Late to this thread. An interesting read. I’m maybe about to disillusion a number of people. Sorry, not sorry.
Love at least five Radiohead albums. Seen them live twice. They were very good indeed rather than “great” on both occasions. I’ve little inclination for nostalgia on the whole but if you’ve nor seen them then, yeah, by all means do… but…
Last weekend I was on a train - I’m skimping on detail here for several reasons - and sat with two lovely guys who promote gigs of varying sizes amongst other things. One has promoted Radiohead gigs. One it turns out had communicated with me previously over accessibility to a specific gig. A brilliant and non-stop conversation, which ranged far and wide.
Let’s put aside the promoter consensus that Radiohead as people, and Yorke in particular, are known in the industry to be “d@cks”. A view I’d heard previously from the person who used to run Ticketmaster in North America but fleshed out last weekend with even more specific and pretty bleak anecdotes. It’s interesting and shocking but not really news. I’ve no doubt the majority of the music I love has been made by people I probably would not love if I met them.
The more interesting thing for me was the clear statement during this train journey that it is well known in the industry that the only reason these Radiohead gigs exist is for money. Literally nothing else. As fans you don’t need me to explain the complexity of the bands relationship with a specific country since a particular 2017 gig. Both huge internal tensions and external pressure. Suffice to say that has recently come back to haunt them big style. A number of companies who have relationships with them have withdrawn in the face of various complex pressures. Successful musicians often rely on the sponsorship of everything from cables, strings, sticks, lighting etc. to fund their lifestyle absent money from sales and touring.
If you’re Radiohead then you can’t really produce new product because many of your internal tensions are not solvable given who you’re married to, what you’ve said and so on. You could tour but then those same tensions have quietly reduced the number of places you can actually play. Not really a surprise you’re not getting beyond a small number of nearby European countries. Something of a surprise to learn that only one promoter would deal with them.
Who’s going to sponsor your gear when the some of the big guys can’t live with your views. Equally, how are you going to fund the “side projects” which have actually been your bread and butter for the last decade. If you’ve been paying attention you’ll quickly realise that’s why all collective spirit goes out the window on their collabs outside the band.
And yes, some people, as a result of this don’t have quite the personal wealth they had even a year ago. In one instance, nowhere near.
So, no, new product bar live recordings and associated cross marketing, most unlikely. Not impossible. Things aren’t irretrievable yet. And, yes, this tour has been very quietly about the devastating cost of certain members views on personal fortunes.