Radiohead have announced their first live shows in seven years, the source of much anticipation by fans. Flyers posted in cities around Europe teased dates in London, Copenhagen, Madrid, Berlin and Bologna, which the band have now officially confirmed for this winter.
The band will play four-night residencies at a single venue in each country, with the Spanish, Italian and UK runs coming in November, and the Danish and German dates in December.
Drummer Philip Selway said in a statement: “Last year, we got together to rehearse, just for the hell of it. After a seven-year pause, it felt really good to play the songs again and reconnect with a musical identity that has become lodged deep inside all five of us. It also made us want to play some shows together, so we hope you can make it to one of the upcoming dates. For now, it will just be these ones but who knows where this will all lead.”
Hopeful fans will have to pre-register on Radiohead’s website to be in with a chance of buying tickets, a move intended to “reduce competition from bots and ticket touts”. The greater share of tickets will be apportioned to fans living nearer the shows, which they illustrated on a map.
“There will be allocations for those who wish to travel inside Europe and for those outside Europe,” they said. “Our aim is to distribute tickets according to demand in a fair and geographically convenient way.”
The band also said it would include a £1 levy in each UK ticket price in order to support the Live Trust initiative for arenas and stadium concerts to raise funds for struggling grassroots venues. In Europe, €1 per ticket will go to Médecins Sans Frontières, with Radiohead matching the total raised.
The band’s ardent fans had guessed that the news was coming after the band updated its logo on Bandcamp and made their website show an intentional Error 404 message, and noticed that their longstanding visual artist Stanley Donwood shared the rocket-like image from the flyers on his Instagram.
In case this sounds far-fetched, Radiohead fans predate Taylor Swift’s when it comes to scrying for clues about future activity. In March, Redditors noticed that the band had formed a new legal entity, a limited liability partnership with the name RHEUK25 – an arcane move they have previously made to herald their next moves. Last summer, bassist Colin Greenwood told NME that they had spent a few days rehearsing.
The European dates are the band’s first live shows since 2018, when they concluded the tour for their ninth album, 2016’s A Moon Shaped Pool. Each member has subsequently continued their respective solo careers. Frontman guitarist Thom Yorke and lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood formed the Smile with jazz drummer Tom Skinner, and have released three albums to date. Yorke and Donwood recently collaborated on an art exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, which Guardian critic Eddy Frankel called “a succession of bad paintings” in a two-star review.
Guitarist Ed O’Brien released the solo album Earth in 2020, which featured Colin Greenwood on one song; the latter has also collaborated with the Belgian-Egyptian singer Tamino and toured as part of the live band with Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, as well as Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Cave’s solo shows. Selway released his third solo album, Strange Dance, in 2023, and played drums on the fifth album by Newcastle band Lanterns on the Lake.
Jonny Greenwood also collaborated with Israeli musician Dudu Tassa on the 2023 album Jarak Qaribak, comprising reworkings of Middle Eastern love songs recorded in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Oxfordshire, UK. The ensemble also features musicians from Syria, Lebanon, Kuwait and Iraq. A European tour was cancelled after the Israel-Gaza war broke out in October 2023. In 2024, Greenwood joined protests in Israel calling for the removal of president Benjamin Netanyahu and for the release of hostages held by Hamas; he and Tassa also performed in Tel Aviv, which drew condemnation from pro-Palestinian activists.
This year, the collective had two UK performances cancelled after reports of allegedly credible threats to the gigs. Greenwood said in response that they “dread the weaponisation of this cancellation by reactionary figures as much as we lament its celebration by some progressives”.
Israel has proved a fraught subject for the band. Radiohead performed in Tel Aviv on their last tour, in July 2017, despite calls to cancel the performance. Yorke said at the time: “Playing in a country isn’t the same as endorsing its government.”
In October 2024, Yorke walked off stage during a solo concert in Melbourne after being heckled with pro-Palestinian remarks by an audience member. Yorke responded: “Come up here and say that … hop up on the fucking stage and say what you wanna say.” The protester then yelled: “How many dead children will it take for you to condemn the genocide in Gaza?” and Yorke ended the show.
In May, Yorke released a statement about the war in Gaza, saying that Netanyahu and his administration “need to be stopped” and that Hamas “chooses too to hide behind the suffering of its people”. He said that the Melbourne concert had not seemed like the right moment to “discuss the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza” and that afterwards he was shocked to see his “supposed silence … somehow being taken as complicity”. He added that he thought it would be “self-evident” from his music “that I could not possibly support any form of extremism or dehumanisation of others.”
In July, O’Brien posted on Instagram in support of Irish rap trio Kneecap, which drew a comment from a fan about Radiohead’s stance on Israel. O’Brien responded: “My brothers abhor what is going on in Gaza. Just because they aren’t all over social media or using the exact wording that some feel is necessary does not mean they aren’t genuinely upset and angered by what is going on.” He added that “the algorithm feeds division and it’s not a place that many of us feel comfortable expressing our anger”.
Before Radiohead’s new dates were officially confirmed, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel had already shared a statement calling for a boycott of the tour as a result of Jonny Greenwood’s performance in Tel Aviv.
“Even as Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza reaches its latest, most brutal and depraved phase of induced starvation, Radiohead continues with its complicit silence, while one member repeatedly crosses our picket line, performing a short drive away from a livestreamed genocide, alongside an Israeli artist that entertains genocidal Israeli forces,” it read.
“Palestinians reiterate our call for the boycott of Radiohead concerts, including its rumoured tour, until the group convincingly distances itself, at a minimum, from Jonny Greenwood’s crossing of our peaceful picket line during Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.”
Yorke has been less equivocal on the matter of Radiohead’s long-rumoured reunion. Last year, when asked by Australian radio outlet Double J how he felt about speculation over the band’s return, he replied: “I am not aware of it and don’t really give a flying fuck. No offence to anyone and err, thanks for caring. But I think we’ve earned the right to do what makes sense to us without having to explain ourselves or be answerable to anyone else’s historical idea of what we should be doing.”
For many bands, a new tour would mean a new album – Radiohead’s 10th. But precedent – and Yorke’s comments – suggest no such guarantees.
Radiohead’s EU tour dates in full
-
Movistar arena, Madrid, Spain – 4, 5, 7, 8 November
-
Unipol arena, Bologna, Italy – 14, 15, 17, 18 November
-
The O2, London, UK – 21, 22, 24, 25 November
-
Royal arena, Copenhagen, Denmark – 1, 2, 4, 5, December
-
Uber arena, Berlin, Germany – 8, 9, 11, 12 December