Thom Yorke points to Tom Waits as Radiohead return to the stage

On the eve of Radiohead's first show since 2004, Thom Yorke told NME I always wanted us to be in a situation like Tom Waits was when he stopped for a long time and came out and did 'Swordfishtrombones' and 'Raindogs'.¹

That show is tomorrow, 6 May, at KB Hallen in Copenhagen, the first of two nights there, with songs from their seventh album in the set. Yorke and Jonny Greenwood tried two of them, “Arpeggi” and “Bodysnatchers”, at KOKO in London on 1 May. After Denmark the British dates start in Blackpool on 12 May.

Swordfishtrombones and Raindogs came out in 1983 and 1985. Waits made them in his own studio and at his own pace, Yorke says, apart from whatever else was going on and getting away from what he hated about his past. And I think that's what we're in the process of doing.¹