Stars thwart hackers with gift

ALTERNATIVE rock legends Radiohead have released an 18-hour trove of private recordings from their 1997 album OK Computer after getting hacked by someone seeking a ransom of $US150,000 ($A216,000) for the music.

The genre-bending English musicians uploaded the 1.8-gigabyte collection of recording session outtakes and rare live performances on their radiohead.bandcamp.com website.

The songs can be accessed online for free.

The group is also selling downloads of an album of the 18 hacked Minidiscs for £18 ($A33) and is donating the proceeds to the Extinction Rebellion environmental campaign group.

“We’ve been hacked,” frontman Thom Yorke’s wrote on the website. “It’s not v interesting. As it’s out there it may as well be out there, until we all get bored and move on.”

Guitarist Jonny Greenwood later tweeted a statement saying the hack occurred last week.

“Someone stole Thom’s minidisc archive from around the time of OK Computer, and reportedly demanded $150,000 on threat of releasing it,” Greenwood wrote.