The release of Amnesiac on June 5 will bring to a conclusion Radiohead’s three-year saga of what to do after OK Computer. And after going in markedly different directions with Amnesiac and last fall’s Kid A, bassist Colin Greenwood says he expects the group to drift back toward something resembling a standard operating procedure.
“We’ve talked about doing a guitar album next,” Greenwood reports. “The reason we did these two records is to show that anything is possible rather than everything is expected; the last thing we wanted to do was go into the studio and make another version of OK Computer. My best guess for the next album is a combination of Amnesiac with more guitar music. But the most important thing is, it’s song-based music rather than sort of instrumental, non-lyric based music. We try not to insult or bore the intelligence of our audience, because we’re aware their tastes are moving on as well as ours with music, and it’s exciting to be part of that.”
Greenwood – whose younger brother Jonnny is one of Radiohead’s guitarists – says that the group is looking forward to more extensive touring in support of Amnesiac than it did for Kid A, particularly a more thorough jaunt through North America than its three-stop mini-tour, plus a stop on Saturday Night Live, last fall. The only disappointment, he says, is that Radiohead will not be able to bring the 15,000-capacity tent that it’s using to present shows in Europe.
“We needed, like, 12 months’ advance notice to set it up, because promoters weren’t very comfortable with anything different,” Greenwood says. “One of our great loves is playing in America, and it got to the stage where that pleasure was being taken away from us because we were playing in such sanitized, corporate venues every night that were exactly the same, and that was really depressing. All we’re trying to do is to keep it interesting and fresh so that we can carry on doing it and keep coming back.”
Summer Tour Dates:
- June 18 – The Woodlands, Texas – Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
- June 20 – Morrison, Colorado – Red Rocks Amphitheatre
- June 23 – George, Washington – The Gorge
- June 24 – Vancouver, British Columbia – Thunderbird Stadium
- June 27 – Mountain View, California – Shoreline Amphitheatre
- June 29 – Santa Barbara, California – Santa Barbara County Bowl
- June 30 – Santa Barbara, California – Santa Barbara County Bowl
- July 7 – Chicago, Illinois – Butler Field
- August 2 – Toronto, Ontario – Molson Place
- August 05 – Montreal, Quebec – “Parterre, Parc Jean-Drapeau”
- August 7 – Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio – Blossom Music Center
- August 11 – Centreville, Virginia – Bull Run Regional Park
- August 12 – Centreville, Virginia – Bull Run Regional Park
- August 14 – Boston, Massachusetts – Suffolk Downs
- August 16 – Jersey City, New Jersey – Liberty State Park
- August 17 – Jersey City, New Jersey – Liberty State Park
- August 20 – Los Angeles, California – Hollywood Bowl
- September 30 – Osaka, Japan – Castle-Jo Hall
- October 3 – Yokohama, Japan – Yokohama Arena
