The tag of beautiful losers attached to Radiohead since day one has disappeared. These are beautiful winners. No hype, just the glory.

Radiohead/Massive Attack/Teenage Fanclub
RDS Showgrounds
Dublin
June 21, 1997

Given the tumultuous critical and commercial applause which greeted Radiohead on the release of their album, OK Computer, expectations were of Everest-type proportions for this open-air concert at the RDS Showgrounds. Indeed, singer Thom Yorke announced that it was the band's biggest headline gig to date.

But if Radiohead did feel a squadron of butterflies in their collective stomach at the sight of 35,000 people mainly teenagers staring back at them, they did not show it. The truth is that this performance saw Radiohead prove themselves as one of the select few stadium rock bands of our times who have not had to sacrifice credibility for popularity.

Scottish power-pop kings Teenage Fanclub kicked off proceedings with a warmly received set that was unfortunately marred by an appalling sound mix. From where this writer was sitting, they were unrecognisable as the same band who only the night before gave one of the most magnificent performances ever seen on a Dublin stage. Shame. Massive Attack who have been asked to remix Radiohead's new album by the band themselves suffered the same fate. All the subtleties and intricate musical patterns woven bythe acclaimed Bristol trip-hop troupe were literally blowing in the wind, lost in a sonic black hole that made their usually hypnotic slow-motion rhythms seem like one long, repetitive thud. Also, the downbeat nature of their music is better suited to the early hours than early evening.

Everything fell into place, however, for Radiohead. There are moments when Yorke's voice sounds as though it could purify the most diabolical of souls. When he hits the high notes on Fake Plastic Trees, Bulletproof. . . I Wish I Was, and, during the first encore, Street Spirit (Fade Out), he sings like a soprano in a midnight choir, trying in his way to be free. But if Yorke is the embodiment of that most puzzling of paradoxes, namely the shy superstar, guitar friend Jonny Greenwood goes for glory with an exhilarating devil-may-care attitude. The grunge-tinged My Iron Lung and Just in particular were breathtaking. The material from the new album may not have had quite the same impact as these instant classics from the Oxford quintet's 1995 masterpiece, The Bends or, of course, as the still seminal Creep but the sheer class of songs such as Lucky and No Surprises was there for all to see. And, as the final notes of High and Dry drifted into the Dublin night air, so the tag of beautiful losers, which has been attached to Radiohead since day one, seemed to disappear into the ether. Beautiful, yes, but now they look like winners.

The Times
23.06.97