Radiohead
Main Stage, V Festival
Stafford
August 20, 2006

Radiohead have always frustrated and delighted in equal measure. Live, as on record they're a unpredictable act for non-devotees, sometimes they'll pull a melody out of the bag that'll take your breath away, sometimes they'll become so bogged down in reinventing their own wheel. Live, you never know who'll turn up - bleepy Head or play the classic Head. And tonight, while the expectation levels have run to the almost hysterical, there's the threat of "terrifying new material."

But we needn't have been worried. For tonight, Radiohead are astonishing. Shrugging off their reputation of bloody mindedness, they open with "Airbag", and the crowd realise that the band are actually here to have fun. "Fake Plastic Trees". "Just". "Street Spirit". "Paranoid Android". Every time you think the magic will end and they'll withdraw into a scrawl of impenetrable electronica another hit starts up. "Lucky".

"Karma Police". Even the three new songs (Nude, Videotape and All I Need) sound like worthy inclusions into the back catalogue. As Thom and co leave the stage to the feverously received "Creep", they have already written a new chapter in V Festival's history - a moment that will be talked about in hushed tones for years to come. It even makes up for the mud.

Rob Watson

MusicOMH
22.08.06