Radiohead sell out seven May dates in Britain and Ireland in three days

Radiohead's seven theatre shows in Ireland and Britain in May sold out within three days. The dates were announced on Saturday 15 March and went on sale the same day only through W.A.S.T.E., the band's own mail-order and fan club, at radiohead.com, after a mailing to the band's e-mail list. The ticket site kept going down under the demand.

Most of the shows were gone within hours. By Sunday, reports said, London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Dublin had sold out, and Belfast followed on Monday. Tickets cost £24.50 in the UK and €45 in Dublin, four to a person, and by Monday they were on eBay and other auction sites for more than £100 each, four times face value.

The shows come ahead of the sixth album, still without a title and due on 9 June. It is finished, recorded in Oxford and Los Angeles, and the band spent the week before the announcement at Abbey Road in London, mastering the last few songs.

The run opens with two nights at the Olympia in Dublin and ends with two at the Shepherd's Bush Empire in London. A band spokesperson promised very special dates in what are, for Radiohead, very small rooms.

May 2003