Radiohead
Main Stage, V Festival
Chelmsford
August 19, 2006

So: you already heard Radiohead finished with ‘Creep’, right?

To set some kind of record straight: the ground did not tear asunder to reveal a giant staircase bathed in golden effervescence stretching up into the clouds which parted to reveal St Peter, open-armed, awaiting Radiohead’s ascension. They played ‘Creep’, noodled around a bit, waved and walked off while we all clapped and cheered until it began pissing down and we fled for cover.

But it was still pretty special though. All of it.

I-don’t-know-how-many tens of thousands of people in a field, expectant of something brilliant from a band whose career has been, to say the least, all over the place. And we get all of it. We get to dance un self-consciously to the eccentrolectric treats of ‘Idioteque’ and ‘There There’. Then, we’re a community, fists raised, shouting to anthems like ‘Just’, or ‘Karma Police’ – and suddenly we’re all alone, all eyes closed in the solitude of paranoid lullabies ‘Street Spirit (Fade Out)’ and ‘Pyramid Song’.

Then, all happy, all having got what we wanted, they play ‘Creep’ and we realise that now we’ve had all we wanted.

Not, then, a transcendental moment – just so f**king special.

Tom Hannan

RockFeedBack
06.09.06