour at his neighbour’s garden party in his hometown of Oxford.
Posted to Radiohead’s dedicated Subreddit was the following text from one user’s dad:
This set of a chain reaction of fans freaking out, demanding setlists and footage and so on. According to the Redditor named verylittlesound, the set list apparently included the tracks Desert Island Disk, No Surprises, Street Spirit, Reckoner and I Might Be Wrong, noting, “bless my father for running around asking people.”
No further footage is available and it’s pretty unlikely that any will surface, but one incredible photo has been captured to prove that this incredible moment did in fact take place:
This isn’t the first time Yorke has played random surprise sets to tiny crowds. In 2014 he played a DJ set to around 30 people at a festival in Cornwall, and is quite well known for playing surprise sets, including at Sydney’s Goodgod Small Club back in 2012.
It’s really cool to see him take a break from stadium shows and sell-out festival headline sets; to play to a tiny crowd of unassuming folk who may not have even the slightest clue who you are, could well be a huge relief and a lot of fun for someone at his level.
Frankly I don’t care if I get to see him in front of 30 people to 30,000, I just really, really want Radiohead to announce a new Australian tour.
Read our review of Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool here.
Read our interview with the London Contemporary Orchestra who recorded A Moon Shaped Pool.
Image: Reddit
If anyone ever questions whether music is magical, I point them to either Mark Pritchard‘s work, or to Radiohead. So when I heard that Pritchard was working with Thom Yorke, I was both delighted and scared. What if this created the most beautiful sound in existence? Would I fall in love instantly? I informed my girlfriend, and she said she understood if I had to leave her for this song. Now, after hearing the six-minute collaboration, I’m about to go out and buy an engagement ring to marry the song. Beautiful People is astonishingly good.
Following the remarkable Sad Alron, this track is decidedly more haunting. It opens with a minimalist flute-sounding intro, building into a marvellous layered track. Yorke’s vocals begin distorted, but clarity emerges. It’s mellow music, but in the end, it’s lovely. Pritchard says that “Beautiful People is a personal song about loss, hopelessness and chaos, but ultimately the message is love and hope.”
Pritchard will be part of this year’s Red Bull Music Academy in New York, where he will be showcasing his upcoming album, Under The Sun. If you get the chance, consider check it out, as it will be part of an “immersive audio visual installation” developed in collaboration with artist Jonathan Zawada.
Under The Sun is out May 13 on Warp. Listen to Beautiful People below.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6rW2GpQLQE]
Under The Sun Tracklist
1. ?
2. Give It Your Choir (feat. Bibio)
3. Infrared
4. Falling
5. Beautiful People (feat. Thom Yorke)
6. Where Do They Go, The Butterflies
7. Sad Alron
8. You Wash My Soul (feat. Linda Perhacs)
9. Cycles Of 9
10. Hi Red
11. Ems
12. The Blinds Cage (feat. Beans)
13. Dawn Of The North
14. Khufu
15. Rebel Angels
16. Under The Sun
Your mum’s favourite pop star Sam Smith just won the Golden Globe for his original performance of The Writing’s On The Wall, the theme song for the latest James Bond film, Spectre.
On Christmas Day, the world was blessed with Radiohead‘s own version of Spectre, which, although it didn’t make the final cut for the film, is brilliant, and has hopefully heralded in a brand new album for the legendary five-piece.
Following the Golden Globes, Variety posted a video to Facebook of Smith speaking at a press conference. Specifically, one journalist asked Smith if he was surprised that Radiohead’s frontman Thom Yorke had released the alternate version. The results are some of the most awfully cringe-worthy moments we’ve seen in a long, long time.
It’s clear as hell that Smith was immediately dumbfounded by the question. He had to turn to his co-writer Jimmy Napes, asking, “Thom Yorke?” to which Napes obviously replied, “Radiohead.” Smith then fumbles around, mumbling about how he was a little surprised, sure, before snapping back into it and admitting that he hadn’t heard the song. Why?
“I haven’t listened to it personally, because I did the Spectre theme song.”
Get ready to bury your head in your hands:
https://www.facebook.com/Variety/videos/10153320033002197/?permPage=1
This isn’t even a case of musical pomposity, where us Radiohead fans simply expect and assume that any self-respecting musician or music fan knows and loves Yorke and co. (although to be fair, we feel that way too.) This is just outright being a total bratty prick.
Listen to Radiohead’s version here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zv-w0zPSsTs
In celebration of National Letter Writing Day in the UK, a number of celebrities have participated in the tradition of writing letters to Father Christmas. Included in that list of famous letter writers are musicians Annie Lennox and Thom Yorke, who seem to echo one another’s wishes for peace and love for Christmas an long after.
Before writing that she truly wished Santa “existed for grown ups”, Lennox had asked Father Christmas for assistance for the world’s refugees: “Could you ensure that entire generations aren’t forced to flee their homes in cities, towns and villages in war-torn countries from Syria to Nigeria because they are being continuously bombed, burned and brutalised at every turn” and for “sanity and comparison in hearts of the criminal profiteers of hatred, bloodshed and warfare.”
Thom Yorke, whose letter has been published in its original format exclusively by NME, details his hopes for his children at Christmas time:
now that i’m 47, if i have any last remaining credit with you, i have just these small requests.
that my kids have a beautiful christmas
with love and understanding and peace.
perhaps some heavy snow? that would be really great.
and can you just send the precious things that will really mean something to them?
and can you send them some hope for the future. that is very important.
He goes on to say that he won’t ask Santa to undertake such a task as solving the problems of the human race (“those are our problems alone.”) but that perhaps he could stiff major oil company executives and politicians they hold in their pockets. Something tells us that maybe Santa was already onto that, as there’s no fathomable way they were on his Nice list. As for Thom himself? A pair of reading glasses wouldn’t go astray: “the blue ones”.
p.s. thanks for the zx81 computer when i was 11. that was really wicked.
Read the full letter:
Never one for subtleties, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has made a rather remarkable comparison between YouTube, Google and Nazi Germany.
The statements came in an interview with Italy’s La Repubblica (it’s in Italian, sorry), with the singer stating, “All I know is that they make money from the work of many artists who do not derive any benefit.”
“Service providers make money: Google, YouTube. A lot of money. ‘Oh, sorry, it was yours? Now it is ours. No, no, we are joking, it is always yours.’ They seize it. It’s like what the Nazis did during the Second World War. In fact they all did that during the war, the British too: steal the art from other countries. What’s the difference?”
It’s a really bold statement; one that has, and will no doubt continue to draw much controversy and criticism. Similar to when Prince recently compared a record label contract to slavery, no matter how much you love these musicians, it does feel necessary to stop for a moment and consider the incredulous exaggeration of these claims. “What’s the difference?” Really, Thom?
The interview also saw Yorke answer questions on a wide range of other topics, including the future Radiohead releases and his own Twitter activity.
Regarding a follow-up to Radiohead’s 2011 album The King of Limbs, Yorke was definite that the album was “not yet ready.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfOa1a8hYP8
The singer then discussed the series of cryptic Tweets that have been appearing on his Twitter feed, and the possibility of them being notes for new songs, confessing that “…maybe a few are finished in the next album. They were mostly things that I had written when there was yet another discussion on social networks on Spotify.”
https://twitter.com/thomyorke/status/651329256077848576
https://twitter.com/thomyorke/status/645156569097875456
https://twitter.com/thomyorke/status/620535353603190784
Yorke is renowned for his dislike of streaming services, proclaiming back in 2013 that Spotify in particular was the “last, desperate fart of a dying corpse.”
Yorke’s most recent musical offering was the eight-minute Villain, soundtrack to a New York Fashion Week runway show for fashion label Rag & Bone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08vYbU9U94k
Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, has had fingers in all kinds of creative pots recently. He’s now unveiled a spooky, stunning new track for fashion label Rag & Bone‘s show at New York Fashion Week. Called Villain, the eight-minute track features twelve vocalists from the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, who performed the song from behind a sheer curtain during the show.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08vYbU9U94k&w=560&h=315]
The ethereal and enchanting soundscape comes off as something akin to a sonic melancholia. The gentle cadence draws you in, from the first tinkles of the piano before it ends in a crescendo of heavenly voices. Around the 4-minute mark, the track segues into Yorke’s remix of DOOM’s Gazillion Ear. You can check out the video of the runaway show itself here
This is far from Yorke’s only collaboration with the fashion brand – in fact, he’s worked with them for years. He first performed for a Rag & Bone show in 2011, before returning in 2013 with Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, and again last year, with Radiohead’s long time producer Nigel Godrich.
To top it all off, we’ve started to (finally) hear rumours that Yorke and co. are gearing up to record the follow-up to 2011’s The King of Limbs.
Yorke isn’t the only musical insert to NYFW: Kanye West launched Yeezy Season 2 this week (we watched it in the cinema – this is what went down), at which he also debuted his new track Fade, featuring Ty Dolla $ign and Post Malone, with samples from house classic Deep Inside by Hardrive.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLeWPkU8Fr8&w=560&h=315]