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Radiohead will play 16 shows in three Australian cities next year, on what will be the first tour here by the acclaimed British alternative rock band since 2012.
Rather than the usual approach of announcing a few concerts and then adding additional shows dates based on demand, however, the quintet elected on Monday afternoon to reveal its full itinerary.
Starting with four dates at Perth’s RAC Arena from May 3, 2027, the tour will then move onto six shows at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne (from May 13), before closing with six dates at Sydney’s Afterpay Arena, from May 25 until June 1.
Co-presented by Frontier Touring and Chugg Entertainment – which promoted its last visit here, a five-date run in support of the 2011 album The King of Limbs – access will be hotly contested among fans old and new, including an influx of younger fans who have discovered songs such as Let Down, Creep, No Surprises and Karma Police in the 15 years between visits.
About 46 million people listen to Radiohead each month on Spotify alone; according to a rare full-band interview published in The Times last year, its largest demographic on streaming services these days is 15 to 23-year-olds, a surprising fact that aligns with contemporaries such as Deftones and the Smashing Pumpkins, whose audiences skew young, too.
Taking into account the capacities for the three Australian venues, the total tickets available across 16 all-ages shows will be between 250,000 and 300,000, depending on stage configurations inside each arena.
After a seven-year break from the stage, Radiohead – which The Times described as “five anti-ego rock gods with a strong whiff of mundanity about them” – reunited late last year for a run of residencies held in five European cities, including four nights at the O2 Arena in London. Demand for tickets was extraordinary, although not quite on par with fellow British rockers Oasis, whose 41-date world tour was attended by 2.28 million people, and grossed $US405m ($562m) at the box office.
Unlike Oasis, however, Radiohead is clearly uninterested in playing stadiums, nor in exceeding its self-imposed limit of 20 concerts per year.
Instead, the Thom Yorke-fronted act prefers an indoors-only approach, centred on a small number of cities, with a run of shows in Japan also announced on Monday.
The band hasn’t performed in Perth since 1998, and although the absence of Brisbane and Adelaide visits is notable, its decision to announce all 16 dates at once will allow fans to plan their interstate travel well in advance.
The co-promoters are anticipating a clamour for tickets: Frontier and Chugg have devised a ballot-like online registration process that seeks to give fans “fair access to tickets and minimise automated and unauthorised purchases”.
The registration portal is open from 5pm on Monday until 5pm on Thursday, with Frontier noting that “every registration completed during this period will be treated the same no matter what time it is received”.
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Andrew McMillenNational Music Writer