Radiohead have nothing booked after Tel Aviv, they tell Rolling Stone

Radiohead have no dates booked after the tour ends in Tel Aviv on 19 July, and the band do not agree on what comes next. Their answers are in material cut from Rolling Stone's OK Computer cover story, published on 8 June, eight days after the story itself.

Phil Selway calls the calendar blank and thinks they will have done what they can with this record by July. Ed O'Brien thinks the tour will be done after these shows, and Colin Greenwood cannot say beyond July but will play anywhere. Thom Yorke means to carry on. I would imagine we'll keep going. I mean, I don't know how, or when, but no, we're not gonna stop.¹ He has solo work long on hold and is scoring Luca Guadagnino's Suspiria.

Nigel Godrich's father, a string player, died near the end of the A Moon Shaped Pool sessions. The day he died was the day that we had the string session for 'Burn the Witch.'¹ They had two days booked; Godrich left his father at home and went and recorded. The album had stopped in the middle, he says, when the band were asked to write the theme for the Bond film Spectre and told their song would be used. The film used Sam Smith's song, and Radiohead put theirs out free.

They rehearsed about 60 songs for the tour, but Selway rules out OK Computer in full: “Fitter Happier” would be a problem, and they would have to play “Electioneering”, not heard live since 1998. “Creep” is a good song, O'Brien says, but they lean towards leaving it out so it never feels like show business. This year they have played it twice, in Portland and at the first Coachella weekend. The first time I'm feeling the fakes we'll stop.¹

That first Coachella night went wrong around “Ful Stop”, the third song, Colin says, with a crash and the stage manager asking them off. Yorke blames their own mixing desk, not the festival; the second weekend had two desks and an extra engineer.

Radiohead become eligible for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next year. Selway compares it to getting a free bus pass. Colin would be grateful, and might go alone. It might be me just doing bass versions of everything like, 'Come on, you know this one!' I'd have to play the bass part to 'Creep' five times.¹

Yorke's teenage children are fans and travel with the band. He will stop, he says, when they tell him Radiohead are no good.