Well well well.Radiohead totally deserve all the praise they get. What a performance. I turned up early, before the gates opened, and headed right down the front before lying down in the grass and keeping my spot whilst listening to music and not drinking too much liquid so I could stay there all night. (Hey, if you're competing with 50,000 people in a crowd, may as well do it properly). Bat for Lashes were... interesting. Absolutely appalling and uninspired lyrics, but a lovely ghostly sound. with some interesting moments in it. Her voice really doesn't quite make the grade on some of the songs she tries to sing, but I guess not everybody can be Bjork.The performance was slightly marred by the power cutting off three quarters through the set. I shouted out that they should dance for us while they waited for the power to come back on and they obliged whilst playing some tribal drum beats. Cool stuff. I'll check their album out.Radiohead... Thom is so entertaining, he's like a hyperactive monkey or something. They played some lovely tracks from all over their discography, (excluding Pablo Honey of course). I was pleased to hear tracks from Amnesiac and Kid A getting a decent airing. Highlights for me were hearing Dollars and Cents, The Gloaming (oh Wow, what a track when played live), There There, Bangers and Mash and Idioteque. Everything else was fairly amazing too. I sometimes forget that Radiohead seem to have managed to make all of these classics and are therefore able to put together a two hour set out of nothing but amazing material, and still have lots of spares.Special mention must be made of Thom coming on and doing a solo rendition of Cymbal Rush from his album The Eraser. It sent shivers down my spine and brought tears to my eyes a little. I don't want to do big gigs like this very often, at the start of the set I was contemplating NEVER doing it again, I was contemplating NOT going again tomorrow (I have a ticket). People are idiots, pushing and shoving each other out of the way, being rude and generally quite selfish. I like the small gigs that I go to, where if that happens, it happens on a much smaller scale and as a group people can do something about it. I like being able to hear the actual performers sing, instead of having a 50,000 strong choir. (Although some songs were made awesome with that effect). However, Radiohead won out and by the end of the set I was just amazed at how brilliant everything sounded. The crowd had settled down and I was quite happy stood at the front and zoning out to the rather excellent music. Not bad considering I wasn't really that excited about it for some reason. Tomorrow, I'll probably not head into the fray, and I'll probably not go there as early. I'll be quite happy lying in the field on the outskirts of the crowd, and just soaking up the summer evening clouds, and the atmosphere of it all. Beautiful.
PS: I recommend these, I was so glad to have them with me tonight and I'm never going to go to a loud gig down the front without them ever again. You can still hear everything perfectly - better even, as your ears aren't being pounded with an overload of information. No further hearing damage for me thanks.
-----------------------'15 Step''Bodysnatchers''All I Need''The National Anthem''Pyramid Song''Nude''Weird Fishes/Arpeggi''The Gloaming''Dollars And Cents''Faust Arp''There There''Just''Climbing Up The Walls''Reckoner''Everything In Its Right Place''How To Disappear Completely''Jigsaw Falling Into Place''Videotape''Airbag''Bangers + Mash''Planet Telex''The Tourist''Cymbal Rush''You And Whose Army''Idioteque'Apparently.There have been some complaints that Thom didn't "interact with the audience very much". Fuck that shit, they only had a couple of hours and they were determined to knock out as much music as possible. Damn straight.
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