After seven years away, Radiohead returned to the stage with one of their most technically ambitious productions to date – the band’s first ever ‘in-the-round’ concert experience, featuring an automated video ‘halo’ with 100% real-time driven visual content, a Metallica-inspired TM Array, and the largest ever touring use of kinetic lighting winches among the production highlights.
Having wrapped up eight months on the road with Robbie Williams’ BRITPOP Tour [see TPi #289], Production Manager, John Lafferty – who has orchestrated the logistics of the band’s touring exploits since 2017 – flew from Istanbul to London to assemble the campaign. “It’s great to be back with this band,” he began. “They are such great people who have a lot of time for their crew. The organisation between management and booking agencies is like no other.”
Production Designer, Sean Evans, put together a design for the tour in February 2025, enlisting Wonder Works for CAD drawings and the idiosyncrasies of figuring out cable management and dealing with technical vendors. “We worked hand in hand for months to get it where it is now,” Lafferty stated, proudly, showing TPi around the floor ahead of the band’s final show at The O2.
The tour’s suppliers included Britannia Row Productions (audio), Lite Alternative (lighting), WHITEvoid (KINETIC LIGHTS), Universal Pixels (video), WICREATIONS (automation), TAIT (staging), Popcorn (catering), McGuinness (trucking), Phoenix (artist travel), Equinox Travel (artist and crew travel agents), Surfhire (radios, digital communications, Wi-Fi and RF licensing), among others.
The production loaded into Fly By Nite Rehearsal Studios on 11 October 2025 with two weeks of tech and programming while the band rehearsed at The Church Studios. “Radiohead were one of the first artists we welcomed when we opened in 2016,” FBN Studios’ Scottie Sanderson commented. “The crew are all relaxed, and it is a finely tuned production team. It was a pleasure to host them.”
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Words: Jacob Waite
Photos: Alex Lake and TPi
