Radiohead @ Victoria Park, June 25, 2008

Why?
Why did I go and see Radiohead? Why does a dog lick its bollocks? No explanation needed, really. But perhaps an interesting tale about how I went. I remember the Victoria Park dates being announced, and the furore that went with it. Anyway, people snapped them up by the bucketload. I didn't, somewhat foolishly. But I've been working in the office this week, and saw a dozen pairs of tickets go up on the noticeboards at various times. People not wanting to see them? Nope, when I picked both of mine up, it was because they had been bought in bulk, rightly predicting a swift sell-out. In hindsight, this wasn't a particularly interesting tale. Posterity, eh?

The venue
Victoria Park has probably been the park of the summer so far. This is probably due to three things. Firstly, it is a park in East London. Parks are cool; east London is cool. Secondly, and invariably related in the great zeitgeist of things, it seems to be on a bit of a musical roll. Victoria Park's summer in the sun started with the Love Music Hate Racism carnival, the genesis of which started in the very same spot thirty years earlier- read an interesting article on this whole thang here. Then, a few weeks later, there was the Paradise Gardens event, where the Women's Institute hosted a swing dance tent. Genius. Then there was Radiohead, and in a few weeks time there will be the Lovebox Weekender. This park is just soooo hot right now. P.s. If you're there when it's not being the coolest park in London, and just being a park, get some brekkie from the Pavilion, the lakefront cafe... excellent grub, using excellent produce.

What they look like
This was the first time I had seen Radiohead live, and two things grabbed me about their appearance. First of all, I didn't expect Thom Yorke to look like such a rock star. I'm not sure why. In my head, Thom Yorke wears a second-hand faded check shirt, baggy jeans and a skewiff, uncomfortable smile. In reality, he almost had a swagger about him, with tight red jeans, spiky hair and slightly crazed facial expressions. He looked like a rock star, and when he danced during Idioteque…he moved like one. An exhilaratingly awkward concoction of spasmodic snake hips and convulsing rhythm, there was even a touch of Ian Curtis about him. The second thing that grabbed me was Jonny Greenwood's hair, brilliantly suspended in a mid-nineties grunge band. Kudos. Forgive me if this is old news.

Finally, special mention to the lights… the dozens of tubular bulbs hanging above the stage almost stole the show, rippling and flashing and pulsating with an almost human responsiveness to the music. Once again, Radiohead are quietly on another forefront with this one, expect to see it copied elsewhere.

What they sound like
They sounded like Radiohead. I had a conversation with my buddy this morning over breakfast. He says we will never have a band like Radiohead in popular culture ever again. He's probably right. Shame.

Conclusion
Predictably, Radiohead were superb. Predictably, they didn't pander. They played a lot from In Rainbows, which is not a bad thing, of course. I'm sure I wasn't alone in wanting a Greatest Hits set, knowing full well that Radiohead will never play a greatest hits set. Betty Clarke summed it up well in the Grauniad review, saying that a lot of the setlist were "songs to have a one-to-one relationship with, not to be shared with 20,000 strangers." I love the Kid A stuff, and the Hail to the Thief stuff and even the Amnesiac stuff, but they aren't really singalong numbers. But they finished with Paranoid Android, which was enough for me. And one of many memories that I'm sure will endure was when, upon leaving the stage post-Karma Police and pre- second encore, the crowd spontaneously burst in to song, bellowing in unison... "for a minute there, I lost myself...". And for several minutes, I did. [cheese editor- enough of that, thanks].

Very little banter between sets, but this is part of Radiohead's thing, the thing that inspires fascination, and, yes, awe. I left wanting to know more about them, about the relationship between Yorke and Greenwood. But they don't give this to you. A good parallel is the quick-burn, bring-your-own-legacy approach pioneered by Barat and Doherty when the Libertines started out. Radiohead are better than that. Because they are the real thing… utter genius.

Pics: hidden shine, ejbaurdo

tags: radiohead victoria park thom yorke jonny greenwood love music hate racism lovebox paradise gardens the pavilion cafe