Radiohead
Pyramid Stage
Glastonbury
June 28, 2003

If you've been following my posts on the list, you'd know that I was utterly torn with who to see in Saturday's headline spot ever since the lineups were announced. I finally decided that I'd position myself on the left side of the Radiohead crowd so I could sneak off to see SFA when they got all art-jazz-wanky and maybe even slip off to see Aphex Twin from SFA. I had it all planned out, and went off to Radiohead with Toby L from the excellent Rockfeedback.co.uk. And you know what? I never left to see the other two bands. Radiohead were absolutely spectacular. Even the normally jazz wank numbers off Amnesiac and Hail To The Thief sounded revitalised and perfectly in tune with old stalwarts like "Just", "Paranoid Android", "No Surprises", and in spine-tingling encore fashion, "Street Spirit". The energy, adoration, and emotions of the crowd funneled onto the stage and we were in turn blessed with smiles from King Thom. The set ended with massive fireworks behind me, Radiohead behind me, and a sense of peace in my hardest decision of the weekend.

(Interesting side note: apparently Aphex Twin was booed offstage after only about 15 minutes, because he was playing the normal "difficult" fare to the E'd up masses in the Glade that only wanted something they could dance to. But apparently SFA were excellent, if a bit predictable.)

Melissa

Excellentonline
07.07.03