Today, Radiohead will make their return to Glastonbury Festival with a headlining set at the Pyramid Stage. The highly-awaited performance marks the return globally-renowned British band’s return to the UK’s most famous festival, a performance which was announced in October with a photo of the band’s bear logo emblazoned on the grass on the empty festival grounds:
Radiohead have become somewhat synonymous with Glastonbury over the years. They have headlined the event twice before (in 1997 and 2003), with both sets considered to be all-time classic Glastonbury performances. They also performed a secret set at the festival’s Park Stage in 2011 when road testing the material from their album The King Of Limbs. Thom Yorke has even been known to pop up at the festival’s many smaller venues and cafes to perform DJ sets as well. The band clearly feel comfortable at Glastonbury, today’s performance promises to be a triumphant return after their last performance on the Pyramid Stage fourteen years ago.
Thanks to BBC TV and BBC Radio, even those of us not in attendance will be able to enjoy the performance in real time. For those tuning in from the UK, you can watch live video of the show on BBC TV. For everyone else, you can listen to the audio stream of the concert via BBC Radio, beginning at 4:30 pm Eastern Time. You can catch the stream here. As the radio stream description explains: “Gideon Coe begins a summer of festival coverage with Radiohead live from the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival. This will be the band’s third time headlining Glastonbury, following historic stints in 1997 and 2003. Listeners will be able to experience all the excitement and build up to the set and reactions afterwards. There will also be live music from Anderson Paak and the Free Nationals, Sleaford Mods and Angel Olson will be joining Gideon for a chat in the studio after her performance on the Park Stage earlier in the evening.”
The performance also comes on the same day that the band releases their new box set OKNOTOK in honor of the 20th anniversary of their critically acclaimed album OK Computer. In addition to the remastered tracks from the original album, the special edition will also include three previously unreleased tracks—“I Promise,” “Lift,” and “Man Of War”—and eight B-sides.
[h/t – Pitchfork]