Radiohead were formed by five school-friends in 1985, consisting of frontman Thom Yorke, guitarist Ed O’Brien, drummer Philip Selway, guitarist Johnny Greenwood, and his brother bassist Colin Greenwood. The music they make is incredibly hard to label, a fluid brand of alternative rock spliced with limitless other genres and influences. Their career has seen them release nine studio albums, (scoring Official UK Number One Album with six of them,) headline Glastonbury Festival three times, and make their induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. The Oxfordshire quintet have won six Grammys and four Ivor Novello awards, while all five members have also enjoyed successful careers away from the band.

Following a seven year break from live shows, Radiohead went back on the road in 2025, with a novel approach to touring. Instead of hitting 20 cities, they played five 4-night mini-residencies in Madrid, Bologna, London, Copenhagen and Berlin. Their four sold-out shows at London’s O2 arena broke the 20,000 capacity venue’s attendance record with a new maximum of 22,355 crowd members. They also chose to keep a flexible setlist for each night to keep both the band and fans interested, which Colin Greenwood described as a “busking attitude” – their entire catalogue was whittled down to 70 songs from which they would select a list of in any order.

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According to Ed O’Brien, this may shape the way they consider their tours in the future. Speaking to Rolling Stone, he confirmed that the band intends to tour again, albeit not in 2026, saying “We won’t do anything this year, but we’ll do something next year.” He also clarified that they will keep the same tour structure as last year, but on a global scale, saying “What we’re going to do is, every year we’re going to do a different continent, and we’re going to do 20 shows each year. No more, no less.”

While limiting your entire tour schedule for a year to 20 shows in a single part of the world sounds quite restrictive, O’Brien gives an insight into the thinking behind it. “We want to give absolutely everything each night. We do not ever want it to be like we’re going through the motions or we’re having to run on empty. We’ve got to be able to do it. And you know what? We’re not spring chickens any more.”

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With a year off before their prospective live shows, the members are finding success in their solo ventures. Johnny Greenwood’s turn in writing Hollywood movie scores including ‘There Will Be Blood’ and ‘Phantom Thread’ have seen him win his own Ivor Novello Awards, with his ‘One Battle After Another’ soundtrack losing out to Ludwig Göransson’s work on ‘Sinners’ in this weekend’s Academy Awards’ Best Music category. Today, Ed O’Brien announced his second solo album and follow-up to 2020’s ‘Earth’, ‘Blue Morpho’, alongside the release of its title track.

The hypnotic single ‘Blue Morpho’ and its music video can be found here, with O’Brien announcing a companion film and tour dates releasing later in the year. The album will release on the 22nd of May, with the film dropping earlier in March, showing in London on the 24th, Paris on the 25th and Oxford on the 26th. Follow this link for pre-order and pre-save options, as well as updates on Radiohead news for 2026 and beyond.

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.

And you can bet the importance isn’t lost on the band’s members either. Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien posted a long message on Instagram, recounting the days when they were making the album and working their way towards becoming one of the most respected musical forces out there.

He described the time as feeling “like an age away.. 1997 belonged to a different era .. we were just kids.. with unswerving focus and drive”. There are also some special insights into the creative process behind the album, noting certain influences such as Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew (1970), The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds (1966) and Portishead.

Also, if you’ve ever wondered how the album managed its distinctive sound, the answer may lie in geography. O’Brien notes some of the unusual places the band found to record in, such as “inside a vast metal box for storing apples … [or] the magical St Catherine’s Court owned by Jane Seymour“. So if you’re trying to record some music and can’t find yourself a proper studio, don’t bother – they’re overrated apparently.

O’Brien had some kind words to say about long-term Radiohead collaborator (and currently working with The Smile) Nigel Godrich, who helped co-produce the album: “he did a beautiful job .. think it was his first production work .. we knew he was the one”. They were right – Godrich’s been a mainstay in their production credits ever since, right up until their most recent album A Moon Shaped Pool (2016).

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And if he’s being this nice about their co-producer, he might as well say something about his fellow bandmates, referring to them as his “Brothers, Philip, Colin, Jonny and Thom .. All love“.

 

 

 

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Despite a lack of new studio LPs as of recent, it’s not like Radiohead’s members have been starving the public of new music as of late. O’Brien’s debut solo album Earth was released back in 2020 and was followed by a brief tour in North America before Covid cut it short. It received good marks from the likes of NME, whose 4-star review said it proves O’Brien to be the band’s “secret weapon“.

As for Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, they went along and made themselves a nice new band with drummer Tom Skinner (of Sons of Kemet). The Smile released their debut album last week, titled A Light for Attracting Attention and more of which you can read about here. They also began a European tour last Monday. They may be getting older, but that doesn’t mean the music has to stop just yet.

Sir. Paul released the third installment in his self titled trilogy, ‘McCartney III’ towards the end of 2020. Paul had a more productive lockdown (or ‘rockdown’ as Paul aptly put it) than most, writing and recording the whole record from his home studio; the album was met with plaudits from fans and journos alike. Whilst Macca’s voice isn’t quite what it once was, you absolutely can’t fault his creative drive, Paul just keeps releasing tracks and albums that are very, very good. Take a look at McCartney’s 60’s rivals The Stones, who have been writing albums in the same style for fifty years and you’re blown away by Macca’s ability to write tracks that sound contemporary and fresh.

‘McCartney III Imagined’ takes the solid foundation of the original and runs with it. The dad-joke title of this record is easily forgiven, as the tracks more than make up for poor wordplay. The eclectic mix of guests and styles is testament to McCartney’s nouse for keeping it fresh. St Vincent’s remix on ‘Women And Wives’ gives the track a real lounge lizard feel, Damon Albarn adds a cheeky Gorillaz-esque charm to ‘Long Tailed Winter Bird’ and Josh Homme does exactly what you’d expect on ‘Lavatory Lil’, giving it a sexy, sleazy, leather jacket groove. There are contributions from Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien and a real highlight from Anderson .Paak on ‘When Winter Comes’, he gives the Beach Boys style track an infectiously catchy r&b feel.

‘McCartney III Imagined’ is getting the full works when it comes to vinyl pressing, a number of beautiful pressings are available through a variety of exclusive retailers. Vinyl’s ability to impact the charts gives ‘III Imagined’ a real chance of making a dent in the album ranking, only a number of months since he bagged the top spot with the original tracks. ‘McCartney III Imagined’, then is a love letter to Paul’s legion of dedicated fans and a chance for McCartney to show of his roster of ultra talented mates (a WhatsApp group I’d love to be in).

In an interview with BBC 6 Music, Ed O’Brien said:

“[My] kids were born in 2004 and 2006. And I said to the [Radiohead] guys: in five years’ time, me and my wife are gonna go and live in Brazil for a year. I don’t wanna put the kibosh on anything but this is something we have to do. Don’t feel you can’t make a record. Make a record without me, if I can come in later on, whatever … I’d had so many adventures with this band; I wanted to have an adventure with my family.

“So we went to live in Brazil, in the middle of the Brazilian countryside, and we lived on a little farm in basically a hut the size of this room next to a waterfall. Life was really simple. Kids went to the local school. No one could speak English, so they picked it up, the language of play and stuff. And life was reduced to its simple parts. For me, it was music and my family. And I would go each day, walk up the hill to this beautiful little hut next to this lake, and I started writing.”

Ed O’Brien was highly inspired by Brazil’s carnival culture:

“It was the greatest thing I’ve ever, ever, ever experienced in terms of music. Everyone sings. There must be 4,000 people in each samba school who parade down there, and the combination of writing music and that feeling of being there and being like, ‘Oh my god, music can be like this.’ It was so profound, so it’s fed my whole inspiration and writing. There’s an element of that joy of music. But, like a lot of Brazilian music, there’s a dark heart.”

Favourites to headline the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury 2017, Ed O’Brien could not confirm if Radiohead were definitely going to be there:

“I would love to. I go to Glastonbury every year, it’s my carnival. To be asked to play at Glastonbury again would be magic. I also think Glastonbury is like our spiritual home. It is the mother of all festivals… there’s nothing like that one… It would be great to play there.”

Watch Radiohead’s debut single ‘Creep’ (1992) below: