PARIS (AFP) - British art rockers Radiohead bring their environmental message to continental Europe on Monday with a series of low-carbon but sold-out shows to promote their new album, In Rainbows. 

After breaking all the music industry's rules by giving away their seventh studio album for as much or as little as fans wanted to pay for it, the five-piece band from Oxford have decided their latest tour will also set new standards in green awareness.

Iconic singer Thom Yorke and his bandmates have teamed up with environmental group Friends of the Earth to reduce their carbon footprint and encourage their legions of followers to get behind a campaign to cut greenhouse gas emissions in Europe.

Last year, the group employed carbon analysts to assess the impact of their tours and decided the next one would set an example in an industry famed for its conspicuous consumption.

Friends of the Earth says the group has minimised its carbon pollution by "using energy efficient lighting, transporting equipment by train or boat rather than by plane and by using recyclable materials."

Radiohead, one of the most respected and popular rock bands in the world, has also encouraged fans to travel to shows by public transport or in shared cars and city-centre concert venues have been chosen to reduce driving.

The world tour began in the United States a month ago and the Europe leg began in Dublin on Friday. The band give their first of five concerts in France on Monday before travelling to Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain over the summer. They travel to Japan for four dates in October.

Yorke helped launch a campaign by Friends of the Earth called "The Big Ask" in Brussels in February which aims to put pressure on politicians to agree to a reduction in carbon emissions in Europe. The campaign is also being promoted at the concerts.

Not content with pressuring fans and setting an example to other energy-guzzling bands, the tour is also being used as a media education programme.

For the concerts in France, the band's record label Beggars offered only 50 places for the first concert on Monday night to journalists and gave them away on a first-come-first-served basis to the first reporters that presented themselves -- on bikes -- at the label's Parisian headquarters.

After ending their deal with record label major EMI last year, Radiohead decided to release In Rainbows on their website in October, allowing fans to set their own price for the music and demanding nothing more than a minimal administration charge.

The release was entirely unexpected and came only days after the final version was recorded and mastered in the studio. Demand crashed the band's server on the first day and they were forced to buy another one to satisfy the number of requests.

The group has never said how many downloads were made or the revenues, but a British newspaper reported afterwards that a survey of 3,000 buyers revealed the average amount paid was four pounds (five euros, eight dollars) and a third opted to pay nothing.

Since then, after generating a media blitz with the innovative venture, the free downloads have ended and hard copies of the album on CD and vinyl have entered the customary distribution channels.

Beggars estimates that 100,000 albums have been sold in France alone.

Comprising singer Thom Yorke and bandmates Jonny Greenwood, Colin Greenwood, Ed O'Brien and Phil Selway, the band burst into the limelight in 1993 with their debut album Pablo Honey which generated their first international hit Creep.

After this, they released The Bends in 1995, the superlative OK Computer in 1997, experimental rock-electro albums Kid A and Amnesiac in 2000 and 2001 and Hail to the Thief in 2003.