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Jun 11, 2019 By Christopher Roberts Photography by Danny Clinch Radiohead

Recently 18 hours of sessions from the landmark 1997 Radiohead album OK Computer were leaked online. Now the band has officially released all 18 hours to Bandcamp for the next 18 days, available to buy for £18 (around $23), with all proceeds going to Extinction Rebellion, an organization that has been putting together climate change protests in London. In a statement, the band say they were hacked and 18 minidisk files were stolen and held for ransom, with the thieves threatening to release it all. Instead the band has released it. It includes studio sessions, demos, and live material the band recorded. Stream it all below.

The band’s Jonny Greenwood issued this press release statement: “We got hacked last week - someone stole Thom’s minidisc archive from around the time of OK Computer, and reportedly demanded $150,000 on threat of releasing it.

So instead of complaining - much - or ignoring it, we’re releasing all 18 hours on Bandcamp in aid of Extinction Rebellion. Just for the next 18 days. So for £18 you can find out if we should have paid that ransom.

Never intended for public consumption (though some clips did reach the cassette in the OK Computer reissue) it’s only tangentially interesting. And very, very long. Not a phone download. Rainy out, isn’t it though?”

On Bandcamp frontman Thom Yorke issued this statement:

“we’ve been hacked
my archived mini discs from 1995-1998(?)
it’s not v interesting
there’s a lot of it

if you want it, you can buy the whole lot here
18 minidisks for £18
the proceeds will go to Extinction Rebellion

as it’s out there
it may as well be out there
until we all get bored
and move on

Thmx”

In the press release Extinction Rebellion is described as “a socio-political movement which uses nonviolent resistance to protest against climate breakdown, biodiversity loss, and the risk of human extinction and ecological collapse.”

In 2017 Radiohead released a deluxe 20th anniversary reissue of OK Computer that was dubbed OKNOTOK and included three previously unreleased songs: “I Promise,” “Lift,” and “Man of War.” There was also a bonus cassette mixtape that included some of the material from the sessions now on Bandcamp.

The band’s last album was 2016’s A Moon Shaped Pool. It landed at #2 on Under the Radar‘s Top 100 Albums of 2016 list.

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