BBC News Online: Entertainment

Jazz legend joins Radiohead

The legendary trumpeter, 79, went into the studio with the band after they wrote to him asking for help as they were "a bit stuck".

"When we finally got a take that sounded good to me, they said: 'Good, we'll go and have some food, then we'll come back and do some more'," he told Q magazine. "I said: 'not me'. It was a very heavy day."

'An awful cheek'

Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood had written to Lyttleton saying: "It's probably an awful cheek and we're sure you're very busy, but we're a bit stuck."

Lyttleton then borrowed a copy of their third album, OK Computer, and assembled a group of five musicians to go into the studio with the band.

"People had said to me they were all crazy," he said. "But in fact we had a good time."

The band have also released the tracklisting for Amnesiac, which will be their fifth album and is due for release in the UK on 4 June.

They have promised that it will be more accessible than their fourth, Kid A, which saw them move in a more unconventional, electronic direction.

But the album was still a hit in Britain and America, and won a Grammy for best alternative album.

BBC News Online readers voted Radiohead as their favourite British band of the last 12 months - but they did not pick up any Brits at the 2001 awards.