By Molly Steinblatt
The summer of 2008 looks to be an exciting one for Radiohead (PRS). Along with their international tour, the band is due to headline the first two nights of the All Points West Festival, to be held August 8-10th at New Jersey's Liberty State Park. The festival will feature both music and art. A portion of the profits from each day's ticket will be donated to Friends Of Liberty State Park, an all-volunteer not-for-profit organization that is dedicated to the beautification of Liberty State Park.
Radiohead (Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway) have released seven albums and have sold over 23 million records throughout their career. The band members met while attending Abingdon School, a boys-only public school in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. With the release of the "Creep" single in late 1992, Radiohead began to receive attention in the British music press, although not all of it was initially favorable. However, "Creep" unexpectedly built momentum around the world and set them off on the road to success.
In 2005, Radiohead were chosen for Rolling Stone's list of the greatest artists in history. Radiohead's seventh album, In Rainbows, was released in October 2007 as a digital download for whatever customers wanted to pay. It was reported that 1.2 million digital downloads were sold by the day of the album's release. According to Thom Yorke, the band's frontman, Radiohead's profits from the digital download of In Rainbows outstripped combined profits from digital downloads of all of the band's other studio albums.
In Rainbows was physically released in January 2008 on TBD Records, and charted at number one both in the UK and in the US. The album's success in the US marked Radiohead's highest chart success in years. In Rainbows received overwhelmingly positive reviews, among the best of Radiohead's career. Critics extolled the album for having a more personal and relatable style of lyrics than their past work. Radiohead is touring North America, Europe, South America and Japan until the end of the year to promote In Rainbows. The group is doing their part for the environment by working to lower their carbon emmisions on their tour by using energy-saving LED stage lighting. A greatest hits compilation, titled Radiohead: The Best Of, was released by EMI in June 2008.
