Radiohead have announced their first tour in seven years after mysterious flyers reportedly appeared in several European cities this week.
Lead singer Thom Yorke and the band will tour through Europe from November to December, with four nights each in London, Berlin, Madrid, Bologna, and Copenhagen.
In a message to fans, the band’s drummer Philip Selway said: “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”.
Registration opens at 10am BST on Friday 5 September and will close 72 hours later at 10pm BST on Sunday 7 September. Fans will find out whether they have received an unlock code by 10pm on Wednesday 10 September.
Each person will be able to buy a maximum of four tickets for one show. The greater share of tickets will be apportioned to fans living nearer the shows, which the band illustrated on a map.
“There will be allocations for those who wish to travel inside Europe and for those outside Europe,” the band said. “Our aim is to distribute tickets according to demand in a fair and geographically convenient way.”
The band also revealed that UK ticket prices will include a £1 levy to support the Live Trust initiative to raise funds for struggling grassroots venues. In Europe, €1 per ticket will go to Médecins Sans Frontières, with Radiohead matching the total raised.
Radiohead’s last round of live performances wrapped in 2018, after two years on the road with their album A Moon Shaped Pool.
The seven-year gap is the longest of the band’s career, with Yorke releasing his solo album Anima in 2019 and also forming The Smile, his band with Radiohead bandmate Jonny Greenwood and drummer Tom Skinner.
Meanwhile, lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood has scored several films, including Spencer, The Power of the Dog, and Liquorice Pizza, as well as Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film, One Battle After Another.
Yorke has also scored two films since Radiohead’s last tour, Suspiria and Confidenza, as well as making his debut as a classical composer and adapting Radiohead’s Hail to the Thief for a Hamlet production in Manchester.
In 2017, midway through their last tour, Radiohead received backlash for playing in Tel Aviv, Israel, despite calls to cancel the performance.
The band faced criticism from director Ken Loach, who accused the band of ignoring “human rights violations” in the region, as well as the pro-Palestine campaign by the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement.
In May this year, Yorke branded Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu an “extremist” who “needs to be stopped” in a lengthy statement addressing the war on Gaza.
Hopes for a new Radiohead tour were sparked back in September, when bassist Colin Greenwood revealed that the band had got together in a rehearsal studio a few months prior.
“We did some rehearsals about two months ago in London, just to play the old songs,” he said. “And it was really fun, had a really good time.”
He did not specify which songs the band rehearsed, but fans have speculated that favourites such as “Paranoid Android”, “No Surprises” and “Karma Police” could have been among them.
Meanwhile, guitarist Ed O’Brien pushed back against speculation that the band might be over altogether, describing them as an “ongoing” group who checked in regularly with one another.
Tickets to the new Radiohead tour are available only via registration on Radiohead’s website, which opens at 10am UK time on Friday (5 September). Find full dates below:
Radiohead’s European 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
