This fall, the hit rock band Radiohead announced they would return from a seven year hiatus to tour across Europe. The band’s last live show was on Aug.1, 2018, and it concluded the tour of their ninth album, “A Moon Shaped Pool.”
Since the band’s hiatus they have explored a variety of side projects. Namely, frontman Thom Yorke and lead guitarist Johnny Greenwood started another band, The Smile, which has been creating music and touring on and off since 2022.
Additionally, Greenwood has composed the soundtracks for several movies, most recently writing the score for the hit movie “One Battle After Another.”
The eclectic involvement of Radiohead’s members in other projects has added to speculation regarding the band’s return, which magnified fans’ excitement upon hearing of their return.
The announcement of the European tour through Instagram was electric and currently sits at 766,000 likes. Tickets for the shows sold out immediately, and no resale tickets have been made available.
Many fans were pleasantly surprised upon learning of the band’s return.
“I saw [the announcement] on Instagram. I was really happy because they haven’t been on tour in a minute,” freshman Noah Baik said.
The excitement of fans is widespread, however, another question arises: will Radiohead tour in major cities across the United States? Currently, the answer is no.
Even the most die-hard fans who thought of traveling to Europe to attend a show are out of luck. Radiohead, who has historically been known to cater to true fans through fair ticket distribution, has once again established a unique sales system which favors fans that reside near their venues in Spain, Italy, England, Denmark and Germany.
However, hopefully with time, waiting American fans can be satisfied with an announcement of their own.
Radiohead’s decades-long following continues to grow as a new generation of fans have access to the band’s music. However, the possibility of experiencing a live show was a question of “if,” not “when.”
Newer fans either discovered the band when they were too young to go to their concerts or when the band had stopped touring. The return to the international stage finally gives these supporters an opportunity to see their favorite band live.
“I came across [Radiohead] in middle school and started listening from there,” junior Noah Galindo said.
Through social media platforms like TikTok, a new influx of fans discovered the hit band. Their edgy rock music and the general heavy, sad sound of hit songs like “Creep” and “Let Down” were perfect for edits and videos. Through the best- selling tracks, people were introduced to Radiohead’s wider discography, unintentionally creating a new generation of followers.
“I saw a video on Tiktok, and I thought the song was cool. It was like an edit with ‘Creep,’” freshman Nathan Wu said. “I got interested, so I looked at one of the albums and it wasn’t all depressing stuff. so I thought it was pretty cool.”
Radiohead’s return was a monumental event to the music world due to the band’s absence from the main stage.
A lot can change in seven years, and the seats at the band’s shows will be filled with longtime fans along with new faces of the next generation of listeners.