OXFORD band Radiohead are to release their new album on Saturday, but only as an online download.

The city’s most famous rockers have again bypassed major record labels by announcing The King Of Limbs will be available via thekingoflimbs.com, three months before it is released as a CD.

The band, who met at Abingdon School and played their first gig at The Jericho Tavern, announced the new release on their website yesterday, simply announcing to fans: “Thank you for waiting.”

It will be their eighth studio album, and is named after an oak tree in Savernake Forest, Wiltshire, which lies three miles from a county house where Radiohead has recorded.

The download version of the album will cost £6 or £9 depending on the digital format.

The hard copy version, billed by the band as ‘The world’s first Newspaper Album’ will include large sheets of artwork, will be shipped on Monday, May 19, and will cost £30.

Nigel Godrich, who has worked with the band since 1997’s OK Computer is again the producer.

Radiohead parted company with EMI in 2007 and have since tried to find new ways of marketing their records while bypassing major labels.

In 2007, fans were able to choose how much they paid to download the band’s last album In Rainbows.