Thom Yorke debuted new song ‘Space Walk’ at the Ivors 2026 last night (Thursday May 21) – check out the performance below, along with his full acceptance speech.
The Radiohead frontman was honoured with the Academy Fellowship award at the 71st Ivor Novello Awards, which celebrate the craft, cultural impact and enduring importance of songs and screen compositions.
Yorke was introduced to the stage at London’s Grosvenor House by Harry Styles, who called Radiohead his “favourite band”. He revealed that he “lost [his] virginity to ‘Talk Show Host’, and praised the artist’s “enduring influence on British music”.
Later, Yorke performed a spine-tingling, piano-based new solo track called ‘Space Walk’ and a stripped-back acoustic rendition of Radiohead’s ‘Jigsaw Falling Into Place’ from ‘In Rainbows’.
In the former, he emotionally sang: “In these moments, when you float/ A choice that is no choice at all/ Soon you’ll be high above the Earth/ But today will be along soon.”
The first outing of ‘Space Walk’ comes after Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien claimed that Yorke has “got a solo album that’s going to come out later in the year”.
Partial video of Thom performing Jigsaw Falling Into Place at The Ivors 2026
byu/Serfi inthomyorke
Ahead of his main Ivors speech, Yorke told the audience he initially thought that being given the award was “probably a mistake”. He then dedicated the statue to his many collaborators from over the years, claiming that he’s “not a solo artist”.
These included his The Smile bandmate Tom Skinner, longtime Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, guitarist Jonny Greenwood and artist Stanley Donwood.
“When I’m on my own, I go around in circles,” Yorke went on. “The people I work with, their creative relationship, I regard as something very precious and very fragile, and I have nothing but the utmost respect for them.”
He also dedicated the honour to his wife and children, before reading out a pre-prepared written speech. Here, Yorke criticised those at the top of the music industry, including major labels and online streaming services.
The frontman warned that “the industry will die” if these continue to “devalue the next generation of artists and their fans”. Yorke shared his concerns that the business was “becoming risk-averse and unable to help” fresh talent thrive. “They’re fragile, usually kind of fucked up like me, and they need support,” he urged.
The musician condemned the “financial frenzy” around heritage acts’ back catalogues, too, and the “insane flow of money upwards”. Earlier, he reflected on how Radiohead’s managers “fought really hard” for the band in their early days. Read Yorke’s full speech below.
Thom Yorke, Ivor Novello Awards 2026 speech in full:
“To me, every generation has the God-given right to rebel and thumb their nose at the business, and prove everyone wrong.
“To use music and song to tell the story of what it truly means to grow up in their mode, and go stylistically wherever the fuck they want, because they can. This is the pumping heart of music. This is how music stays relevant.
“For this to happen, the industry itself has to have faith in these people. They’re fragile, usually kind of fucked up like me, and they need support. And the industry needs the wisdom to allow them to develop, and be able to take risks with them and make mistakes with them. That is literally their job, in my opinion.
“I’m very aware, and so are my band, [of] how lucky we were in our formative years, thanks to our managers Brian, Chris, Bryce and Jules. They fought really hard for us guys. And weirdly, our old record company, the old school EMI, cut us a lot of slack back in the old days. It all paid off.
“We watched a lot of other artists not be so lucky, get chewed up and spat out. It takes time for artists to find their voice, to learn their craft and where it will take them. That is when the good shit occurs.
“I worry that our business is becoming risk-averse and unable to help. It makes zero sense to me. The same is true in a lot of the creative industries: art, film, theatre – they’re all going through this weird, myopic self-destruction.
“Instead, I picked up the FT [Financial Times] and read about the exciting share price of streaming services and the insane value placed on the catalogues of a few artists of the previous generation, and the financial frenzy around them.
“That’s nice for them. But it is not, as they would like to call it, investment in the music sector. Quite the opposite.
“I wonder if those people appreciate what went into the making of those records. Maybe you should read some biographies of the music you’re buying and hoarding, and some of the history about that subject.
“I wonder why no one questions this insane flow of money upwards that leaves nothing but dust for new artists.
“Those heads of our industry are not asking what happens for the future generation, when the musical well dries up – which it will, guys.
“Instead, a lot of lip service is paid to new music with self-serving playlists, and to the idea of a vital music scene. But there is a refusal to offer even a semblance of a sustainable revenue source for the majority of musicians.
“And they continue the nasty fucking opaque accounting tricks that major labels were doing in the ’90s.
“So I guess I’d like to provide a quick reminder to the top of the industry and streaming services: pull your finger out. Where are you gonna get your next juicy back catalogues from, eh?
“This industry will die and arseholes with it, if all you do is devalue the next generation of artists and their fans. Just remember: without us, you ain’t shit!”
Yorke received the Academy Fellowship alongside George Michael, who was posthumously awarded the statue by his longtime friend and former Wham! bandmate Andrew Ridgeley. The pair follow in the footsteps of previous winners Bruce Springsteen, U2, Kate Bush, Paul McCartney and more.
Other winners at the Ivors 2026 included Sam Fender, Rosalía, CMAT, Lily Allen, Jacob Alon, Lola Young and Kano. Check out the full list here.
The likes of Wolf Alice, Olivia Dean, Coldplay, Little Simz and Florence Welch were among the nominees.
In other news, Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien revealed in March that the band plan to hit the road again in 2027 and beyond.
Radiohead returned to the stage in the UK and Europe last year, marking their first live shows together since 2018. They played a run of 20 arena concerts across five cities, including four nights at London’s O2.
Check back at NME for interviews and more from the Ivors 2026.
