Yet another new person? Oh, yes! This is William Spencer. He’s a writer, he’s from Portland Oregon and he started today.

Excitement in the neighbourhood as it was announced that Radiohead are to play a free gig tonight at Rough Trade East round the corner from the office. First come, first served, so you just have to queue to get in.  Capacity in there can’t be much more than a couple of hundred and by lunchtime there were already 100 or so hardcore fans in the queue. If you don’t want to queue up, there will also be a live webcast from Radiohead’s site.

It’s very interesting to see what the band are doing to shake things up in their market. They’re keeping the Radiohead brand at the bleeding edge of poular culture not just by the nature of the music they make (and the latest album is relatively conventional compared to some of their work) but also by the channels through which they distribute it to people. The Radiohead ‘brand voice’ coninues to be innovative and distinctive in an otherwise increasingly bland X-Factored mainstream music scene. And teaming up with Rough Trade – the acme of individuality and authenticity in the independent scene – is a perfect fit for both brands. It makes Radiohead (still one of the biggest bands in the world)  look cool and anti-corporate and it makes Rough Trade look influential and connected.