Radiohead to quit touring after this tour

During the fourth leg of their current tour for the seminal "In Rainbows", the Radiohead frontman revealed a shocking detail about his usually veiled life. Before their performance in the Cuba Bocadilla Stadium, the enigmatic frontman seemed both reserved and open, sitting on an oversized sofa:"I never wanted to reveal too much about my personal life. It's a bit cliche, but I let all the music do the talking, ya know?".

But as the frontman of the seminal Scottish band sank in a comfortable but not yet gregarious mood, what he revealed next was at the least unexpected: "I don't think I've revealed this in an [interview], but I have cerebral palsy. It affects the work, the touring, personal lives, and it takes a toll but...." Like any Thom Yorke interviewer would attest, these silent pauses were frequent in his choppy way of speaking.

"I'm 40 now. We've been touring for almost three decades, nonstop. And for each album, the average is about five years of just toiling away in the studio. I mean, my solo album (His 2003's outing "The Pencil"), took the same. It's all excruciating work." It's been no secret that the critically beloved band is not like your average stadium hogging peers such as Coldplay or U2. While the two release idiosyncratic albums every two or three years with a stadium tour between them, Radiohead has always documented their painfully perfectionist ways in the studio with unconventional touring patterns. With every album, the usual press narrative arc is the frontman and the other four almost quitting. Yorke explains sheepishly, "We don't want to be the biggest band, clad in black, on top all the time, you know? With this condition beating me down, this has to be the last one. That's it. I'm throwing the towel in after this. It's been exhausting."

When I press on about what he means (of course, it's easy for an interviewer to take things out of context), he continues: "This tour's the last one for us. We've had a few band meetings about the future, which I absolutely fucking hate. But we're toying with the idea of releasing a single every year, with a digital tour here and there." A digital tour? Sounding a bit suspicious, I press on.

He smiles. "I know it's a bit too much and a bit too cloudy, but at the moment I'm pretty set. We don't want to be revolutionaries, but we would love to just do our own thing for the next few years without having to kill polar cats everytime we move gear aroud." I have four kids now, with all five of us, we have fifteen ruts running around. We can't continue doing this. I'm not Bono. I'm not an elephant. I have cerebral palsy. I have fucking cerebral palsy!" Yorke laughs with his characteristic grunt that echoes Tom Waits' growl. "I'm tired of playing Wonderwall every night. I mean just look at Modeskeletor or Aphex Twin (two dance artists Radiohead has publicly praised). They release these live concerts as wav. files and fans eat that shit up. Why can't we, you know?"

When I talk about how the usually devoted fans would react to this news, Yorke reveals his perfect dentures in a crooked smile and becomes reserved once again: "I'm just tired, mate. Exhausted. We'll see what happens. I got cerebral palsy, dude. We'll see."
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