The Universal Sigh | RADIOHEAD

To promote the CD and vinyl release of The King of Limbs, Radiohead distributed a free single-issue newspaper, The Universal Sigh, at record shops across the world on 28 March 2011 for which the band employed people to distribute it free in the centre of select cities throughout the world. It is separate from the Newspaper Album version included in The King of Limbs. Artist Stanley Donwood describes The Universal Sigh as "a 12-page tabloid, printed using web-offset lithography on newsprint paper, just like the LA Weekly or London Lite, or Daily Mail."

The paper features artwork, poetry, and lyrics, along with short stories by Stanley Donwood, Jay Griffiths and Robert Macfarlane. There's also a QR code on it that is believed to unlock some special material (leave a comment below if you know what). The paper they used is apparently not like the modern paper used today which is full of chemicals to prolong the life of the paper, so their newspaper should degrade and yellow much faster and will also be more eco-friendly. The free newspaper concept came from Donwood witnessing "a seething mass of humanity at the top of the steps down to Oxford Circus tube station, where amongst the heaving throng of commuters were valiant distributors of London Lite and Metro, and the Evening Standard, attempting to hand them out."

"What I like about newspaper is its ephemeral nature, I like the way the paper goes yellow and brittle when you leave it out in the sunlight. I wanted to do this thing like a really annoying Sunday paper, you know when you buy the paper and all this crap falls out? I wanted to do something really annoying with all these crappy bits of floppy, glossy paper." - Stanley Donwood

Text from TheUniversalSigh.com
"To commemorate this momentous occasion, Radiohead have produced a newspaper which will be given away, free, gratis, without cost to the consumer by accredited vendors from a multitude of locations WORLDWIDE! In the USA, in the Netherlands, in Belgium, Poland, Germany, Austria, in the Czech Republic, in Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Ireland, France, Italy, Slovakia, Finland, Greece, Norway, Lithuania, Estonia, Russia, Hungary, Australia, Latvia, Iceland, Romania, New Zealand, the UK and a load of other places around the globe, our dedicated teams of newspaper delivery people will be handing out copies of THE UNIVERSAL SIGH to anyone who wants one, until we run out! In conjunction with this unbelievable offer, Radiohead have established THE UNIVERSAL SIGH as a website on the internet, where details of your nearest vendor can be found, as well as more informations and a photogallery where we will be posting photos and the lucky owners of the gratis tabloid are invited to post pictures of themselves and their friends reading the newspaper in locations diverse and unusual. There will be other stuff too, but we haven't thought of it yet."

"Radiohead will measure the carbon footprint of this project, and to offset the potential ecological impact we will retire the carbon credits used. Carbon Retirement is the most effective method of offsetting, because it is the only way you can be 100% sure that the emission reduction you pay for will take place."
For more information go here: CarbonRetirement.com