Ed O’Brien confirms Radiohead will play “20 shows each year” from 2027 onwards
Radiohead‘s Ed O’Brien has confirmed the band’s touring plans for the future.
In 2025, Radiohead returned to the stage after a seven-year hiatus with a limited 20-date tour of Europe, consisting of four shows in London, Bologna, Madrid, Berlin and Copenhagen.
Now, the band’s guitarist has confirmed that Radiohead intend to replicate this style of tour on different continents across the world from 2027 onwards.
In a new conversation with Rolling Stone, O’Brien shared, “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.”
Explaining the band’s reasoning for wanting to only play 20 dates per year rather than committing to a full-blown world tour, revealing, “We want to give absolutely everything each night.”
He added, “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 anymore.”
O’Brien also reflected upon the band’s triumphant return to the stage in 2025, dotingly stating, “That tour was very, very emotional, very profound. We all felt that. We’d look at one another on that stage, like, ‘This is amazing.’ I feel like I’m the luckiest person on the planet, and I’m not just saying that.”
On the other hand, O’Brien conceded that he was “done with Radiohead” following the conclusion of their previous world tour in 2018.
The musician elaborated, “It had got to a place where I just wasn’t enjoying it. I just didn’t resonate with it anymore, and I wanted to do my own thing… I think we’d run out of road. We’d run out of inspiration.”
Away from his Radiohead commitments, O’Brien is gearing up to release his new solo album, Blue Morpho, which will arrive on May 22nd.
As it stands, it has now been a decade since Radiohead last released music with A Moon Shaped Pool in 2016.
Last month, it emerged that all five members of Radiohead have been appointed as directors of a new UK company called Futile Endeavours Limited, which could indicate that the band has something new on the horizon.
However, O’Brien’s new comments suggest this could be related to future tours rather than another record.
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