When Radiohead walked offstage at Philadephia’s Wells Fargo Center after a triumphant, 25-song set on 1 August, 2018, it was pretty clear that the show would be the last we heard from the Oxford quintet for a while. At that point, they’d been touring their 2016 ninth album A Moon Shaped Pool on and off for two years, what amounted at the time to a flurry of Radiohead activity, and it was presumed Thom Yorke, Ed O’Brien, Philip Selway and Jonny and Colin Greenwood would put the band on ice again for a couple of years, as had become precedent. But no-one thought it would be seven years, an extended hiatus that had fans questioning if we’d ever see Radiohead again and a pitstop that made the elongated break between 2012’s The King Of Limbs and A Moon Shaped Pool seem like a quick nip to the shops.
But now they are back, this week announcing a short European tour taking in five cities – Madrid, Bologna, London, Copenhagen and Berlin – with four shows in each. They seem to be easing themselves back into action, with the dates expressly announced as a standalone batch with no accompanying new music and a hint that they might do some more in the future. But whilst Radiohead have been out of action for an extended stint, their members have hardly sat still, all five of them involved in various projects since the last time they stepped onstage as a five-piece. Here’s the lowdown on what they have each been up to…
