OK Computer Vinyl at 30: 1997 First Pressing vs Reissues, Value and OKNOTOK

Radiohead released OK Computer in Japan on 21 May 1997, in the UK on 16 June, in Canada on 17 June and in the US on 1 July. It came out on CD, cassette, MiniDisc and double LP. Thirty years on, the vinyl question has become two questions. Collectors ask whether their copy is the 1997 original and why that original costs so much. Everyone else asks which of the many reissues to buy.

The anniversary falls between May and July 2027. As of 12 October 2026, no 30th-anniversary edition had been announced. The last anniversary release was OKNOTOK 1997 2017, ten years ago, which we cover below. Searches for OK Computer vinyl already peak every December, when people buy records as gifts. An anniversary edition, if one comes, would add a second wave.

This guide gives you a checklist for the 1997 pressing, the reason behind the second disc, a table of every edition worth knowing, an honest look at the price, and a recommendation for listening. Our Radiohead vinyl collection guide covers the rest of the catalogue.

There is exactly one 1997 vinyl edition: Parlophone NODATA 02, also numbered 7243 8 55229 1 8. It is a two-LP gatefold with printed inner sleeves, and the inner sleeves have thin scooped cut-outs along the top edge. Discogs lists it as "Worldwide": copies exported to the US carry a MADE IN ENGLAND sticker on the back. Discogs shows no American Capitol vinyl pressing in 1997.

Five checks:

1. Back cover: barcode 7 24385 52291 8, "UK: NODATA 02" and the price code PM 262.
2. Labels: each disc has its own number, 7243 8 57331 1 6 for LP1 and 7243 8 57332 1 5 for LP2.
3. Stamped matrix: NODATA 02A-1-1- and so on, with a D stamp showing Direct Metal Mastering. On some copies the "1" of an earlier "01" is visibly struck through.
4. Cutter: VINYL BLAIR, for Chris "King Fader" Blair, who mastered and cut it at Abbey Road.
5. The etched messages, one per side:
   • Side A: I LIKE YOU, YOU ARE A WONDERFUL PERSON
   • Side B: I'M FULL OF ENTHUSIASM I'M GOING PLACES
   • Side C: I'LL BE HAPPY TO HELP YOU
   • Side D: I'M AN IMPORTANT PERSON, WOULD YOU LIKE TO COME HOME WITH ME?

A 1998 UK repress, pressed by Sony/CBS in Haarlem from the same DMM parts, looks almost identical, messages included. Its sleeve and labels match the first pressing, so the factory is the main clue. There was also a 180g version of that repress. The UK promo is a white label in a plain black sleeve with the same etchings. For the general method, see our guide to runout and matrix numbers.

OK Computer runs about 53 minutes. That would fit on one LP, but only with long, tightly packed sides, which costs level and bass, especially near the label. Parlophone spread the twelve tracks over four sides instead, headed Eeny, Meeny, Miney and Mo. That is why a copy has two discs.

The split is uneven. Side D holds only two songs, "Lucky" and "The Tourist", so the last side is short. There is no bonus material on the 1997 vinyl. The extra tracks only arrived twenty years later, on OKNOTOK.

Shorter sides allow wider grooves and a louder cut, which is one reason people say the album sounds good on vinyl. Hi-Fi News also mentions the band's preference for the format. No source we found gives the band's own reason for choosing two discs, so treat the explanation above as how vinyl works in general, not as a quote. The same four-side layout carries over to every reissue of the album proper. OKNOTOK adds a third disc for the B-sides and the unreleased songs.

Discogs lists 42 vinyl versions of OK Computer, far fewer than for a 1970s album. That makes the full picture easy to see. Here are the ones worth telling apart, with the side A runout of each:

How the families break down:

• 1997–98 Parlophone: the original (NODATA 02), the white-label promo and the 1998 Haarlem repress, all cut by Chris Blair with the etched messages.
• 2008 Capitol "From the Capitol Vaults": a 180g US reissue released on 19 August 2008, cut by Ron McMaster and pressed by Rainbo. Wikipedia says it was the tenth-best-selling vinyl record of 2008. The same year a worldwide edition was pressed by Record Industry from the original DMM parts, so it keeps the Blair cut and the messages.
• 2013/2015 Parlophone 180g: the 2015 pressing was made by MPO. A Hoffman forum regular called the 2013 UK 180g "the most audiophile Radiohead vinyl out there", and it was believed to use the original plates. That is an opinion, but a common one.
• XL Recordings, 2016 onward (XLLP781): XL took over the catalogue in April 2016 and reissued the vinyl that May. Represses followed from 2020; the 2024 one was cut at MPO and pressed by GZ.
• OKNOTOK 1997 2017 (XLLP868): see the next section.

OKNOTOK 1997 2017 came out on XL on 23 June 2017. It is a different product from the album reissues. It is a three-LP set that adds eight B-sides and three previously unreleased songs, "I Promise", "Man of War" and "Lift", to the twelve album tracks. Discogs credits Bob Ludwig with the new remaster and Barry Grint at Alchemy with cutting the lacquers. Optimal Media pressed it. Its runouts carry their own etchings: BAZZA, SKIP, SKY, BLUE.

There are three main versions:

• Black 3LP (XLLP868), the standard edition.
• Blue 3LP (XLLP868X), sold through independent record shops. It was advertised as limited to 7,000 copies, though Discogs users report that more were pressed because of pre-order demand.
• The box (XLMX868), with the black LPs in a hardcover book, a 104-page notebook, a 48-page sketchbook and a C90 cassette compiled from the session archive.

Should you buy OKNOTOK instead of the album? Buy it if you want the extra songs. Buy the album if you want the original cut. AnalogPlanet wrote in February 2020 that OKNOTOK "sounds good… until you hear Chris Blair's original mastering". That is one reviewer's ear, but it matches what most forum threads say. The blue edition is the collectible one of the three.

"Why is OK Computer vinyl so expensive?" is really a question about one record, the 1997 NODATA 02. The reissues are not expensive. The reason is in the Discogs community numbers, checked on 12 October 2026:

The 1997 original is one of the few records on Discogs that more people want than own. Three things explain it. In 1997 vinyl sales were near their lowest, so the original run was almost certainly small for an album this big. Copies were played, because this was a record people listened to. And the reissues, however good, do not satisfy collectors who want the one from the year of release.

A want/have ratio measures demand, not how many copies were pressed, and it says nothing about any particular sale. So we give no price here. For what copies are being offered for right now, check a marketplace on the day you buy. The practical point stands: if you only want to hear the album, the 1997 premium buys you a date on the label, not a better record.

The 1997 original is scarce compared with demand. The album itself on vinyl is not rare at all. The XL and Capitol reissues sit in tens of thousands of collections, and they remain in print.

What collectors actually treat as rare:

• The 1997 white-label promo of NODATA 02, in a plain black sleeve. Discogs shows 86 users owning it and more than 2,200 wanting it, and no sale recorded through the site.
• A complete, clean 1997 first pressing, with both inner sleeves and the export sticker, if it was a US-market copy.
• The blue OKNOTOK and the OKNOTOK box, for modern collectors.

Be wary of anything that does not appear in the table above. Some collectors believe bootleg copies of the album circulate. If a copy has no Parlophone, Capitol or XL catalogue number, no etched messages, and a price that seems too good, our guide to spotting fake and bootleg vinyl walks you through the checks. Verify the runout before you pay a first-pressing price: our first pressing identification guide shows how.

Reviews and forum threads about how OK Computer sounds on vinyl keep coming back to Chris Blair's 1997 cut. In the Hoffman forum's "Best Radiohead OK Computer Vinyl" thread (2020–21), one poster summed it up: originals are "flat and open sounding", the XL represses "a little bit smiley faced", the Capitol "too much midbass". AnalogPlanet gave the EU repress pressed from "the original UK metal parts" 10 out of 10 for sound. That is the 2008 worldwide edition, pressed by Record Industry from the original DMM parts. These are opinions, but they point the same way.

Whichever you choose, it is a two-disc gatefold, and second-hand copies often have seam splits. Check the jacket as carefully as the vinyl. To identify a copy without reading the dead wax, photograph the label and catalogue number with the VinylAI app. It matches the pressing and adds it to your collection.