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.

The band has used the bubbles in the past as a show-prop, however, this marks the first time they have used this technique as a safety protocol. Wayne Coyne, the bands lead, held up balloons that read ‘FUCK YOU COVID-19′, marking the occasion as a clear moment in the pandemics history. Each plastic bubble can hold up to three people, dedicated to those who are in the same household.

The Bubble Show is scheduled to come to the UK, as The Flaming Lips have not yet postponed their summer EU tour. However, the rules and regulations will be different considering the UK has more strict restrictions in place because of the new UK variant of the disease. As many concerts and festivals, including the famed Glastonbury Festival, have already been cancelled it is still to be determined whether The Flaming Lips will postpone the fast approaching dates.

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The band has sold-out arenas in the States and is currently undergoing their Bubble concerts until the Spring when they will take it over seas. The Oklahoma City first Bubble Show was preformed over the weekend, however, it was originally scheduled for December but was pushed due to safety concerns surrounding the Covid-19 Christmas resurgence.

American Head has great relevance to Covid-19 as it is riddled in wistful dreams of a better time. Coyne is eager to perform this album live in the coming year despite continued world-wide safety concerns because the album has brought joy to isolated listeners in this period of international disaster.

In an interview with Brooklyn Vegan on discussing the use of the plastic bubbles, Coyne stated that he was not “not suggesting the whole world should do it this way. I’m just saying The Flaming Lips can try it this way, and if you like our music, you can come see us. You’ll have to be in one of these space bubbles, but maybe that’ll be a good thing.”

While it still remains to be seen if this space-bubble precaution will become norm in the coming years for live-concerts, it is certain that it has made history during this pandemic as one of the most extreme and spectacular safety precautions taken to bring fans a piece of the live-music they so dearly miss. Tickets for the UK/EU The Flaming Lips tour are available for purchase here and tour-dates can be found below. The groups latest album and muse for the Bubble Shows, American Head is streaming on all platforms now.

UK and Ireland tour dates for 2021 are as follows.

Front-man Ian McCulloch has expressed his excitement at the announcement. The singer enthused, in an interview with the NME, that he could not wait to play their ‘magical songs‘ to their ‘brilliant fans‘. The tour includes dates at many iconic venues such as the The Roundhouse in London (12th May) and The Albert Hall in Manchester (31st May), as well as a homecoming show at the Liverpool Philharmonic (10th May). McCulloch emphasised that he wanted to ‘be out there with the band‘, on ‘all those stages in all those cities and towns‘, in order to make ‘lives happier‘.

Crocodiles, released in 1980, was Echo and the Bunnymen’s first album. It earned the band critical acclaim and commercial success, peaking at 17th in the UK album charts. The record contorts around themes of loneliness and despair, which mirrored a British society mired in a post-war unemployment high. McCulloch reflected this sentiment in the album’s headline track, Rescue, in which he admitted to being ‘jumbled up‘ and to feeling that things were ‘wrong‘. The British Phonographic Industry awarded a gold disc to the band in 1984 after the album sold 100,000 units.

McCulloch’s haunting vocals, coupled with the skull-shattering drums of Pete de Freitas, converted the band into central figures of the post punk renaissance, following the success of their debut. The post punk movement aimed to maintain the independence of punk rock, whilst moving beyond it’s raw sound by experimenting with different genres. It was Echo and the Bunnymen’s alternative tracks and subsequent position within this movement that framed their future achievements.

Their third and fourth albums, Porcupine (1983) and Ocean Rain (1984), increased their fame further and included the top-10 singles The Cutter and The Killing Moon. The band, having split-up in 1993 but reforming in 1996, continue to create and perform. They released their most recent album, named The Stars The Oceans and The Moon in 2018, and in 2019 they opened for The Doves at the Gunnersville festival. Their work stalks modern popular culture and has recently been heard in TV shows such as 13 Reasons Why, Stranger Things and MisFits.

Echo and the Bunnymen boast a devout cult following and a sound coated in formative experimental rebellion. McCulloch’s eagerness to pay tribute to the record that kick-started a snarling 40 year musical journey ensures a string of shows that will drip in nostalgia, and serve as a reminder of the band’s existential talent.

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Pre-sale tickets for our May 2021 UK tour are available now from: http://gigst.rs/EATBpre We hope to see you there to celebrate 40 years of magical songs.

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Tour Dates:

07/05/2021  – Sheffield City Hall, Sheffield.
08/05 – Birmingham O2 Academy, Birmingham.
10/05 – Liverpool Philharmonic, Liverpool.
12/05 -London Roundhouse, London.
14/05 – Cambridge Corn Exchange, Cambridge.
15/05 – Norwich UEA, Norwich.
16/05 – Northampton Derngate, Northampton.
18/05 – Leeds O2 Academy, Leeds.
19/05 – Bristol O2 Academy, Bristol.
21/05 – Bexhill De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill On Sea.
22/05 – Bournemouth O2 Academy, Bournemouth.
23/05 – Cardiff St David’s Hall, Cardiff.
25/05 – Glasgow Barrowland, Glasgow.
26/05– Gateshead Sage, Gateshead.
28/05 – Nottingham Rock City, Nottingham.
31/05 – Manchester Albert Hall, Manchester.

The Church formed in Sydney in 1980. Initially associated with new wave, neo-psychedelia and indie rock, their music later became reminiscent of dream pop and post rock. The founding members were Kilby on lead vocals and bass, Peter Koppes and Marty Wilson-Piper on guitars and Nick Ward on drums. Ward left after the first album and they went through a succession of drummer throughout their career as  well as other personnel.

Their debut album “Of Skins and Heart” released in 1981 produced their first radio hit “The Unguarded Moment” and they got signed to major labels in Australia, Europe and The United States. However, the got dropped by their American label after they were unsatisfied with the bands second album and subsequently did not release it. This proved to be a problem for the band’s international success but they did eventually achieve chart success again in  1988 with the album “Starfish” which featured “Under the Milky Way” which was a  top 40 hit in the states. Subsequently they have not had much mainstream success  but have remained a cult band with a dedicated following and in 2010 were inducted into Sydney’s ARIA Hall of Fame. They continue to tour and record.

London Dates

Saturday 8th June-Bush Hall, Shepard’s Bush

Sunday 9th June- Bush Hall, Shepard’s Bush