On This Day in 2019, Radiohead Subverts Blackmail by Officially Releasing Stolen Songs

In 2019, Radiohead was the target of blackmail when hackers stole demos from their OK Computer sessions. The band was told to pay $150,000 to get the tapes back, but Radiohead countered with a move of their own.

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Instead of paying the ransom, the band officially released the tapes in full. The blackmailers had nothing to barter with at that point. Additionally, Radiohead donated all profits from the release to Extinction Rebellion, a group of climate activists.

When the tapes were released, guitarist Jonny Greenwood said, “For £18 you can find out if we should have paid that ransom.”

There were a lot of experimental things happening to OK Computer in the early days of recording. The 1997 sessions included a 12-minute version of “Paranoid Android,” along with a demo of “Karma Police” and many other unfinished or rough recordings. For example, the original “Exit Music” was called “Poison,” and included different lyrics.

Radiohead Turn Blackmail Back On Hackers By Releasing Stolen Recordings Instead of Paying Ransom

In addition to the unfinished material, the release included a “lost single,” titled “Lift.” Radiohead recorded this song but chose not to include it on OK Computer. Apparently, it was “too anthemic,” according to a report at the time from BBC.

According to Greenwood, that lost song would have taken the album in a completely different direction. It may have even taken the entire band in a different direction as well.

“If that song had been on that album, it would have taken us to a different place,” Greenwood said in 2017. “We’d probably have sold a lot more records… [But] I think we subconsciously killed it because if OK Computer had been like a Jagged Little Pill, like Alanis Morisette, it would have killed us.”

A finished version of “Lift” was included on the deluxe edition of OK Computer. However, fans felt that the original demo version was far superior.

“When the band said they didn’t release it because they thought they had another Creep-success level song, I wouldn’t believe them off the [previously-released] version,” one fan wrote on Reddit at the time. “But this version I could definitely see being a big radio tune. Reminds me a lot of ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony.’”

Photo by David Wolff-Patrick/Redferns