Radiohead’s bassist Colin Greenwood says the band are taking a “busking approach” to their upcoming setlists.
The band, whose last live show was in 2018, are due to embark on a 20-date UK and European arena tour in November, taking in concerts across five cities, and will make their long-awaited return to the stage later this year, with the run due to begin in Madrid before travelling to Bologna, Copenhagen and Berlin.
Radiohead’s tour will culminate in a four-night residency at London’s O2 arena in Greenwich on 21, 22, 24 and 25 November – marking the group’s first collective performances since the end of their A Moon Shaped Pool tour in 2018.
Colin, 56, has now given fresh insight into the preparations during an appearance on the Adam Buxton Podcast.
He said: “Oh, I think it’s going to be a mix set. I think we’ve like whittled it down to about 70 songs. And me and my brother (guitarist Jonny Greenwood) are not on the setlist committee – we’re not allowed, because we’re too indecisive.”
“So we’ll play anything in any order, at any time. We sort of take a busking attitude to the Radiohead setlist.
“It’s going to be the first time I think we’ve done shows where we haven’t got new material to play as work in progress. But you never know, some stuff might come up or not or whatever, so.”
Jonny Greenwood, 53, described the band’s recent rehearsals as “fun and natural”, though explained there were “no plans” for new music.
He added to the NME: “We’ve (got) lots of individual projects going on at the moment.”
Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, 56, told fans in August that he was “still struggling” to be creative following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking at the launch of the group’s exhibition This Is What You Get, he said: “I really don’t give a f*** if fans want Radiohead to return.”
Thom has in recent years focused on his project The Smile.
Radiohead began teasing their 2025 comeback shows in early September with flyers in host cities, shortly after reports they had “placed holds in select European cities for a run of residency gigs”, according to Billboard.
Meanwhile, the pro-Palestine Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement has urged fans to boycott the upcoming tour, criticising the band for performing in Tel Aviv in 2017 and highlighting Jonny’s past collaborations with Israeli musician Dudu Tassa.
Radiohead’s last performance was on 1 August, 2018, at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, closing their tour in support of A Moon Shaped Pool, released in 2016.