One of British music’s revolutionaries are back - Radiohead return after an eight-year absence

After announcing a tour for late 2025, Radiohead have sent fans' excitement through the roof despite a messy ticket release day.

Britpop’s distant relative

Born into an era dominated by Britpop bands like Oasis, Blur and Pulp, Radiohead took a route of their own to bring people a listening experience unlike many others of the time or even since, writes Music News Blitz’s Gabriel Mills.

After their debut single “Creep” introduced them to immediate success in 1993, the release of The Bends allowed the band to showcase an excellent album with heavy guitars and raw, beautiful vocals from frontman Thom Yorke.

Rock tracks like “Just” and “My Iron Lung” are examples of a stripped-back verse partnered with Jonny Greenwood’s powerful guitar to create iconic high-octane crescendos in choruses and instrumental sections.

No Surprises after Ok Computer’s success

Not only was this the band's most successful album, but it also remains one of the greatest and most influential albums ever made.

Taking on dystopian themes, Radiohead gave us an album with crushing emotional tracks like “Exit Music (For a Film),” “Let Down,” and “Lucky,” which felt like the perfect follow-up album from The Bends.

The band still had space for Jonny Greenwood’s iconic guitar, most notably in the opening track, “Airbag,” and also in “Paranoid Android,” one of the band's most groundbreaking songs.

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Musical evolution through experimental sounds  

One aspect that keeps Radiohead as relevant and as interesting as ever is their ability to almost evolve with each album, for better or for worse, depending on who you ask. 

While many fans will claim they peaked with Ok Computer, the more experimental albums that followed caused a shift to a full musical experience for listeners as Radiohead continued to break the mould of what a band could be.

This is seen best with Kid A (2000), Amnesiac (2001), and Hail to the Thief (2003), the latter achieving critical acclaim in theatres earlier this year as a soundtrack to Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Radiohead at their unique best

In 2007, Radiohead released In Rainbows, which captured attention immediately, partly down to the band’s decision to release it digitally under a ‘pay-what-you-want’ idea, which was unheard of at the time.

Following on from dark and emotional albums, one of the best aspects of In Rainbows is its ability to take aspects from all their different eras and blend them together for a stellar album full of emotion and passion. 

The second track, “Bodysnatchers,” brings back the much-loved distorted and grungy guitar reminiscent of an early Radiohead song, while “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” and “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” are real fan-favourites for the band.

Thom Yorke best showcases his vocals in the track “Nude,” which is one of the most beautifully crafted yet emotionally crushing songs I have heard and gives the album a deeper side and justifies its own section here.

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A ticket-buyer's nightmare

The announced tour for November and December this year will take the band to Madrid, Bologna, London, Copenhagen and Berlin with four nights in each city.

To get tickets, fans had to register their details on Radiohead’s website before some - not all fans - would receive a code to purchase the tickets to their specified city.

Radiohead assured fans that they would take measures to avoid tickets being taken by ‘bots,’ but many fans were left frustrated after ticketing sites would kick them out of the queue, accusing them of being the very thing the band wanted to stop.

Within minutes, tickets appeared on resale sites, many well over a thousand pounds.

Not quite the level of backlash as was seen for Oasis’ tour, but a sour note for fans who failed to secure a place amidst a messy ticket-buying process.

However, their fame in the 90s and their continued relevance and popularity to this day promise a special night for those lucky enough to be going.

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