Radiohead have shared Thom Yorke’s pre-mix playlist for the band’s European arena tour last year, featuring the likes of Leonard Cohen, Aphex Twin and David Byrne – check it out here.
The frontman’s playlist begins with Radiohead themselves, the track listed as ‘Seattle Ambient Recordings (Minidisks)’, before appearances from Francois Bayle, Cohen, Faust, Bill Evans, The Corries and Syd Barrett.
Artists as varied as Moondog, Lee Hazlewood, Duke Ellington and Plastikman feature across the playlist, before it ends with Mark Pritchard, Byrne, and Gaelic Psalm Singers.
“Experience (or relive) the ambience of a European arena while waiting for Radiohead to take the stage – Thom’s 2025 pre-show mix is now available,” the Oxfordshire band wrote on social media this afternoon.
Radiohead uploaded the playlist directly to MixCloud and it’s also available on Spotify – listen here.
Radiohead announced their first tour in seven years in September, and from November 4 to December 16 they played 20 shows, including four at The O2 in London. In a glowing five-star review, NME described their first London show as “the cinematic, arty yin to Oasis’ hedonistic yang” adding: “What a show: a visceral energy, a tasteful spectacle, all delivered with a generosity of spirit, Yorke in full rockstar mode as the band trade places to tend to each corner of the venue. For a band once embarrassed by the notion of ‘arena rock’, nobody does it better. A new album and another night like this can’t come soon enough.”
For the tour, the band shared that their shows would be played in the round with them taking a “busking approach” to the setlist each night – having rehearsed over 65 songs from their back catalogue. Among the songs to feature across the tour were ‘Just’, ‘Jigsaw Falling Into Place’ and ‘Nice Dream’, which were all played live for the first time in 16 years.
Radiohead have not announced any further shows, though drummer Philip Selway did say when the European tour was first announced: “For now, it will just be these ones, but who knows where this will all lead.”
Bassist Colin Greenwood, meanwhile, is heading back out on tour with Nick Cave this summer after filling in for regular Bad Seeds bassist Martyn Casey last year due to illness. He played on Cave’s 2024 album ‘Wild God’, too.
Fans have expressed hope that 2026 will see Radiohead return to the studio, too. The band haven’t released any new music since ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’ in 2016, and in a new interview with The Times in October, they addressed whether there are plans in place for them to record and release new music.
When asked if there will ever be new Radiohead songs, guitarist Jonny Greenwood responded: “I don’t know.”
“We haven’t thought past the tour,” Yorke added. “I’m just stunned we got this far.”
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