Radiohead album covers set for new exhibition

Posted On November 22, 2024November 22, 2024

Some of the artwork that Radiohead have created in the past for their albums is set to go on display at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

The multi-media exhibition will feature several different displays. These will include a series of album covers created by the band’s singer, Thom Yorke, and the artist Stanley Donwood. Additionally, the series will also display personal sketchbooks and notebooks showing early drafts of work and discarded ideas. These will be available for the public to view between August 2025 and January 2026. 

The exhibition’s title is This Is What You Get, taken from a lyric in one of Radiohead’s biggest tracks, ‘Karma Police’. While the exact number of pieces that will be featured in it is yet to be determined, it’s expected to total more than 120 pieces. 

In the early days of rock ‘n’ roll, most album covers featured the name of the artist and the record; there was no visual component to the album. It was towards the end of the 1960s following the release of albums such as Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, that a link between the album cover and the music contained within was well and truly established. 

Bands such as Radiohead have expanded upon this ideology. The exhibition will focus on this idea, as the University of Oxford’s Museum of Art and Archaeology confirmed it would “explore the complex relationship between visual art and music.” 

Donwood has worked with Radiohead on the majority of their album artwork. The artist and Yorke have collaborated on numerous occasions since they met at the University of Exeter. When discussing their working relationship, Yorke said, “Dan is basically deft at pulling stuff out of my head in a way that just blows my mind in all different directions.” 

Radiohead’s plans for the future

The exhibition comes as Radiohead fans are currently discussing the possibility of a reunion tour. Although the band never formally split up, they haven’t performed together since 2017. “You know we did some rehearsals about two months ago in London,” said bassist Colin Greenwood, “Just to play the old songs, and it was really fun; we had a really good time.”

Despite the speculation, Yorke addressed rumours of a reunion in a recent interview, saying, “I am not aware of it and don’t really give a flying fuck.”

He continued, “No offence to anyone and thanks for caring. But I think we’ve earned the right to do what makes sense to us without having to explain ourselves or be answerable to anyone else’s historical idea of what we should be doing.”

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