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The hard rock two-piece of bassist and vocalist Mike Kerr and drummer Ben Thatcher took a pause after the 10-year anniversary celebrations for their breakthrough self-titled debut album wrapped in 2024. 2014’s ‘Royal Blood’ shot the pair to stardom, topping the British Albums Chart and winning them the BRIT Award for Best British Group – but with their next 3 albums also earning Number One status and their fantastic live shows in ever-increasing demand, they seemingly never stopped.

With over a year passing with no songs, no shows, and not even so much as a social media post, Kerr and Thatcher released a teaser for a new track back in June. The snippet showcased a heavy, thrashy sound akin to their earlier style on ‘Royal Blood’-era singles like ‘Out of the Black’ and ‘Little Monster’. Shortly after the teaser was released, the group announced a run of 3 UK dates for the end of August, visiting Margate, Guildford and Southampton.

New single ‘Ten Over Ten’ was announced on Royal Blood’s Instagram yesterday, and received its premiere tonight as DJ Jack Saunders’ Hottest Record on his BBC Radio 1 show. Indeed the song from the teaser trailer, it opens with Kerr’s signature bass tone, which mimics an electric guitar, and frantic drum beats from Thatcher, before shifting into riffs that border on heavy metal. This is a new kind of aggression for the duo, blasting through the high-tempo verses into the sleazy, blues rock choruses. It’s a refreshing sound for such a popular act, showing that even though they don’t have a guitarist in the conventional sense, guitar music is still alive and well.

Following the radio broadcast of ‘Ten Over Ten’, Royal Blood took to social media to announce their fifth album would be titled ‘Dead Company’ and is due for a November release. Their post reads “After putting the Royal Blood engine in neutral for a couple of years, we’ve been building up the revs and are playing faster and harder than ever with this album. Written and recorded with the stage in mind, we cannot wait to play it live for years to come. Mike & Ben.” They also alluded to further live shows to be announced in time.

‘Ten Over Ten’ is out now, with new album ‘Dead Company’ releasing on November 13 through Warner Records. Pre-orders of the album on their official store will unlock pre-sale access for the unannounced gigs. Up next for Royal Blood are their shows at Dreamland Margate on August 24, G Live in Guildford on August 25, and O2 Guildhall in Southampton on August 27.

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.