Radiohead to play Australia and New Zealand in November

Radiohead have added six arena shows in Auckland, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne in November to their world tour for The King of Limbs. The news broke on the Australian radio station triple j on the morning of Monday 27 February.

The tour ends with two nights at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, where the band's last Australian visit came to an early stop. In April 2004 the second of two booked nights there was called off on the day, after a throat specialist found Thom Yorke's vocal cords badly inflamed. That visit was Sydney and Melbourne only; Brisbane last saw the band in February 1998, and New Zealand in January that year, in Auckland and Wellington.

The visit has been talked about since early January, when the New Zealand-born musician Connan Mockasin tweeted I won't be coming home for camp but will be with Radiohead later in the year⁶, and Charlotte Ryan, a presenter on the New Zealand radio station 95bFM, said an industry contact had confirmed a New Zealand show in November. Splendour In The Grass's organisers said on 12 January that Radiohead would not be at their festival this year.

The shows are billed as a survey of the band's whole career, and the announcement says no more will be added, which leaves Western Australia out. Tickets go on general sale at 9am local time on Thursday 1 March, and the presale allocations for Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane sold out on the day of the announcement.

Chugg Entertainment, the promoter, is keeping the physical tickets back for some time so that resellers cannot hand over what they have sold. Music Feeds found touts on eBay all the same, asking up to $849 for tickets they did not yet hold.

Australia and New Zealand, November 2012