Radiohead Rehearsed Together Again: “It Was Fun”
According to the bassist Colin Greenwood, the Radiohead they have been rehearsing together again recently. He said this yesterday (Sunday, September 8) in a video link with the Hay Festival Querétaro, which took place in Mexico.
Speaking at the literature and art festival about his new, soon-to-be-published photography book, “How To Disappear: A Photographic Portrait Of Radiohead”, Greenwood revealed that the band only reunited a couple of months ago. “We had a rehearsal about two months ago in London, just playing the old songs,” he said in conversation. “It was a lot of fun, we had a lot of fun.”
The English band has been missing from the scene for years now. “A Moon Shaped Pool“the ninth and so far last studio album of their career, was released in 2016, while they have not been on stage together since their last tour in 2018.
The bassist’s comments come as a welcome surprise to Radiohead fans, after his brother, guitarist Johnny Greenwoodhad revealed in May that the band was busy with separate projects, effectively giving little hope of seeing them back together again anytime soon. “Well, the The Smile I’m on tour, And O’Brien (the guitarist) is making another solo album (after 2020’s “Earth”), Colin Greenwood he’s playing bass with Nick Cave – they just played five sold-out nights at the Sydney Opera House (and will now be touring with Cave again on the tour to promote the Australian singer-songwriter’s latest album). So there’s a lot of music being made,” the Radiohead guitarist told the Guardian, adding “we’re all busy at the moment, but not as busy as Radiohead. We’re still talking, we just need to plan and organise together in advance. I’ve never been very good at that. I’m too busy messing around in the studio.”
In November the drummer Philip Selway had hinted that Radiohead might reunite, but had previously promised that it would happen in early 2023.
Earlier this year And O’Brien has stated that he is “deeply committed” to his next solo album. In 2020, the guitarist and songwriter spoke to NME and shed light on his feelings towards Radiohead as he continues his solo work. Asked if the group had discussed future projects, he said: “We’re a band that’s always evolving and we’re coming together online – there was a Zoom call recently. We’re talking about things, but for the foreseeable future everyone’s doing their own thing. When it feels right to rejoin Radiohead, then we’ll do it.” He added that Radiohead are a band of “chapters” and that they’re “asking what the next chapter is. That’s what we’ll figure out later.”
As already announced (read here) Colin Greenwood will be performing live with Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds on their upcoming UK and European tour in support of their new album “Wild God”. The photo book “How To Disappear: A Photographic Portrait Of Radiohead”, out on October 15th and signed by the band’s bassist, explores the most salient moments of Radiohead’s journey from 2003 up to 2016’s “A Moon Shaped Pool”.
Finally the Radiohead side project The Smile – composed of Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood and the drummer of Sons Of Kemet Tom Skinner – announced the new album “Cutouts” (out October 4) and shared two new singles “Foreign Spies” and “Zero Sum”. ‘Cutouts’ will be the band’s third studio LP after ‘Wall Of Eyes‘, released earlier this year and set to debut in 2022 “A Light for Attracting Attention” (to which are added two live EPs from 2022, “The Smile (Live at Montreux Jazz Festival, July 2022” and “Europe: Live Recordings 2022” from 2023 (featuring recordings from the previous year).
