Radiohead (2)

Glastonbury Festival 2003

Friday 27th to Sunday 29th June 2003
Worthy Farm, Pilton, Shepton Mallet, Somerset, BA4 4AZ, England MAP
£105 (plus booking fee plus postage) - SOLD OUT!

Daily capacity: 150,000

The sense of expectation was palpable. It had, after all, been building for 6 years since Radiohead's legendary Glasto performance of 1997 when the exact moment they became the most important rock band on the planet can be pinpointed. By Saturday you could permanently feel the questions hanging in the air ... Would it be as good? Would the new album stand up live? Would they play 'Creep'?

Two of these questions were answered almost immediately. It was obvious as soon as the tribal drumming of 'There There' reverberated around the field and the audience started bouncing around like loons that tonight was going to be special. It was followed by '2+2=5', which had become something of a festival theme, the serrated guitars coming through the Glasto speakers fantastically. So it went on, the boys mixing new tracks with a surprising (for them, at least) amount of older classics, including 5 'OK Computer' tracks and, oddly, nothing at all off 'Amnesiac'. With this being Radiohead though, the fantastically perverse 'The Gloaming' got an outing too, replete with some of the most bizarre dancing ever seen on the Pyramid Stage, courtesy of Thom.

Highlights are difficult to pick. For me, one of them was the dizzyingly manic rendition of new techno explosion 'Sit Down Stand Up', which on the basis of the "F**K ME, IM CONVERTED!" scream in my vicinity certainly had quite an effect on the more dance music orientated members of the crowd. For many it was the lighters aloft hymn-like rendition of 'Fake Plastic Trees'.

Radiohead

I think the most beautiful moment came however when the first encore ended with 'Karma Police'. Did the crowd scream for more? Did they clap like thunder? No, the entire audience just spontaneously launched together into the repeated final line, "For a minute there I lost myself" repeatedly till the band bloody well came back on stage to finish with 'Street Spirit'. Rarely has alienation felt so victorious. There is nothing as shockingly beautiful as the sight of Thom Yorke grinning.

Oh and no, they didn't play 'Creep'.

review by "Cheap Wallpaper"