Radiohead Will Tour One Continent Per Year Starting 2027

Radiohead are doing this their way. The band has announced a globe-spanning touring blueprint that will see them play a different continent every year starting in 2027, with exactly 20 shows on each run. No marathon legs, no double-booking, no burning out.

"What we're going to do is, every year we're going to do a different continent, and we're going to do 20 shows each year. No more, no less," Ed O'Brien told Consequence of Sound.

The plan comes off the back of a 2025 UK and Europe run that marked Radiohead's first live shows since 2018 — a seven-year gap that, at times, looked like it might be permanent. That comeback tour hit five cities across 20 arena dates, including four nights at London's O2, with the band performing in the round and adopting a loose, spontaneous setlist approach. They pulled from a rotating pool of roughly 70 songs each night, essentially busking their way through the catalogue.

O'Brien was candid about how close the whole thing came to not happening at all. "The others said they wanted to tour. I didn't really want to tour, and they knew that. But I did it and I'm glad I did. I saw it through to the end," he told Consequence of Sound. The guitarist has admitted he felt done with the band after 2018, making the reunion all the more significant.

“It's his first release under his own name — he used the moniker EOB for his 2020 debut Earth — and was produced by Paul Epworth.”

The carefully paced structure isn't just logistics — it's self-preservation. "We want to give absolutely everything each night. We do not ever want it to be like we're going through the motions or we're having to run on empty," O'Brien told Consequence of Sound. "We've got to be able to do it. And you know what? We're not spring chickens anymore."

Don't expect any Radiohead activity in 2026, though. O'Brien will be focused on his second solo album, Blue Morpho, due May 22 via Transgressive. It's his first release under his own name — he used the moniker EOB for his 2020 debut Earth — and was produced by Paul Epworth. Early descriptions point to hypnotic psych-folk laced with trip-hop textures. Meanwhile, Jonny Greenwood has his own May release incoming: Ranjha, a collaboration with composer Shye Ben Tzur and The Rajasthan Express.

So the individual wheels keep turning while the mothership recharges. When asked about the 2027 plans, O'Brien kept it simple. "It's definitely happening," he told NME.