Ed O’Brien has announced a UK and European solo headline tour for 2026. Find all the details below.
The Radiohead guitarist will hit the road this autumn to showcase his second solo album, ‘Blue Morpho’, which is set for release on May 22.
Dubbed ‘An Evening With… Blue Morpho’, the forthcoming seven-date trek will feature a collective of musicians who performed on the LP’s recording sessions, including musical director Dave Okumu and ESKA.
Okumu is known for fronting the band The Invisible, whose self-titled debut album was nominated for the Mercury Prize. The Austrian singer-songwriter and producer co-produced Jessie Ware‘s Mercury-shortlisted debut record, ‘Devotion’, too. His other past collaborators include Amy Winehouse, St. Vincent and Anna Calvi.
ESKA is a south London singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who has served as a backup vocalist on other musicians’ projects. She has worked with the likes of Grace Jones, Kae Tempest and Baxter Dury.
The live shows will see O’Brien and his collaborators deliver “a fluid and immersive experience – a celebration of the music in which each performance will evolve and take on a life of its own”. This is instead of “simply recreating the record in its studio form” on stage.
O’Brien is set to serve as the central figure, with his band taking inspiration from the “expansive, exploratory spirit” of artists like Sly And The Family Stone, Miles Davis and Phish.
The tour kicks off in Amsterdam on October 4, ahead of gigs in Milan, Paris, Berlin, Hamburg and Groningen. From there, O’Brien will return to the UK for a headline concert at the Barbican in London on October 14.
Tickets go on general sale at 10am local time tomorrow (Thursday April 2) – you’ll be able to buy yours here.
Ed O’Brien’s European and UK tour dates for 2026 are:
OCTOBER
04 – Royal Theatre Carré, Amsterdam, Netherlands
06 – Teatro Lirico, Milan, Italy
08 – Salle Pleyel, Paris, France
10 – Admiralspalast, Berlin, Germany
12 – Laeiszhalle, Hamburg, Germany
14 – Oosterpoort Main Hall, Groningen, Netherlands
16 – Barbican, London, UK
The musician is also scheduled to appear as a conference speaker at The Great Escape 2026 in Brighton next month.
‘Blue Morpho’ will follow on from O’Brien’s 2020 debut album, ‘Earth’, which he released under the moniker EOB. He recently shared the atmospheric title track.
An accompanying short film, Blue Morpho: The Three Act Play, is also being released after premiering at SXSW last month.
Produced by Paul Epworth (Paul McCartney, Adele, Florence + The Machine), the new album emerged from “one of the most challenging periods” of O’Brien’s life, and finds him “beginning anew, finally starting to figure out his approach”.
The collection is said to contain elements of “hypnotic psych-folk” and “beguiling trip-hop”, as well as boasting some ‘radiant guitars” and “luminous stillness”.
Meanwhile, O’Brien has revealed plans for Radiohead to hit the road again in 2027 and beyond. “What we’re going to do is, every year we’re going to do a different continent, and we’re going to do 20 shows each year,” he said. “No more, no less.”
He has also claimed that his bandmate Thom Yorke has “got a solo album that’s going to come out later in the year”.
O’Brien has reflected on the period when he “wasn’t enjoying” being in Radiohead anymore, and felt he was “done” with the group. “I just didn’t resonate with it anymore, and I wanted to do my own thing,” he said. “I think we’d run out of road. We’d run out of inspiration.”
Speaking to NME about the making of ‘Earth’ in 2020, O’Brien explained: “If I don’t do this, a part of me will die.”
He also shared that his debut felt like a fitting soundtrack to the trying times of the COVID pandemic. “A theme on the record is that in spite of the darkness and challenging times that we live in, humanity can do amazing things when they put their mind to it,” he told us.
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