Anthony Byrne, director of the acclaimed television show Peaky Blinders, has confirmed that Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke of Radiohead have written original music for the show’s upcoming sixth (and final) season. The first episode of the new season will air this Sunday (February 27th).
Peaky Blinders has featured a great deal of well-loved music over the years; for example, Nick Cave’s classic track “Red Right Hand” serves as the show’s main theme song, and tunes from IDLES, David Bowie, PJ Harvey, Arctic Monkeys, Iggy Pop, Foals and Royal Blood have also been featured on the soundtrack over previous years.
According to NME, Byrne said: “Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood contributed some original stuff…“I’m over the moon about all of that. The music has always been really important historically, and I was really keen to bring a dramatic score into it. We’re using that much more in this season. It’s a much heavier season so the score is taking things in a very different direction…It’s always about Tommy and his headspace. That’s what I keep going back to.” Byrne has also revealed a few other details of the content of season six’s soundtrack, saying that Sinead O’Connor, Joy Division and Patti Smith will be making an appearance.
Composer Anna Calvi has returned once again to compose the score for the sixth season, and this time she has teamed up with Nick Launay, who frequently collaborates with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds as their producer.
In Yorke and Greenwood’s world, the two have recently established a new band with Sons of Kemet’s Tom Skinner called The Smile. The group recently released their first single entitled “You Will Never Work in Television Again”, and also debuted some new tracks at recent live performances, including three live shows at Magazine London on the 29th and 30th of January, which were performed to a small audience and also livestreamed. The single can be found on all streaming services.
In addition, Radiohead recently released a B-sides album entitled Kid A Mnesia, which compiled songs from the Kid A and Amnesiac era of the band that did not quite make the cut, and some alternate versions of songs, including a piano arrangement of “Spinning Plates” from Amnesiac, and an alternate version of the song “Morning Bell” also from Amnesiac. Kid A Mnesia can be found on all streaming services, and physical copies of the record can be found here.
