We arrived, the four of us who eventually used my tickets, at about
7pm as the doors were opening. We saw that the queue
was horrendous. Obviously there are a lot of 'head-cases' in the South
Yorkshire area. Entering into the auditorium, my
suspicions were realised...it was a gymnasium! This was going to be
an acoustically interesting show. Still, we are talking about
the band that recorded their latest masterpiece in a stately home,
so I wasn't really all _that_ surprised.
The support band, Laika were already onstage when we arrived, so I got
a t-shirt (turquoise, fitter happier lyrics on front patch,
getting up advice on rear patch), and listened. They were quite good.
Ben (my friend) wasn't too happy, since they have a
bongos player. Since his brother plays bongos a lot in the room next
to his, he doesn't really get on with them...still, I digress. I
suppose they are a bit like trip hop, although they are very diverse,
like radiohead really. It wasn't bad; but then again, I didn't
feel compelled to purchase their cd's. Make your own assumptions from
that. The lead singer person was fit though...
After a brief pause while tech types set up the stage the gig proper
began. This period was much better than the equivalent
period at Glasters though, at least the people around me weren't shouting
out, "oooh its Jonny's guitar!", or "hey! Its Colin's
bass!" For the record I was about two thirds of the way back. About
the same distance away that I was at Glastonbury.
Although instead of being in front of Jonny, I was slightly Ed of Thom
(if you see what I mean).
The gig opened with fitter happier (predictably), After which the band
came on stage. The first track was Airbag. The
'controversial' lyrics weren't changed. I'm afraid I wasn't trainspotter
enough to note a set list. But the tracks that were played
are as follows:
You
All of OK Computer except Let Down and Electioneering
Banana Co.
Polyethylene (basically part 2)
A Reminder
Talk Show Host
All of The Bends except Nice Dream, Bullet Proof, Black Star, Sulk
I think that was it. They finished on The Tourist. There was no Creep.
This displeased most of the crowd, but not me. I heard it
at both Milton Keynes (95) and Glastonbury. I am glad they are able
to avoid it now anyway. There were two encores.
The Crowd
I really didn't appreciate most of the crowd. I don't think I was alone
either. There were, as Ben pointed out, a lot of older
people around. A testimony to radioheads greatness. We thought this
might prevent moshing, jumping, crowd surfing etc
etc...but it didn't. In fact there were signs around the venue saying,
"Radiohead do not like crowd surfing, do not do it". But
these seemed to be largely ignored. With this in mind I stayed towards
the back, and suffered a poor view as a result. At
Glastonbury I stayed near the front, and was pushed around a lot. I
thought I'd try keeping out of things this time. It still beats
me how people can behave like that at radiohead gigs. I mean, there
are songs like Just, and My Iron Lung, I accept, but they
were crowd surfing during No Surprises...
Naturally everyone was singing along as well. So I didn't get to hear
fake plastic trees as I wanted to. Which was a
disappointment. However the singers shut up after the first few lines
of Exit Music, so I suppose that just illustrates the power of
the song.
The Band
The band were amazing. They each took their turn at the keyboard (Colin
during Climbing up the Walls, Jonny during various
songs and using his own synths at the front, and interestingly Thom
during Karma Police. "if you want me, I'll be over there" he
said before disappearing to the back of the stage near Colin).
They weren't very talkative, but the gig went much much better that
their last UK date (Glasto). Thom referred to us as "the
people of Doncaster, and surrounding area" on more than one occasion.
Due to the acoustics of the room, I couldn't hear much
of what he said which was very annoying. Ben noted later that they
were all high, which I disagreed with at first, but thinking
about it, Thom did seem very animated. Much more so than at previous
gigs, and he had great fun waving his arms around too.
Colin was as usual bouncing away at the back and Phil was drumming
with his tongue out (as he says, not out in a rude way,
out in a thinking about a hard maths problem way). Jonny, had fun...fiddling
with his, what we are now almost certain is a
short-wave radio - it has a handle and tuning dials. He also did some
excellent Pete Townsend impressions too. Ed was having
fun too I think, although from what I saw he didn't seem very animated.
All three guitarists used the maximum amount of stage
at various times.
Overall the gig was brilliant. I was expecting this. The atmosphere
was good too. I was personally devastated that they didn't
play Let Down (maybe they weren't in the mood or something). Am I never
going to hear this live!!!? The venue could have
been loads better. It didn't seem much bigger than Rock City, and personally
I would have seen them at The Nottingham Royal
Concert Hall (all seated) - after all I saw Nik Kershaw there in 1986...
I didn't get a decent view, I thought the stage could
have been slightly higher and since the crowd area was flat, naturally
all the people around me were taller than me. I think
platform shoes are in order for the future.
Urm like five stars or something...
richard