Radiohead Slam New Owners Of EMI Records

Radiohead have said that the new owners of EMI Records - private Terra Firma - “don’t fully understand” the music industry.

Speaking about the reasons for their departure from the label's offshoot Parlophone, which came during Terra Firma’s takeover talks earlier this year, guitarist Ed O’Brien said they were glad to leave the label.

“We’ll miss the people we work with, all the people at [EMI subsidiary] Parlophone. The rest of the stuff about maybe not understanding the music industry? Terra Firma don’t fully understand.”

“Because one of the great things about the music industry is that it’s not an industry. It’s a collective of a series of relationships with people.”

Frontman Thom Yorke added that ultimately Terra Firma weren’t able to give the band the artistic freedom that they wanted.

“They didn’t seem very interested and neither did we,” he told the BBC.

“They [EMI] had us on a very, very long leash, for a very long time and that was because they had a series of artist that they allowed to do that like the [Pink] Floyd and Queen and everybody, and its really worked.

“And now when you’re in a situation with private equity firms, it [Terra Firma] looks at music as something to buy and then sell on.”