Harry Styles paused his “Together, Together” residency tour on Thursday, May 21, to induct Thom Yorke into the Fellowship of the Ivors Academy at the 2026 Ivor Novello Awards, then watched the Radiohead frontman answer with a speech that was equal parts thanks and warning. Styles used the stage to tell Yorke he had shaped the way he thinks about music’s purpose, before Yorke urged music executives to put money into new artists and then performed a new song reportedly titled “Space Walk.”
Styles made the moment feel personal from the start. He said he lost his virginity to the intro of “Talk Show Host,” the song from The Bends, and told the room that Yorke’s work had influenced his belief in what the arts are for today. He also joked that “Without ‘Exit Music (For a Film),’ there would be no ‘Watermelon Sugar,’” a line that landed like a confession and a salute in the same breath.
The induction also turned into a story about fandom that outlived adolescence. Styles said he first met Yorke while walking in the street in Rome, after telling a friend the night before that maybe it would be better if they never crossed paths. Instead, he found himself alone with Yorke on a quiet cobbled street while A Moon Shaped Pool played in his headphones. Styles said Yorke was light, friendly and kind, adding that the encounter changed the way he saw the artist he had spent years admiring from a distance. His remarks are laid out in full in Harry Styles inducts Thom Yorke as Radiohead star gets Ivors honor.
That context matters because Yorke is not being honored for a single album or comeback. He is being framed as an artist of almost 35 years of releasing music, one whose work has helped define what alternative rock can sound like and what emotional weight it can carry. Styles said Yorke’s songs had shaped his own writing, especially the way they turn “feelings of anxiety and alienation” into something that can become an anthem, and he described hearing that music as “somewhat of a religious experience,” with the understanding seeming to go both ways. Yorke, in turn, did not stay in the role of honored guest for long. After Styles’ remarks, he gave a fiery speech aimed at the industry and then moved into the music, debuting the new track and playing an acoustic version of Radiohead’s “Jigsaw Falling into Place.”
The tension in the room was not whether Yorke deserved the honor. It was whether the industry he was addressing would hear the warning inside his speech. Yorke used the platform to push executives toward backing new artists, a pointed message at a time when veterans are still being celebrated but the pipeline that feeds the next generation remains fragile. Styles, who had taken a break from his tour for the ceremony, was set to resume the Amsterdam stop of his “Together, Together” residency series that night. Yorke’s appearance answered the larger question the evening raised: the man being celebrated is still making new work, still challenging the business around him, and still using a tribute night to demand that music does more than remember the past.
