Radiohead
Royal Festival Hall
London
July 1, 2000

RADIOHEAD have long outgrown venues of this size - the last time they toured the UK, in 1997, they had moved up to the arena circuit - but this show marked a special occasion. Scott Walker, curator of this year's Meltdown season at the South Bank, requested the presence of the band whose OK Computer keeps coming top in "all-time great album" polls. And such is the regard with which the now reclusive Walker is held in music circles that it was a request that no band in their right minds would have turned down.

Thus, those fans lucky enough to get tickets for this one-off date - and we'll pass over those others for whom the evening seemed to be little more than a chance to exchange gossip - were treated to an experience that will surely never be repeated: two hours of exquisite music from this gifted band in intimate surroundings and with the benefit of the auditorium's near-perfect acoustics.

Apart from the sheer gorgeousness of songs such as Bones, Fake Plastic Trees, Street Spirit (Fade Out) and Karma Police, what was most impressive about this event was the quality of the detail in Radiohead's performance: the immaculate vocal harmonies between Thom Yorke and Ed O'Brien on No Surprises; the byzantine guitar structures of Airbag; the changes of tempo on "Paranoid Android". And yes, Yorke's voice, sounded, as always, like something welling up from deep within the earth; and yes, Johnny Greenwood managed to wrench the customarily enormous range of noises from his guitars, effects pedals and sundry electronic devices.

As for the new material which was showcased here, it seemed to indicate that the next Radiohead album, the band's much-awaited fourth, will be - if you'll excuse the connotations of the word - a progression from OK Computer, rather than an attempt to repeat the trick. The genius of that album was that it managed to be both utterly weird and totally approachable, whereas the new songs played here accentuated the band's weird side with looser, more elliptical structures, and melodic patterns that were less immediately apparent but had a cumulative and rather beautiful effect.

What else is there to say? This was a show that, after a hesitant start, just kept on getting better, reaching its apex in the scalp-tinglingly glorious Lucky, with its majestic chorus and that archetypal Radiohead juxtaposition of ecstasy and desolation. This was one of many moments when five became one, when Radiohead achieved what might be described as a state of musical meltdown.

-David Cheal

The Daily Telegraph
03.07.00