Radiohead returned to the stage in late 2025 following a seven-year hiatus, embarking on a run of European arena dates that showcased a bold evolution of the band’s renowned concert experience. Eschewing convention, the acclaimed British outfit adopted an intimate ‘in-the-round’ production design, placing audiences closer to the performance while surrounding them with some of the most ambitious visual and audio production the band has ever deployed.
Central to this new production approach was the extensive use of Sound Devices‘ Astral Wireless platform, including the Astral Wireless Guitar System. The technology delivered the sonic transparency, reliability and control required to support a significant shift in the band’s live workflow, enabling Radiohead to abandon instrument cables for the first time in their touring history and embrace a new level of onstage freedom.
As with every Radiohead production, sound quality remained the driving force behind every technical decision. While Radiohead’s catalogue has long been celebrated for its sonic experimentation, the group’s concerts remain rooted musicians making real-time creative decisions. In an era increasingly defined by playback systems and backing tracks, Radiohead continues to prioritise human performance, allowing the nuances, imperfections and spontaneity of live music-making to remain at the centre of the audience experience. “The band is very invested in the experience being as real as possible without any ‘fixes’ or gimmicks,” explains Radiohead FOH mixer Simon Hodge. “There’s a lot of pressure for these shows to be amazing given the following that the band have. This is countered by the fact that the band are extremely reasonable people who are very invested in their output and their fans, so they enjoy the challenge to get the best results, rather than deferring to ‘easier’ solutions.”
Up until recently, the band had largely avoided using wireless systems in line with these principles, preferring simple, analogue paths for their fidelity and reliability. When the time came to plan the 2025 shows, Hodge saw an opportunity to try something different. “The technology always needed to catch up in a sonic sense. The band doesn’t tend to change how they operate for the sake of changing; they only are interested in upgrades that will serve their musical goals. Although the band have used RF systems for guitars in the past, the opinion was always that it never sounded as good as a cable and would not be adopted. In an arena, you have so many factors affecting the actual sound that go far beyond RF or cables, which is why we spend so much time in advance doing blind tests and ensuring we’re starting from the best place.”
“When we became aware of Sound Devices Astral, we realised that the team had gone to some effort to make sure it truly did sound like a jack and cable input with customizable capacitance and impedance,” explains Simon.
Radiohead utilises three Sound Devices Astral ARX32 Wireless Receivers, 42 Astral TX Digital Wireless Bodypack Transmitters, and six Astral HH Wireless Handheld Microphones for their stage show. The Astral TX units were chosen for their compact size and flexibility, enabling the crew to utilise them across the show with microphone or line inputs as well as the Astral Guitar Cable. The Astral Guitar Cable proved to be the solution to the band’s sonic concerns, with its selectable input impedance (100k, IM, or 10M ohms, matching popular amplifier specifications) and adjustable cable capacitance (0 pF to 1500 pF in 25 pF steps, corresponding to typical guitar lengths) providing the required sonic fidelity to match their cable rigs.
“After listening to it myself, we brought it into Jonny [Greenwood]’s studio and did some blind tests between Astral and their preferred cables,” Hodge says. “We all listened and even the most cynical guitar techs were impressed! The quality of the audio path was obvious, and it wasn’t changing the sound at all. The packs also auto-detect the cable, allowing us to easily adjust them in the receiver menu or UI as needed per instrument.”
In addition to preserving the sonic fidelity of the band’s carefully crafted guitar sounds, Astral Wireless also enabled a more seamless approach to the significant amount of guitar changes taking place over the course of a set. Simon and Radiohead RF Tech Matt Hayes designed a custom solution which fed the Astral ARX32 inputs into an audio processor via Dante, with custom Streamdeck controllers to provide easy accessibility for both the band and their respective guitar techs. “The band travels with dozens of guitars, Ed O’Brien himself had 32 on this run,” advises Simon. “This was the first time we could have all 32 at once accessible and easily switchable in the same interface, a choice that either the musician or tech can make as needed.”
“The need for quick, seamless changes in a live show is incredibly important and often more challenging when done in an ‘in the round’ setup as we had,” he continues. “The ease of use in the Astral UI allowed us to manipulate the signal flow seamlessly, which worked really well for the logistics of the show and allowed us total control with no compromises.”
With stellar reviews of the tour and rumours of future outings as early as 2027, Simon is eager to see the next iteration of live shows that are to come. “It was an excellent experience for both the band and the fans because the setup allowed it to be intimate while still giving us excellent control of all the sonic and visual details that are so important,” he says. “We are all very invested in that personal experience and anything added only makes the cut if it’s guaranteed to do that.”
“The Astral Guitar System ended up being a game changer for us, and the band have been quite happy with the results on stage.”
For more on the Astral Wireless series, visit the official Sound Devices website.
