Radiohead/ Willy Mason
Empress Ballroom
Blackpool
May 13, 2006

Hear that? That’s the sound of every other band in the UK putting down their instruments in despair as the greatest band of our generation begin another chapter of their near-faultless existence.

Under the exquisite ceiling of the Blackpool Empress Ballroom a capacity crowd push as one in the same direction to get closer to Radiohead. It’s unclear exactly why there’s such a crush as there isn’t a huge amount to see. There’re no dance routines, a little banter, and five men playing their instruments. However, such is the draw of Radiohead as necks are constantly craned to catch a glimpse of perhaps Thom briefly gurning like a man possessed or Johnny bent double attacking a modified car stereo.

On this, the second night of their first UK tour since the clutch of dates in 2003, Radiohead played a 23-track set encapsulating tracks from their six album back-catalogue and unreleased tracks mooted to appear on their forthcoming, as-yet untitled seventh studio album reported to be due in 2007. So first to the new tracks: ’15 Step’ appeared early in the set, following the blistering opening trio of ‘Everything In Its Right Place’, ‘National Anthem’ and ‘2+2=5’, and featured a soulful Thom Yorke vocal over a sampled ‘clapped’ drumbeat. Recalling the field hollers that peppered Moby’s Play record, the vocal then gives way to an intricate Johnny Greenwood guitar part and finds Radiohead at their most rhythmic.

Rhythmic is an adjective that could be applied to much of tonight’s set as another new track ‘Bangers n Mash’, introduced as being about being “Caught with your trousers down, having your food spiked with acid and making the headlines – something which seems to have been happening to politicians quite a lot recently”, features a double time drum beat and a dirty garage rock riff under Thom’s trademark squall. However, most interesting of all was the brand new track ‘Go Slowly’. Never before performed live, it featured a dour piano line from Yorke and a typically subtle arrangement.

While it goes without saying that each song was received by Blackpool like a jackpot win in one of the town’s hundreds of amusement arcades, two other new songs received relatively less applause: The bass-led ‘Nude’ still lacked something, while the short and punky ‘Spooks’, which at this stage lacks a little substance. Elsewhere highlights came thick and fast as the welcome pairing of ‘Morning Bell’ and ‘Pyramid Song’ sounded gorgeous backed by ten independently fired backdrop projections, ‘Karma Police’ sparked the first real crowd singalong (shout-a-long?) of the night, and a beautifully paced ‘You And Whose Army’ found Thom aiming the lyrics squarely into a piano-mounted camera as if it were connected directly to Tony Blair’s home PC.

Finishing with the insane electronic work out of ‘Idioteque’ and a towering ‘There There’, the band left the stage with waves, culminating particularly in an heroic cheer for drummer Phil Selway, the only man that can play the drums for two hours under a gazillion watts of lighting rig, in a two-piece suit, and still walk off stage looking striking and unfazed.

Returning for an encore dominated by older tracks from the band’s The Bends breakthrough LP, ‘Just’ and the album’s title track shook the Ballroom to its foundations, while the piano led new track ‘Four Minute Warning’ and the classic ‘Street Spirit [Fade Out]’ closed the first encore. Unlikely to be let out of the building alive without playing yet more, Radiohead placated Blackpool with a final ‘I Want None Of This’, lifted from the recent Help album and performed solo by Yorke at the piano, and a final, final explosive parting shot,  ‘Paranoid Android’.

There’s little left to be said of the majesty, skill and execution of Radiohead. A band at the top of their game, they can hold the attention for two hours plus and still leave an exhilerated crowd wanting more. Roll on album number seven and if you don’t have a ticket for any of the rest of band’s 2006 UK dates remedy this situation now. Hell, if you’re in a band, you could sell your instruments to pay for the ticket – you won’t be needing them any more.

Jane Stevenson

Xfm Manchester
15.05.06