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Radiohead clarify ATC chief’s role after comments about new album
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 18 April 2016
There was a flurry of excitement last week about the incoming new Radiohead album after manager and ATC co-founder Brian Message said that the new long player should arrive in June and would be “something that will probably make many of us go ‘wow!'”
According to The Guardian, Message added of the band’s new material that: “There’s nothing out there right now that sounds anything like this. And for some people that will be a good thing and for others that probably won’t”.
However, as reports of the new Radiohead revelations circulated online, the band themselves were keen to stress that while Message is a partner in the management firm that looks after their business affairs, he does not have a hands-on role in their current activities, and therefore his comments shouldn’t be seen as official updates from either the band or their day-to-day management team.
A rather frank statement from the band read: “At an industry event in London last night Brian Message was asked about new Radiohead music. Quotes attributed to him and taken from his talk have subsequently appeared, describing him as Radiohead’s manager. Brian Message is not Radiohead’s manager – he is a partner in Courtyard Management but plays no operational role and therefore any quotes from last night’s event, or any supposition arising from them, should not be attributed to Radiohead’s management or be seen as official quotes on behalf of the group. Radiohead are managed by Chris Hufford and Bryce Edge at Courtyard Management”.
Message is one of the more high profile artist managers in the UK, and his involvement with Radiohead is often noted, especially as he has been a big advocate of the streaming business model in recent years, while Thom Yorke has been vocal in his criticism of Spotify et al. Though Message’s companies have a large roster of artists, and he himself has generally been more closely linked to clients like Nick Cave and PJ Harvey in recent years.
Nevertheless, he did discuss at last week’s event whether or not Radiohead would allow their new record to appear on the streaming services, saying he really hoped they would, but that the band were yet to decide.
