Radiohead
Main Stage, V Festival
Chelmsford
August 19, 2006

Spirits - or, at least, alcopops - were high as the masses gathered for Radiohead, perhaps the unlikeliest (and, allegedly, the highest paid) V headliners ever. One might have expected them to deliver a poker-faced set of Kid A out-takes, as an act of militancy against V's ethics.

Instead, they pulled together pretty much every highlight from each phase in their career. Alongside the full compliment of anthems from The Bends and OK Computer, including a truly magical "Karma Police", their Noughties repertoire felt anything but wilfully difficult, rather, an essential part of the band's whole.

One of only three new songs, "Nude" was as delicate and beautiful as anything they've done.

Thom Yorke seemed to be enjoying himself. "Kiss someone," he entreated between numbers. At the end, he merrily led the charge into his least favourite song, "Creep".

Perhaps these days everybody in pop culture, even Radiohead, has their price. Their performance was special enough, however, to make you believe in rock's future co-existence with commercialism.

Andrew Perry

The Daily Telegraph
21.08.06