Radiohead: Ed O'Brien in concert in Italy for a single date

Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien will bring his new solo project to Italy for a single live date: Tuesday 6 October 2026 at Teatro Lirico Giorgio Gaber. The Milan show is part of the European tour “An Evening With… Blue Morpho”, a limited series of concerts across the UK and Europe.

The occasion ties in with the release of his second solo album, "Blue Morpho", due out May 22nd. The record marks a new phase in O'Brien's journey, expanding and reworking the ground already broken with "Earth" (2020).

The live show won't simply reproduce the studio material. Taking the stage will be a collective of musicians involved in making the record, led by musical director Dave Okumu. The setup is loose and fluid: each show is conceived as an evolving performance, with arrangements liable to shift from night to night — an approach that recalls the expressive freedom of figures like Sly Stone, Miles Davis and Phish.

There's also a strongly personal dimension underpinning "Blue Morpho". O'Brien has repeatedly cited a line from American poet Wendell Berry — "To know the dark, go dark" — as key to understanding the album's creative process. The record grew out of a difficult period in his life and marks a redefinition of his musical language.

Produced by Paul Epworth (who has previously worked with artists like Paul McCartney and Adele), the album moves through territory ranging from psych-folk to trip-hop textures, while keeping intimate, reflective songwriting at its core. The result is a project that questions rock's traditional structures, opening onto a more personal, layered kind of exploration.

O’Brien himself recently revealed that Thom Yorke is said to be working on a new solo record. The Radiohead frontman will release an album later this year. Meanwhile, the band seems set on continuing with a formula they've already tried out recently: a series of compact tours, with around twenty shows a year across different continents. A carefully measured approach to live activity, running alongside each member's intense solo output.

"What we're going to do is, every year, go to a different continent, and we'll play 20 shows a year. No more, no less," the guitarist explained, making clear his intention to keep things on a modest scale. The choice reflects a logic of artistic sustainability as much as practical organisation: "We want to give absolutely everything every night. We never want it to feel like we're coasting, or that we're forcing ourselves to carry on without the energy for it." A stance that also reflects an awareness of age: "We're not kids anymore."

Thom Yorke hasn't released a solo album since 2019, when "Anima" came out, but in recent years he's stayed busy with collaborations and side projects. The latest is "Tall Tales", made with electronic producer Mark Pritchard, on top of the three albums released with Smile alongside Jonny Greenwood and Tom Skinner.

The Oxford band arrive fresh from a recent tour that marked their return to the stage after years away, with dates across the UK and Europe and a run of Italian shows in Bologna. 2026, however, will see no live activity from the band.

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