Radiohead
Royal Festival Hall
London
July 1, 2000

The most anticipated event of all Meltdown - Radiohead's first UK gig in two years. The prospect of new Radiohead material generates immense expectations which are met in spades. New tracks like "Morning Bell" and "In Limbo" are more daringly experimantal than before - think pianos and double bass rather than the anthemic bite of OK Computer. Curiously, Thom has also adopted a Muppets-style head wobble when playing piano, while Jonny Greenwood has taken to standing centre stage, fiddling with effects. A good balance of stadium faves like "Fake Plastic Trees" and "Lucky" keep things buoyant, and Yorke actually laughs during "My Iron Lung", but he's not changed that much - at one point he kicks the piano and dedicates new song "You And Whose Army" to Tony Blair with a cutting, "I'm only disappointed I never got to shake his hand".

-Neil Davenport

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