Shrouded in the mystery that’s become characteristic of the band since their formation in 1985, O’Brien’s response offers little in the way of excitement for super-fans awaiting new music. However, he does offer some certainty regarding the current state of affairs, saying “There’s no Radiohead at the moment. There’s a truth to what we do, so we’re not going to be one of those bands that gets together for the big payday.”

The last Radiohead LP came back in 2016 with A Moon Shaped Pool, and was met with widespread acclaim and praise from critics worldwide. Being nominated for two Grammy Awards and the groups fifth Mercury Prize, it became not only their sixth number 1 album in the UK, but across much of the world too, claiming the top spot in Belgium, Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, and Sweden. You can check out A Moon Shaped Pool’s lead single “Burn The Witch” below.

Commenting on the band’s ethos surrounding the creation of their music, O’Brien went on to comment “The thing with Radiohead, we could do something in a couple years. We might not. But I think what it has to be, it has to be five people going, ‘I really want to do this again with you.’ And I think at the moment, because we’ve done it for so long, we’re all reaching out and having different experiences. And that should be allowed, and that should be encouraged”. 

The band have of course splintered into various side projects over the last decade, with every member embarking on a solo career at one point or another. Their most notable detour of recent years being Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke’s band The Smile, whom released their debut album A Light For Attracting Attention earlier this year to great critical approval.

Despite this, one shouldn’t lose hope. Radiohead have certainly not announced a split, and from the sounds of Ed’s conversation with The Line-Up, things are looking quite positive. “We’re an ongoing band and have online meetings – there was a Zoom call recently,” he said at the time. “We’re talking about stuff, but for the foreseeable future everyone is doing their own thing. When it feels right to plug back into Radiohead, then we will.” Godspeed Ed.

You can catch his whole conversation with Shaun Keaveny on The Line-Up podcast here.

During his conversation with Alex Mistlin, he was noted to display a shy nervousness at odds with the confident brand of music he creates and the incensed performance he gives in the music video for “Hate“: “People feel scared to say how they really feel because in the times we’re living they get crucified. I’m trying to unlearn that bit by bit and be more myself“.

It seems like part of his agitation might also stem from his awareness of the change in direction that he’s taken and the response it might generate. For fans of the sweet and unchallenging tones of 2018’s “Ottolenghi“, “Hate” may be jarring and uncomfortable, but it’s a risk he’s willing to take and likens to the journey that Kendrick Lamar went on to conceive his lauded third album To Pimp A Butterfly. “When you’re young, there’s a charm to the fact that you’re a bit naive,” he says. “You don’t know what you’re striving for. It’s a balance because you don’t want to be too old to feel connected to the culture of youth that you’re trying to speak to. There’s a sweet spot in the middle, like Kendrick with To Pimp A Butterfly, where you’re naive enough to still be free-speaking, but considered enough to refine your shit.”

To compare “Hate” to the cultural heft of Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly would be lazy and remiss of me. Loyle is a British artist discussing experiences and traumas unique to him and should in turn be appreciated on it’s own level. However, I will say I’m excited to hear more from him as the new album and direction he’s taken becomes more apparent in the coming year. As judging by the brilliantly emotive video that Loyle himself co-directed for “Hate“, it’s going to be exciting.

ANNOUNCEMENT

The one and only @JamesBayMusic is headlining @LoFootball this year and we can’t contain our excitement!

Don’t Let It Go and secure your table now!https://t.co/WVkBufHWZfpic.twitter.com/aTRXbpEyZc

— Legends of Football (@LoFootball) July 20, 2022

Nordoff Robbins use music therapists to help some of the most vulnerable and isolated people in our society, working with adults and young people suffering with life-limiting illness such as dementia, mental health issues and learning disabilities including autism and physical disability. Nordoff Robbins began back in 1958 and is the UK’s largest music therapy charity. It was first developed through the 17 year long collaboration of American musician Paul Nordoff and British musician Clive Robbins, who sought to devise a therapy for children with disabilities. The therapy involved immersing patients in music by both listening and learning how to play, and was grounded in the belief that everyone can respond to music no matter how ill or disabled they are. Click here for more information about the charity.

This year, the Brit award winning and Grammy nominated singer-songwriter James Bay will be headlining the event as Gareth Southgate is inducted into the Legends Of Football Hall Of Fame. James Bay recently secured a No.4 album in the UK’s Official Charts for his third record Leap, overtaking Paolo Nutini’s Last Night In The Bittersweet to grab the spot. He is one of Britain’s most successful international exports of the last decade, with his early single “Hold Back The River” going platinum in the United States and 3 times platinum here in the UK.

Speaking about headlining the event, Bay said: “I’m honoured to be headlining Legends of Football 2022. I have always been a huge football fan, Alan Shearer was my hero at the age of six and I’ve been an avid Newcastle supporter ever since, so it’s wonderful to be involved with Legends of Football this year to celebrate Gareth’s stellar career as a player and manager whilst supporting a brilliant charity like Nordoff Robbins.”

It’s likely that football is going to be on the minds of many at the moment, with England’s lionesses beating Spain last night in the 2022 women’s Euro’s tournament, and the World Cup fast approaching. So let’s hope there can be many more collaborations between music and football moving forward to help those in need.

Steeped in angst and effective in it’s stark use of contrast, it’s an immediately engaging piece of work that deserves your attention. You can check it out below:

The video was shot on Praia de Almagreira beach in Portugal and directed by the prolific French music video director Yoann Lemoine (Katy Perry – “Teenage Dream“, Lana Del Rey – “Born to Die“, Harry Styles – “Sign of the Times”). Speaking with NME recently Lemoine said “Twigs approached me with a beautiful treatment for “killer” that she had written about her personal story. It felt empowering and vulnerable at the same time. I said yes instantly when she asked me to direct it. It was the perfect opportunity to portray her in a way that we have not seen before, raw and intimate“. Going on he explained “The video is about the poison and the fuel that personal trauma is in art. How our experience forces us to create and how sometimes it is only inhibition and violence“.

The overall feeling stirred by the video is a powerful one, with a climactic scene that sees Twigs watch on helpless as she and her lover, now wearing a demonic mask, make love in a hellish landscape. It’s an interesting take on someones facade slipping the more you become engrossed in them, with the mask seeming to represent her partners true identity, it can be seen as a twist on the well trodden Scooby-Doo reveal that we’re all used to. It’s a vulnerable and nightmarish take on trauma and the dangerously hypnotic nature of love, with Twigs representing herself as honestly as ever.

Elsewhere FKA twigs has released a handful of music videos recently for tracks from her 2022 mixtape Caprisongs, including “Papi Bones,” “Honda,” and “Oh My Love”.

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Ezra has gradually snuck up on everybody as one of Britain’s most reliable and successful international exports of the last decade. With three UK number 1 albums now under his belt, he’s never skipped a beat, with every full length album he’s released grabbing the top spot. His song “Shotgun” from previous album Staying At Tamara’s hardly needs any introduction either, being George’s first No.1 single in the UK, it also went to No.1 in Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland, cementing the singer-songwriter’s star power across the world.

His latest album Gold Rush Kid has not given up on this ambition either. Rather than going for something a little different or leaning into more introspective inspiration for his third album, the pop tycoon kept the recipe familiar, attending to the classic reasoning of “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” and writing another boppy pop record built for summer bbq’s and kids playgrounds. What kind of playground has a PA system? I don’t know, but if there is one, it’s playing George Ezra’s “Green Green Grass“.

Wherever you stand on George’s tunes, one has to admit that he has a knack for effusive melodies that stick in your ears for weeks. Its no wonder then that this time honoured method has paid off with the kind of shows he gets to put on these days. Last night he sold 45 thousand tickets for his largest headline show to date at Finsbury Park, with big acts in their own rights supporting him like London’s International Gospel Choir, Mychelle, The Big Moon, Holly Humberstone, Mimi Webb, and Blossoms, it made for an event that was basically a music festival. It was such a massive show, that the arena dates he’s just added to his UK tour will look slim in comparison, of course they are not, but it will be interesting to see how much bigger this whole thing can get. Gig on the moon anyone?

You can catch George’s remaining UK live dates here:

Felix White took to his Instagram the day after the show on Friday to make the official announcement, saying “I’ve been making a record with my brothers and the brilliant Jamie Morrison for the past few years. It’s taken a second, but we are finally happy with what our new band is ….” Posting some footage from the show in conjunction with the message he went on to say “Yesterday we played the songs for the first time to a room full of friends and family at Omeara. It was a really, really good time. I’d forgotten how much I missed it. Thank you to everyone there. At some point this year there will be the first recorded music and gigs .. we’re really looking forward to sharing it all with you. The band is called @86tvs”

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The Maccabees split back in 2017 having been together for 14 years and released 4 full length albums. They were an essential and influential ingredient to the explosion of indie rock that happened in the UK during the 2000’s and 2010’s and won several awards for their music during their time together, including an Ivor Novello Award for Best Contemporary Song “Pelican” on their third album Given To The Wild.

In a statement at the time of their split, the band said “There have not been fallings out and we are grateful to say that we are not leaving the group as a dividing force“. Since then members of the band have had success enjoying other pursuits in music. Ex-lead singer Orlando Weeks has had great success as a solo artist and novelist, releasing his debut book The Gritterman with an accompanying soundtrack to great critical acclaim. Elsewhere, Felix White has been enjoying cultural success in many different facets, including hosting the popular cricket podcast It’s Always Summer Somewhere, setting up his own record label Yala!, and contributing to the soundtracks of John McEnroe biopic McEnroe and cricket documentary The Edge. Hugo White hasn’t spent much time twiddling his thumbs either, with a recent appearance playing guitar for Jamie T on the John Peel Stage at last months Glastonbury Festival.

86tvs must therefore be quite the project if it’s getting these busy bees to divide their time even more. We’ll be keeping our eyes peeled and ears primed for any updates..

“Late Night Talking” is currently floating at No.14 in the UK Singles Charts, having previously peaked at No.2, and is Harry’s latest single following his record breaker “As It Was” that stayed at No.1 for a staggering 10 weeks. His new album Harry’s House has been a huge success and the biggest of the year for a British artist so far. With 4 songs concurrently in the top 10 of Billboards Hot 100 at one point (“As It Was“, “Late Night Talking“, “Music For A Sushi Restaurant“, and “Matilda“) he became the first British artist to ever achieve the feat, catapulting Harry’s House into the annuls of history and further cementing Styles’s star power.

In this video, Harry can be seen to wake up confused by the absence of his sleepover compadre to then search for them beneath the sheets in an Alice In Wonderland-esque sequence. The video then darts between various different sets and locations with multiple different partners enjoying Harry’s company in bed. It’s all very tasteful and fun, with the tone of the visuals complimenting the fizzy pop nature of the song nicely. Some particularly memorable sequences involve Harry bombing it down a busy road near Buckingham Palace on a king sized bed with his bandmates, or an incredibly extra spoonathon where 20+ people happily roll around in bed together. The undercurrent is all quite saucy, with many different actors and extras coming together to pull off the free-living sentiment of the video. It’s nice to see people of all different shapes and sizes, genders and ethnicities getting their spotlight too, for a pop video that could have so easily fallen into the glorification of unobtainable standards, there’s a nice level of grounding to the production.

It’s a stellar addition to Harry’s latest album campaign and an obvious reminder as to why he’s such a golden goose at the moment. As for what’s next for the star, the rest of the year already looks pretty filled out, with his world tour taking him across Europe, America, and Australia only finishing up in March 2023, the boy wonder from Cheshire looks to be a busy bee for the foreseeable future. No more UK show dates in as it stands though unfortunately, but as soon as we know, you’ll know.

Since then he has released many new songs, each different from the last, that will go towards his debut album Cub due out on Communion Records on September 16th this year. His latest single “Leader Of The Pack” came out today and is another stormer from the surfer that usually calls Newquay his home.

Set up on a blistering guitar riff reminiscent of early naughties American rock, it’s an immediate foot stomper that really kicks up a gear when Slater’s chorus sings “Some people have a special kind of knack, Of getting what they wanted, Just to stab you in the back, 9 times out of 10 it’s the leader of the pack, Leader of the pack”.

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Speaking with Dork, Slater said: “Leader of the Pack is a song about betrayal, about not being able to escape the thing that eats away at you, it’s a song written as a means of getting even”, before further clarifying his current emotional status on Instagram by saying “I’m glad I wrote this when I was still a teenager, otherwise I would have probably calmed down before it came out of me“.

Maturity is certainly a hallmark of Wunderhorse and something Jacob has gone through many different guises to acquire. Previously the frontman of British post-punk band Dead Pretties, and now ironically starring in his first acting role as Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook in Danny Boyle’s “Pistol”, he is a multifaceted character that has seen many sides of the industry on his road to becoming Wunderhorse. His mileage seems to be paying off, with dexterous new music and slots supporting the likes of Sam Fender, Foals, Fontaines DC, and Sorry, his momentum and notoriety is building, especially as a live performer of which I can wholeheartedly verify having been blown away by his performance at The Lexington in London earlier this year.

In short, Wunderhorse seems to be a pony well worth backing, so make sure you hop on board and listen to his new single “Leader Of The Pack” before you fall behind.

You can catch him performing at his upcoming headline show this year at London’s Lafayette on the 20th of October. Grab your tickets here.

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The shows will see him play Glasgow’s OVO Hydro Arena on the 13th, 14th, 16th, and 17th of December this year at the end of his UK tour. The tour will begin in October with two back to back shows at Manchester’s O2 Victoria Warehouse on the 22nd and 23rd, before heading to London for two shows at Alexandra Palace on the 25th and 26th, and then heading all over the country through Birmingham (28th), Hull (29th), Edinburgh (31st), and Aberdeen (1st November). You can find all the details and tickets here.

With a name that belies his origins, Paolo has come a long way from the small town of Paisley in Scotland where he grew up. Despite now being a chart-topping troubadour and national favourite, the singer was once expected to follow his fathers footsteps into the family fish and chip shop business, before being encouraged to sing by his music loving grandfather and a teacher from his school who recognised his gift.

4 albums later and Paolo is somewhat of a national treasure in the UK, particularly in Scotland where he enjoys icon like status. However the 8 years it’s taken to make and release his latest effort hasn’t been without adversity, at times it’s been fraught with difficult self reflection and turbulence, with it’s title Last Night In The Bittersweet being an ode to his desire to escape those periods. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Paolo explained: “There was a long period of life for me that could have been defined as bittersweet. The juxtaposition between the ups and the downs was really quick. It wasn’t in terms of my career, just emotionally”, he continued: “I think I became very content in that rhythm and I guess there was a point where I sought to move out of that and become a happier person. I’m still in the process, but it was a conscious attempt to figure out what was causing that and to try and conquer that“.

Now he seems more content, having recharged his batteries and gained some perspective, he seems delighted and grateful to be returning to the stage. Speaking of the lockdown and the liberation being unleashed on the world once again, Paulo said “the past two years, watching how it’s affected everybody, that social shutdown, it made me think that it is a real privilege to go out and communicate with people on such a scale. And to have the outlet of release that performing on a stage can give. I get the tunes out there and I already feel a bit lighter, but it’s not just that; you’re giving other people a good buzz and a good kick. It’s a good feeling. It makes you feel like you’re doing something right.”

Well we can only hope (and expect) that he will be giving those lucky enough to catch him at Glasgow’s Ovo Hyrdo Arena later in the year a good buzz too. Welcome back Paolo.

October 22nd, 23rd 2022 – O2 Victoria Warehouse – Manchester

October 25th, 26th – Alexandra Palace – London

October 28th – O2 ACADEMY 1 – Birmingham

October 29th – Bonus Arena – Hull

October 31st – O2 Academy – Edinburgh

November 1st – Music Hall – Aberdeen

December 13th, 14th, 16th, 17th – OVO Hydro Arena – Glasgow

new one … work in progress … there are a few .. https://t.co/jPeNYiNVEz

— Thom Yorke (@thomyorke) July 10, 2022

The band played the Spanish music festival in Barcelona exactly a month before this tweet on June 10th, with Julian Casablancas from The Strokes taking to his social media to rave about their performance. Calling it the “best show i’ve seen in YEARS“, Casablancas posted a short video of The Smile, comprised of Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood and Sons Of Kemet’s Tom Skinner, on his Instagram saying “had my mind blown, best show i’ve seen in YEARS ……The Smile – shiiiiiiit that was good. like phillip glass with miles chords with in rainbows Radiohead or something… idk. insane festival overall honestly …Tyler / Tame Impala etc so many other champions too … thank you thank you & thank you to all of it and all who came to the show“.

The Smile only just just released their debut album A Light For Attracting Attention back in May of this year on XL Recordings, so it’s somewhat surprising but exciting that they already have new music in the pipeline. Their debut peaked at No.5 on the UK Albums Chart and gained significant critical attention, with Pitchfork giving it a solid 8.6, and SPIN calling it their album of 2022, it certainly wasn’t a misstep from the kings of alternative rock.

The snippet of “Colours Fly” revealed from their performance at Primavera seems to put the song in a psychedelic desert rock kind of world, with Thom Yorke riffing over a bass guitar whilst singing “If you change your mind, I won’t be surprised, Let the colours fly“, it’s reminiscent of Angus Stone’s trippier work with side project Dope Lemon and seems to be in the band’s hypnotic sweet spot. The next time they will play live in the UK will be at All Points East Festival in London’s Victoria Park supporting Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ on Sunday the 28th of August. Aside from that they have no further UK shows booked, but a tour across Europe locked in for June and July and a tour across America booked in for November and December. Let’s hope for new music soon!