RADIOHEAD
VICTORIA PARK, LONDON
24TH SEPTEMBER 2000
UNDER A BIG TOP, it says on the ticket, just like the circus.
Radiohead, the most contrary band in the world, are proving that
they can do things their own way. They've taken over the park
and the surrounding area, announcements in the tube station anticipate
the invasion, warning us to avoid counterfeited tickets and to
behave on the way to the park, hoards of fans walk from Mile End
through Tower Hamlets, some with ghetto blasters discreetly blasting
out tapes of the new album - 'just follow the crazy people' says
a bemused policeman.
Inside the big blue tent, Mira Calix DJ's some fractured beats
over the babble of chat until Clinic make their appearance as
support. Their weird new-skiffle rattles round the arena. They
are a band who are ever improving and their new material shows
them stretching their formula to stimulate parts that most bands
rarely bother with. They rock! (as Thom would say). They're followed
by more submersible beats and some choice hip hop.
Radiohead go straight into a threeway of new songs from 'Kid A'
and we don't have time to catch our collective breath. 'Optimistic',
and 'Morning Bell' with their outstanding bass and drums respectively
make an immediate impression, but without the horn section it
is difficult for 'The National Anthem' to be more than a shadow
of the recorded version. The 'OK Computer' songs that follow,
'Airbag' and 'Karma Police' become singalongs, strangely comfortable
in their angular new surroundings.
Up in the roof hang six big screens like CCTV, spying from different
angles, we can see Ed's one finger piano during 'In Limbo'; Thom's
tambourine; Jonny's endless supply of instruments - here is a
band who have adapted, who are learning, exploring.
'My Iron Lung' sounds as angry and loud and raw as it did 6 years
ago when they first played it and I am dumbfounded that after
so long Radiohead can continue to surprise me. It is followed
by the almost abstract 'Permanent Daylight', as if they are compensating
for the lack of guitars on some of the new tracks.
The shivers down my spine hit when during 'How To Disappear...'
a giant projection of a green laser loop appears at the back of
the stage, Jonny appears to be controlling its movement with sound
- it twists and flips with the frequencies he produces.
'Dollars and Cents', as yet to be released, starts as a muted
and formless hum but builds into a remarkable rant - "...Dollars
and Cents, the Pounds and the Pence, The Mark and the Yen.."
- global villains in the war against the World Bank.
After the familiarity of 'Street Spirit' and 'Paranoid Android'
(The People's Favourites) 'Idiotique' blows your head off!
And Thom is loving it, dancing and flailing and reminding me of
the intensity of the earliest Radiohead gigs. He is racing against
his own lyrics, which for once in the new material rise above
the mix to be heard - "We're not scaremongering, this is
really happening"
'Just' is gleefully announced as being for 'dirty little boys'
and sees both band and audience relishing their performance in
a way that they didn't on the OK Computer tour.
Radiohead haven't reinvented themselves, they are just playing
by their own rules, like they always wanted to. They are like
people who have realised that they thing they are doing is the
best thing, the only thing that they could possibly do. With this
realisation they have been liberated.
To think that Radiohead are innovating by incorporating their
love of Warp Records Techno and the electronics of bands like
Can into their own music is to show up how stifling and unimaginative
the category crazy music scene has become in 2000. Breaking out
of their prescribed roles, the members of the band are challenging
themselves more than ever. Anyone that mentions 'free jazz' or
'prog-rock' or any other pejorative musical term when they hear
the tracks from 'Kid A', is giving away their own musical ignorance.
Radiohead's reference points are literate and no more esoteric
than any respectable record collection, it is their own skill
at getting it wrong that has won through again. A contradictory
band - they aim for a Techno track and get a catchy tune with
words that stick in your head for days. They banish all logos
only to replace them with their own - grimacing bears stare out
from a thousand T-shirts and from the WASTE merchandise tent.
They sing songs about the impossibility of getting your life together
when clearly the idea of what Radiohead is, is stronger than it
has ever been.
The encore - 'I Might Be Wrong' - sounding like a mutated Becktune
is the surprise of the night, but the feeling that they have returned
at their finest is back in fullest force with 'Lucky' and the
pure simplicity of 'Egyptian Song' which is a bliss of piano and
twinkling lights. The final solemnity of 'Exit Music' is broken
by Thom stifling a giggle, he is clearly enjoying himself as much
as the rest of us circus freaks.
set list:
Optimistic
Morning Bell
The National Anthem
Airbag
Karma Police
In Limbo
Knives Out
No Surprises
My Iron Lung
Permanent Daylight
How to Disappear Completely
Dollars and Cents
Street Spirit
Paranoid Android
Idiotique
Just
Everything In Its Right Place
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I Might Be Wrong
Fake Plastic Trees
Lucky
Egyptian Song
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Talk Show Host
Exit Music