Radiohead free instore gig: organisers reveal secret plans

Radiohead are playing a special live gig tonight (January 16) -and NME.COM can exclusively reveal that the band will be heading down to Rough Trade East in Brick Lane around 7pm tonight to soundcheck.

Speaking outside his flagship record store, Rough Trade East manager Spencer Hickman revealed just how many fans they will be able to pack in tonight.

"The absolute maximum we can get in is approximately 250, but even I’m sending staff members home who don’t particularly like the band so we can get more people in," he explained.

"We’re running a skeleton staff tonight. Some of my directors aren’t going," he added. "If you’re a fan of the band you can get in tonight. It’s history – they haven’t played a venue this small in years. They probably won’t again."

Hickman also revealed this gig has been in the pipeline for some time.

“We’ve been planning this for two months," he explained. "It’s been quite difficult to keep this under wraps. It’s pretty amazing in this day and age – generally you can’t keep anything secret.”

Despite the hundreds of fans lining the streets of Brick Lane tonight (January 16), Hickman was cautious to label himself a Radiohead fan, but is nonetheless is excited at the prospect of seeing the band in such an intimate space: "Am I a Radiohead fan? I’ll be honest…no. I’m not. But I will be checking out the gig tonight, obviously."

NME.COM will be bringing you full coverage from tonight's gig, including a live song-by-song blog straight from the shop. Head to NME.COM/blog from 7pm (GMT).


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