Radiohead have indicated that something is afoot, or soon will be. It seems they have formed a new limited company.
As logged at Companies House in London, the five members – Thom Yorke, the Greenwood brothers, Ed O’Brien and Philip Selway – are the directors of the new company, which has been given the none-more Radiohead-ish name of Futile Endeavours Limited.
As fans and long-term Radiohead watchers know, since they left EMI Records in 2007 the formation of a new company is usually the presage of a new spurt of band activity, be that a tour, reissue or a new album project.
And so before the In Rainbows album, they formed Xurbia Xendless Ltd, Dawn Chorus Ltd was followed by the A Moon Shaped Pool album in 2016 and Spin With A Grin Ltd was formed six months before the Kid A Mnesia reissue in 2021.
Fans, of course, will hope that Futile Endeavours means the band intend to go back into the studio to record new music, though of course it could simply mean another reissue. Or more touring.
Radiohead returned to the stage late last year when they performed a series of residencies in European cities. In an interview with The Times a couple of weeks ago, Jonny Greenwood said of that experience: “It was great to revisit songs that we always felt were good and to find lots of other people now agree with us. And it was really nice to be playing and listening to Thom (Yorke) again. But I found it strange not to be doing anything new on the tour.”
When asked the $64 million question about new material, the guitarist kept his cards close to his chest, saying that all five members were: “doing new music elsewhere now” and that he had “no idea” if they would record together again.
“I mean, I’m surprised that the tour actually happened and that we all enjoyed it so much,” he continued. “But venues get booked so far in advance. To do another we would have to decide now, and even then it wouldn’t happen for 18 months.”
