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Radiohead fans have been looking forward to this evening for a long time: on November 4th, 2025, Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Ed O’Brien, Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway finally returned to the stage together again.
At the Movistar Arena in Madrid, the band played the first concert of their major European tour in 2025, which includes a total of 20 shows in five cities – Madrid, Bologna, London, Copenhagen and Berlin.
After a seven-year break from live, the band presented themselves for the first time with new drummer Chris Vatalaro at Phil Selway’s side.
Radiohead: That was the evening in Madrid
The audience in Madrid experienced a two-hour journey through three decades of band history: from the anthems of the “OK Computer” era to “Kid A” to “A Moon Shaped Pool”. In total, Radiohead played 25 songs, spread across eight studio albums: 6 songs from “Hail to the Thief”, 6 from “OK Computer”, 4 from “In Rainbows”, 4 from “Kid A”, 2 from “A Moon Shaped Pool” and 1 song each from “Amnesiac”, “The Bends” and “The King of Limbs”.
The show opened with “Let Down” from the album “OK Computer”. This was followed by “2 + 2 = 5” and “Sit Down. Stand Up.”, the latter live for the first time since 2004. Of course, there was no shortage of hits: “No Surprises”, “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi”, “Everything in Its Right Place”, “Paranoid Android” and “Karma Police” made the arena shake – only “Creep” Yorke and Co., as usual, were not in the mood for.
The encore comprised seven songs and began with “Fake Plastic Trees,” followed by “Subterranean Homesick Alien,” played live for the first time since 2017. This was followed by “Paranoid Android,” “How to Disappear Completely,” “You and Whose Army?” and “There There.” The evening ended with “Karma Police” as the final piece.
In addition to the new live drummer Chris Vatalaro, who supports original member Phil Selway live on drums, Radiohead presented a round stage for the first time in their career. The online reviews were partly euphoric and partly amusing. Below is an overview.
Radiohead’s round stage – the comments:
“Looks like a steel cage death match for the WWE,” writes one, who finds the setup “behind bars” reminiscent of a wrestling cage. “Foucault would be enjoying himself right now” – a reference to the philosopher’s prison-like Panopticon design.
“Yeah, spend money to see everyone holding their cell phones up in the air and blocking your view” – when you can’t easily spot the band anyway, at least at the beginning.
“Classic chain link fence upgrade to stop beer bottles being thrown at them.”
Some are reminded of U2’s gigantic stages: “Elements of the “360”, “i+e” and “e+i” tours U2.”
“Maybe with a Tesla coil? If that’s a Faraday cage?”
“Did you get into the UFC too?”
Others are thrilled: “You have to do a residency program at the Sphere in Las Vegas.”
“They have reached Metallica status!!!”
“Wow, the stage looks incredible.”
“Does the stage rotate? This reminds me of the stage construction used by Yes on their Relayer tour or Gabriel on their Growing Up tour.”