1985–1992: formation and first years , where Radiohead formed The members of Radiohead met while attending
Abingdon School, a
private school for boys in
Abingdon, Oxfordshire. The bassist
Colin Greenwood and the guitarist and singer
Thom Yorke were in the same year; the guitarist
Ed O'Brien was one year above, and the drummer
Philip Selway was in the year above O'Brien. When O'Brien and Yorke formed a band, they asked Colin to play bass. They asked Selway to join after playing their first show with a
drum machine. Colin's brother, the
multi-instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood, was three years below Colin and Yorke and the last to join. The band disliked the school's strict atmosphere—the headmaster once charged them for using a rehearsal room on a Sunday—and found solace in the music department. They credited their music teacher for introducing them to
jazz,
film scores, postwar
avant-garde music, and
20th-century classical music. '' announcing On a Friday's change of nameWhile each member contributed songs in the band's early period, Yorke emerged as the main songwriter. According to Colin, the band members picked their instruments because they wanted to play together, rather than through any particular interest: "It was more of a collective angle, and if you could contribute by having someone else play your instrument, then that was really cool." They played few gigs, and focused on rehearsing in village halls.
Oxford had an active
independent music scene in the late 1980s, but it centred on
shoegazing bands such as
Ride and
Slowdive. On a Friday played their first gig in 1987 at Oxford's
Jericho Tavern. On the strength of an early demo, On a Friday were offered a record deal by
Island Records, but they decided they were not ready and wanted to go to university first. They continued to rehearse on weekends and holidays, He also met
Stanley Donwood, who later became Radiohead's cover artist. In 1991, the band regrouped in Oxford, sharing a house on the corner of Magdalen Road and Ridgefield Road. They recorded another demo, which attracted the attention of Chris Hufford, Slowdive's producer and the co-owner of Oxford's Courtyard Studios. Hufford and his business partner, Bryce Edge, attended a concert at the Jericho Tavern; impressed, they became On a Friday's managers. At Courtyard Studios, On a Friday recorded the
Manic Hedgehog demo tape, named after an Oxford record shop. and "Creep" was blacklisted by
BBC Radio 1 as "too depressing".
Pablo Honey was released in February 1993. It reached number 22 in the UK charts. "Creep" and its follow-up singles "Anyone Can Play Guitar" and "
Stop Whispering" failed to become hits, and "
Pop Is Dead", a non-album single, also sold poorly. O'Brien later called it "a hideous mistake". Some critics compared Radiohead to the wave of
grunge music popular in the early 1990s, dubbing them "
Nirvana-lite", and
Pablo Honey initially failed to make an impact. In early 1993, Radiohead began to attract listeners elsewhere. "Creep" had become a hit in Israel after it was played frequently by the influential DJ
Yoav Kutner, and, in March, Radiohead were invited to
Tel Aviv for their first show overseas. Around the same time, "Creep" became a hit in America, a "
slacker anthem" in the vein of "
Smells Like Teen Spirit" by
Nirvana and "
Loser" by
Beck. It reached number two on the
Billboard Modern Rock chart, and number seven on the
UK singles chart when EMI rereleased it in September. followed by a European tour supporting
James and
Tears for Fears. Troubled by his fame, Yorke became disillusioned with being "at the sharp end of the sexy, sassy, MTV eye-candy lifestyle" he felt he was helping to sell to the world. To break a deadlock, Radiohead toured Asia, Australasia and Mexico and found greater confidence performing their new music. The
My Iron Lung EP, released in 1994, was Radiohead's reaction, marking a transition towards the greater depth they aimed for on their second album. It was Radiohead's first collaboration with their future producer,
Nigel Godrich, then working under Leckie as an
audio engineer, and the artist
Stanley Donwood. Both have worked on every Radiohead album since. Radiohead finished recording their second album,
The Bends, by 1995, and released it that March. It was driven by dense riffs and ethereal atmospheres, with greater use of keyboards. In later years,
The Bends appeared in many publications' lists of the best albums of all time, including ''
Rolling Stone's'' 2012 edition of the
"500 Greatest Albums of All Time" at No. 111. In 1995, Radiohead again toured North America and Europe, this time in support of
R.E.M., one of their formative influences and at the time one of the biggest rock bands in the world. Attention from famous fans such as the R.E.M. singer
Michael Stipe, along with distinctive music videos for "Just" and "Street Spirit", helped sustain Radiohead's popularity outside the UK. The night before a performance in Denver, Colorado, Radiohead's tour van was stolen, and with it their musical equipment. Yorke and Jonny Greenwood performed a stripped-down acoustic set with rented instruments and several shows were cancelled. Their first live video,
Live at the Astoria, was released in 1995.
1995–1998: OK Computer and acclaim By late 1995, Radiohead had already recorded one song that would appear on their next record. "
Lucky", released as a single to promote the
War Child charity's
The Help Album, was recorded in a brief session with Nigel Godrich, the young audio engineer who had assisted on
The Bends. Radiohead decided to self-produce their next album with Godrich, and began work in early 1996. By July they had recorded four songs at their rehearsal studio, Canned Applause, a converted apple shed in the countryside near
Didcot, Oxfordshire. In August 1996, Radiohead toured as the opening act for
Alanis Morissette. They resumed recording not at a studio but at
St. Catherine's Court, a 15th-century mansion near
Bath. The sessions were relaxed, with the band playing at all hours of the day, recording in different rooms, and listening to
the Beatles,
DJ Shadow,
Ennio Morricone and
Miles Davis for inspiration. Radiohead denied being part of the
progressive rock genre, but critics began to compare their work to
Pink Floyd. Some compared
OK Computer thematically to the 1973 Pink Floyd album
The Dark Side of the Moon, although Yorke said the lyrics were inspired by observing the "speed" of the world in the 1990s. Yorke's lyrics, embodying different characters, had expressed what one magazine called "end-of-the-millennium blues" in contrast to the more personal songs of
The Bends. According to the journalist
Alex Ross, Radiohead had become "the poster boys for a certain kind of knowing alienation" as Talking Heads and R.E.M. had been before.
OK Computer was Radiohead's first number-one UK chart debut, and brought them commercial success around the world. Despite peaking at number 21 in the
US charts, the album eventually met with mainstream recognition there, earning Radiohead their first
Grammy Awards recognition, winning
Best Alternative Album and a nomination for
Album of the Year. "
Paranoid Android", "
Karma Police" and "
No Surprises" were released as singles, of which "Karma Police" was most successful internationally.
OK Computer went on to become a staple of "best-of" British album lists. In the same year, Radiohead became one of the first bands in the world to have a website. Within a few years, there were dozens of
fansites devoted to them.
OK Computer was followed by the year-long Against Demons world tour, including Radiohead's first headline
Glastonbury Festival performance in 1997. Despite technical problems that almost caused Yorke to abandon the stage, the performance was acclaimed and cemented Radiohead as a major live act.
Grant Gee, the director of the "No Surprises" video, filmed the band on tour for the 1999 documentary
Meeting People Is Easy. The film portrays the band's disaffection with the music industry and press, showing their
burnout over the course of the tour. and the
Generation X era, and one of the greatest albums in recording history.
Airbag / How Am I Driving?, an EP compiling "Airbag" and the
OK Computer B-sides, was nominated for the
Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Performance. That year, Radiohead performed at a Paris
Amnesty International concert and the
Tibetan Freedom Concert. In March, they and Godrich entered
Abbey Road Studios to record a song for the 1998 film
The Avengers, "
Man of War", but were unsatisfied with the results and it went unreleased. Yorke described the period as a "real low point". He and O'Brien developed depression, and the band came close to splitting up.
1998–2001: Kid A, Amnesiac and change in sound , in live concerts and recordings. discussing
Kid A in 2000 After the success of
OK Computer, Radiohead bought a barn in Oxfordshire and converted it into a recording studio. They began work on their next album with Godrich in early 1999, working in studios in Paris, Copenhagen, and
Gloucester before their new studio was completed. After nearly 18 months, recording was completed in April 2000. Radiohead's fourth album,
Kid A, was released in October 2000. A departure from
OK Computer,
Kid A featured a
minimalist and textured style with more diverse instrumentation, including the
ondes Martenot, programmed
electronic beats,
strings, and jazz horns. This success was attributed variously to marketing, to the album's leak on the file-sharing network
Napster a few months before its release, and to advance anticipation based, in part, on the success of
OK Computer. Although Radiohead released no singles from
Kid A,
promos of "
Optimistic" and "
Idioteque" received radio play, and a series of "blips", short videos set to portions of tracks, were played on music channels and released free online. Radiohead continued a 2000 tour of Europe in a custom-built tent free of advertising; they also promoted
Kid A with three sold-out North American theatre concerts. Yorke denied that Radiohead had set out to eschew expectations, saying: "We're not trying to be difficult ... We're actually trying to communicate but somewhere along the line, we just seemed to piss off a lot of people ... What we're doing isn't that radical."
Rolling Stone,
Pitchfork and the
Times named it the best album of the decade. Radiohead's fifth album,
Amnesiac, was released in May 2001. It comprised additional tracks from the
Kid A sessions, including "Life in a Glasshouse", featuring the
Humphrey Lyttelton Band. Radiohead stressed that they saw
Amnesiac not as a collection of B-sides or outtakes from
Kid A but an album in its own right. It topped the
UK Albums Chart and reached number two in the US, and was nominated for a Grammy Award and the
Mercury Music Prize. Radiohead began a North American tour, their first there in three years, in June 2001. With a string of sold-out dates,
The Observer described it as "the most sweeping conquest of America by a British group" since
Beatlemania, succeeding where bands such as
Oasis had failed. Recordings from the
Kid A and
Amnesiac tours were released on
I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings in November 2001.
2002–2006: Hail to the Thief and solo work In July and August 2002, Radiohead toured Portugal and Spain, playing a number of new songs. For their next album, they sought to explore the tension between human and machine-generated music and capture a more immediate, live sound. They and Godrich recorded most of the material in two weeks at
Ocean Way Recording in Los Angeles. The band described the recording process as relaxed, in contrast to the tense sessions for
Kid A and
Amnesiac. Radiohead's sixth album,
Hail to the Thief, was released in June 2003. Its lyrics were influenced by what Yorke called "the general sense of ignorance and intolerance and panic and stupidity" following the election of US President
George W. Bush and the
war on terror.
Hail to the Thief debuted at number one in the UK and number three on the
Billboard chart, and was certified
platinum in the UK and
gold in the US. The singles "
There There", "
Go to Sleep" and "
2 + 2 = 5" achieved heavy circulation on
modern rock radio. At the
2004 Grammy Awards, Radiohead were again nominated for
Best Alternative Album, and Godrich and the engineer Darrell Thorp received the
Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album. In May, Radiohead launched radiohead.tv, where they streamed short films, music videos and live webcasts from their studio. The material was released on the 2004 DVD
The Most Gigantic Lying Mouth of All Time. A compilation of
Hail to the Thief B-sides, remixes and live performances,
Com Lag (2plus2isfive), was released in April 2004. Radiohead toured in 2003 and 2004, with performances in Europe, the US, Australia and Japan, including performances at the
Field Day, Glastonbury and
Coachella festivals.
Hail to the Thief was Radiohead's final album with EMI; in 2006,
The New York Times described Radiohead as "by far the world's most popular unsigned band". Following the
Hail to the Thief tour, Radiohead went on hiatus to spend time with their families and work on solo projects. Yorke and Jonny Greenwood contributed to the
Band Aid 20 charity single "
Do They Know It's Christmas?", produced by Godrich. Greenwood composed soundtracks for the films
Bodysong (2004) and
There Will Be Blood (2007); the latter was the first of several collaborations with the director
Paul Thomas Anderson. In July 2006, Yorke released his debut solo album,
The Eraser, comprising mainly electronic music. He stressed it was made with the band's blessing, and that Radiohead were not breaking up. Jonny Greenwood said: "He had to get this stuff out, and everyone was happy [for Yorke to make it] ... He'd go mad if every time he wrote a song it had to go through the Radiohead consensus." Selway and Jonny Greenwood appeared in the 2005 film
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as members of the fictional band
the Weird Sisters.
2006–2009: departure from EMI, In Rainbows, and "pay what you want" Radiohead began work on their seventh album in February 2005. In September 2005, Radiohead contributed "I Want None of This", a piano
dirge, for the
War Child charity album
Help: A Day in the Life. The album was sold online, with "I Want None of This" the most downloaded track, though it was not released as a single. In late 2006, after touring Europe and North America with new material, Radiohead re-enlisted Godrich and resumed work in London, Oxford and rural
Somerset, England. Recording ended in June 2007 and the recordings were mastered the following month. In 2007, EMI was acquired by the
private equity firm
Terra Firma. Radiohead were critical of the new management, and no new deal was agreed. The
Independent reported that EMI had offered Radiohead a £3 million advance, but had refused to relinquish rights to the band's back catalogue. An EMI spokesman stated that Radiohead had demanded "an extraordinary amount of money". Radiohead's management and Yorke released statements denying that they had asked for a large advance, but had instead wanted control over their back catalogue. Radiohead self-released their seventh album,
In Rainbows, on their website on 10 October 2007 as a
download, for any amount users wanted, including £0. The landmark
pay-what-you-want release, the first for a major act, made headlines worldwide and created debate about the implications for the music industry. Media reaction was positive, and Radiohead were praised for finding new ways to connect with fans. However, it drew criticism from musicians such as
Lily Allen and
Kim Gordon, who felt it undercut less successful acts.
In Rainbows was downloaded an estimated 1.2 million times on the day of release. Colin Greenwood explained the internet release as a way of avoiding the "regulated playlists" and "straitened formats" of radio and TV, ensuring fans around the world could experience the music at the same time, and preventing leaks in advance of a physical release. A special "discbox" edition of
In Rainbows, containing the record on vinyl, a book of artwork, and a CD of extra songs, was also sold from Radiohead's website. The retail version of
In Rainbows was released in the UK in late December 2007 on
XL Recordings and in North America in January 2008 on
TBD Records, The success was Radiohead's highest chart placement in the US since
Kid A. It became their fifth UK number-one album and sold more than three million copies in one year. The album received acclaim for its more accessible sound and personal lyrics. It was nominated for the
Mercury Music Prize and won the
2009 Grammy awards for
Best Alternative Music Album and Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package. It was nominated for five other Grammy awards, including Radiohead's third nomination for
Album of the Year. Yorke and Jonny Greenwood performed "
15 Step" with the
University of Southern California Marching Band at the televised award show. The first single from
In Rainbows, "
Jigsaw Falling into Place", was released in January 2008, followed by "
Nude" in March, which debuted at number 37 in the
Billboard Hot 100; it was Radiohead's first song to enter the chart since "High and Dry" (1995) and their first US top 40 since "Creep". Radiohead held
remix competitions for "Nude" and "
Reckoner", releasing the separated
stems for fans to remix. In April 2008, Radiohead launched Waste Central, a
social networking service for Radiohead fans. In May,
VH1 broadcast
In Rainbows – From the Basement, a special episode of the music television show
From the Basement in which Radiohead performed songs from
In Rainbows. It was released on
iTunes in June. From mid-2008 to early 2009, Radiohead toured North America, Europe, Japan and South America to promote
In Rainbows, and headlined the
Reading and Leeds Festivals in August 2009. Days after Radiohead signed to XL, EMI announced a
box set of Radiohead material recorded before
In Rainbows, released in the same week as the
In Rainbows special edition. Commentators including the
Guardian saw the move as retaliation for the band choosing not to re-sign with EMI. In June 2008, EMI released a
greatest hits album,
Radiohead: The Best Of. It was made without Radiohead's involvement and contains only songs recorded under their contract with EMI. Yorke was critical of the release, calling it a "wasted opportunity". As
social media expanded around the turn of the decade, Radiohead gradually withdrew their public presence, with no promotional interviews or tours to promote new releases.
Pitchfork wrote that around this time Radiohead's "popularity became increasingly untethered from the typical formalities of record promotion, placing them on the same level as
Beyoncé and
Kanye West". Press reaction expressed concern that EMI was exploiting Radiohead's back catalogue. In May, Radiohead began new recording sessions with Godrich. In August, they released "
Harry Patch (In Memory Of)", a tribute song to
Harry Patch, the last surviving British soldier to have fought in
World War I, with proceeds donated to the
British Legion. The song has no conventional rock instrumentation, and instead comprises Yorke's vocals and a string arrangement composed by Jonny Greenwood. Later that month, another new song, "
These Are My Twisted Words", featuring
krautrock-like drumming and guitars, was leaked via
torrent, possibly by Radiohead. Commentators saw the releases as part of Radiohead's new unpredictable release strategy, without the need for traditional marketing. In 2009, Yorke formed a new band,
Atoms for Peace, to perform his solo material, with musicians including Godrich and the
Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist
Flea. They played eight North American shows in 2010. In January 2010, Radiohead played their only full concert of the year in the Los Angeles
Henry Fonda Theater as a benefit for
Oxfam. Tickets were auctioned, raising over half a million US dollars for the NGO's
2010 Haiti earthquake relief. That December, a fan-made video of the performance,
Radiohead for Haiti, was released via YouTube and torrent with Radiohead's support and a "pay-what-you-want" link to donate to Oxfam. Radiohead also released the
soundboard recording of their 2009 Prague performance for use in a
fan-made concert video,
Live in Praha. The videos were described as examples of Radiohead's openness to fans and positivity toward non-commercial internet distribution. In June 2010, Yorke and Jonny Greenwood performed a surprise set at
Glastonbury Festival, performing
Eraser and Radiohead songs. Selway released his debut solo album,
Familial, in August.
Pitchfork described it as a collection of "hushed" folk songs in the tradition of
Nick Drake, with Selway on guitar and vocals.
2011–2012: The King of Limbs , joined Radiohead on tour between 2011 and 2018. He also performed on the "Daily Mail / Staircase" single and
A Moon Shaped Pool. Radiohead released their eighth album,
The King of Limbs, on 18 February 2011 as a download from their website. Following the protracted recording and more conventional rock instrumentation of
In Rainbows, Radiohead developed
The King of Limbs by
sampling and
looping their recordings with
turntables. It was followed by a retail release in March through XL, and a special "newspaper album" edition in May.
The King of Limbs sold an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 copies through Radiohead's website. and number seven on the
UK Albums Chart. It was nominated for five categories in the
54th Grammy Awards. Two tracks not included on
The King of Limbs, "
Supercollider" and "The Butcher", were released as a double A-side single for
Record Store Day in April. A compilation of
King of Limbs remixes by various artists,
TKOL RMX 1234567, was released in September. To perform the rhythmically complex
King of Limbs material live, Radiohead enlisted a second drummer,
Clive Deamer, who had worked with
Portishead and
Get the Blessing. In June, Radiohead played a surprise performance on the Park stage at the 2011 Glastonbury Festival, performing songs from
The King of Limbs for the first time. With Deamer, Radiohead recorded
The King of Limbs: Live from the Basement, released online in August 2011. It was also broadcast by international BBC channels and released on DVD and Blu-ray in January 2012. The performance included two new songs, "
The Daily Mail" and "Staircase", released as a double A-side download single in December 2011. In February 2012, Radiohead began their first extended North American tour in four years, including dates in the United States, Canada and Mexico. On 16 June 2012, an hour before gates were due to open at Toronto's
Downsview Park for the final concert of Radiohead's North American tour, the
roof of the venue's temporary stage collapsed, killing the drum technician Scott Johnson and injuring three other members of Radiohead's
road crew. After rescheduling the tour, Radiohead paid tribute to Johnson at their next concert, in Nîmes, France, in July. In June 2013,
Live Nation Canada Inc, two other organisations and an engineer were charged with 13 charges under Ontario health and safety laws. In September 2017, after several delays, the case was dropped under the
Jordan ruling, which sets strict time limits on trials. A 2019 inquest returned a verdict of
accidental death.
2013–2014: side projects and move to XL In February 2013, Yorke and Godrich's band, Atoms for Peace, released an album,
Amok. The pair made headlines that year for their criticism of the free
music streaming service
Spotify. Yorke accused Spotify of only benefiting major labels with large back catalogues, and encouraged artists to build their own "direct connections" with audiences instead. In February 2014, Radiohead released an app,
PolyFauna, a collaboration with the British
digital arts studio Universal Everything, with music and imagery from
The King of Limbs. In May, Yorke contributed a soundtrack,
Subterranea, to
The Panic Office, an installation of Radiohead artwork in Sydney, Australia. Yorke and Selway released their solo albums ''
Tomorrow's Modern Boxes and Weatherhouse in late 2014. Jonny Greenwood scored his third Anderson film, Inherent Vice; it features a version of an unreleased Radiohead song, "Spooks", performed by Greenwood and members of Supergrass. Junun'', a collaboration between Greenwood, Godrich, the Israeli composer
Shye Ben Tzur and the Rajasthan Express, was released in November 2015, accompanied by a
documentary directed by Anderson. In April 2016, Radiohead's back catalogue was acquired by
XL Recordings, which had released the retail editions of
In Rainbows and
The King of Limbs and most of Yorke's solo work. XL reissued Radiohead's back catalogue on vinyl in May 2016.
2015–2016: A Moon Shaped Pool Radiohead began work on their ninth studio album in September 2014. In 2015, they resumed work in the La Fabrique studio near
Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France. The sessions were marred by the death of Godrich's father and Yorke's separation from his wife,
Rachel Owen, who died from cancer in 2016. Work was interrupted when Radiohead were commissioned to write the theme for the 2015
James Bond film
Spectre. After their second submission, "
Spectre", was also rejected, Radiohead released it on the audio streaming site
SoundCloud on Christmas Day 2015. Radiohead's ninth studio album,
A Moon Shaped Pool, was released digitally in May 2016, followed by retail versions in June via XL Recordings. The album includes several songs written years earlier, including "
True Love Waits", and strings and
choral vocals performed by the
London Contemporary Orchestra. It became Radiohead's sixth UK number-one album and reached number three in the US. It was the fifth Radiohead album nominated for the
Mercury Prize, making Radiohead the most shortlisted act in Mercury history, and was nominated for
Best Alternative Music Album and
Best Rock Song (for "Burn the Witch") at the
59th Annual Grammy Awards. It appeared on several publications' lists of the best albums of the year. In 2016, 2017 and 2018, Radiohead toured Europe, Japan, and North and South America, including headline shows at the
Coachella and
Glastonbury festivals. In a statement, Yorke responded that "playing in a country isn't the same as endorsing the government" and that art was "about shared humanity, dialogue and freedom of expression".
2017–2021: hiatus and reissues Following the
Moon Shaped Pool tour, Radiohead went on hiatus; Yorke was dealing with the death of Owen, and O'Brien said the band members felt "disconnected and spent". In June 2017, they released a 20th-anniversary
OK Computer reissue,
OKNOTOK 1997 2017, comprising a remastered version of the album, B-sides, and previously unreleased material. Radiohead promoted the reissue with music videos for the bonus tracks "
I Promise", "
Man of War" and "
Lift".
OKNOTOK reached number two on the
UK Album Chart, boosted by Radiohead's televised Glastonbury performance that week, and reached number 23 on the US
Billboard 200. In August, Yorke and Jonny Greenwood performed a benefit concert in the
Marche, Italy, to help restoration efforts following the
August 2016 Central Italy earthquake. Radiohead were nominated for the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017, their first year of eligibility. They were nominated again in 2018 and inducted in March 2019. Though Jonny Greenwood and Yorke were uninterested in the event, Selway and O'Brien attended and made speeches. The singer
David Byrne, one of Radiohead's formative influences, gave a speech praising Radiohead's musical and release innovations, which he said had influenced the whole industry. In June 2019, several hours of recordings made by Radiohead during the
OK Computer period leaked online. In response, Radiohead made them available to purchase online as
MiniDiscs [Hacked], with all proceeds to the environmentalist group
Extinction Rebellion. In December, Radiohead made their discography available free on
YouTube. The following January, they launched the Radiohead Public Library, an online archive of their work, including music videos, live performances, artwork and the 1998 documentary
Meeting People Is Easy. Radiohead suspended their online content for
Blackout Tuesday on 2 June, protesting racism and
police brutality. In 2017, Selway released his third solo work, the soundtrack to the film
Let Me Go. Jonny Greenwood was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Original Score for his fifth collaboration with Anderson,
Phantom Thread (2017), and scored his second film by
Lynne Ramsay,
You Were Never Really Here (2018). Yorke released his first feature film soundtrack,
Suspiria (2018), and his third solo album,
Anima (2019), backed by a short film directed by Anderson. In 2020, O'Brien released his debut solo album,
Earth. He had been writing songs for years, but found they did not fit Radiohead. In April, to compensate for the lack of performances during the
COVID-19 pandemic, Radiohead streamed archival concert films on
YouTube. Radiohead abandoned plans to tour in 2021 due to the pandemic. In November, they released
Kid A Mnesia, an anniversary reissue compiling
Kid A,
Amnesiac and previously unreleased material. It was promoted with download singles and videos for the previously unreleased tracks "
If You Say the Word" and "
Follow Me Around". Plans for an art installation based on the albums were cancelled due to logistical problems and the pandemic. Instead, Radiohead created a free digital experience,
Kid A Mnesia Exhibition, for
PlayStation 5,
macOS and
Windows.
2021–present: side projects, Israel controversy and return to touring as
the Smile in January 2022 In a livestream event held by Glastonbury Festival in May 2021, Yorke and Jonny Greenwood debuted a new band,
the Smile, with the drummer
Tom Skinner. Greenwood said the band was a way to work with Yorke during the
COVID-19 lockdowns. The Smile toured internationally between 2022 and 2024, and released the albums
A Light for Attracting Attention (2022),
Wall of Eyes and
Cutouts (both 2024). Critics interpreted the Smile as a liberating, lower-pressure project for Yorke and Greenwood, with more jazz,
krautrock and
progressive rock influences and a looser, wilder sound. and performed on Cave's 2024 album
Wild God. He released a book of his photographs of Radiohead in October 2024. Selway released his third solo album,
Strange Dance, in February 2023. He also played drums and percussion on
Versions of Us (2023) by
Lanterns on the Lake, and joined them on tour.
Jarak Qaribak, an album by Jonny Greenwood and the Israeli rock musician
Dudu Tassa, was released in June. Yorke released his second film soundtrack,
Confidenza, in April 2024, and began a solo tour,
Everything, in October. Selway said in 2023 that it was healthy for the members to work with other musicians and that all the projects came under the Radiohead "umbrella". Yorke reworked
Hail to the Thief for a production of
Hamlet by the
Royal Shakespeare Company that opened at
Aviva Studios, Manchester, in April 2025. In the process, he revisited performances from Radiohead's
Hail to the Thief tour; Radiohead released a selection of performances on 13 August as
Hail to the Thief (Live Recordings 2003—2009). Yorke also collaborated with the electronic musician
Mark Pritchard on the album
Tall Tales, released in May.
This Is What You Get, an exhibition of Yorke and Donwood's Radiohead artwork, opened at the
Ashmolean Museum in Oxford in August. Greenwood scored his sixth film for Anderson,
One Battle After Another, released in September. In late 2025, Radiohead
toured Europe, their first tour in seven years. Deamer was replaced by Chris Vatalaro. Radiohead plan to resume the tour in 2027, performing on a different continent each year. A physical art installation based on
Kid A Mnesia Exhibition is due to tour the US from April 2026, beginning at
Coachella 2026. O'Brien's second solo album,
Blue Morpho, and a second album by Greenwood, Ben Tzur and the Rajasthan Express,
Ranjha, are set for release in May. Pressure for Radiohead to boycott Israel grew following the outbreak of the
Gaza war in 2023. Jonny Greenwood, whose wife is Israeli, was criticised for performing in Tel Aviv with Tassa in May 2024, and responded in a statement that Israeli artists should not be silenced. In October, Yorke temporarily left the stage after he was heckled by a
pro-Palestine protester at a solo concert in Melbourne. In May 2025, two UK concerts by Jonny Greenwood and Tassa were canceled following threats to the venues and staff. Colin Greenwood described the cancellation as "a curtailment of free speech and the possibilities of forging bonds between people with music and art". That month, Yorke released a statement condemning the war efforts of Israel and
Hamas and saying that pressuring artists to respond was not the solution. O'Brien has shown support for Palestine, and defended his bandmates: "My brothers abhor what is going on in Gaza. Just because they aren't all over social media or using the exact wording that some feel is necessary does not mean they aren't genuinely upset and angered by what is going on."
Pitchfork wrote that the controversy had damaged Radiohead's public image, and questioned their "ambiguous political position" after releasing albums such as
Hail to the Thief, which was "so evocative of the horrors of lopsided military annihilation". == Artistry ==