{"id":278162,"date":"2025-11-23T01:37:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T01:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/278162\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T01:37:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T01:37:11","slug":"a-generous-and-visceral-hit-parade-of-sorts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/278162\/","title":{"rendered":"a generous and visceral hit parade (of sorts)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arriving at The O2 for the opener of Radiohead<\/a>\u2019s London residency, we\u2019re greeted by Stanley Donwood artwork along the walkway and the words from the band\u2019s doomy modern mantra \u2018Fitter Happier\u2019 on an imposing banner hanging from the ceiling of the former Millennium Dome. Our thoughts skip back to arriving at Oasis\u2019 Live \u201825 tour<\/a> back in the summer. This, the other big rock comeback of the year, comes with a different flavour of anticipation but no less palpable. We\u2019ve swapped bucket hats and chucking pints into the summer sky for crawling through the frosty night to gather in gloom. Toniiiiiight, I\u2019m a pig in a cage on antibiotics.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to believe it\u2019s been nine long years since Radiohead\u2019s last album, the opulent but mournful \u2018A Moon Shaped Pool<\/a>\u2019, with the band not touring since 2017. Since then, we\u2019ve had side-projects \u2013 peaking with Ed O\u2019Brien\u2019s underrated solo turn as EOB<\/a> and Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood almost seeming like Radiohead in all-but-name with the jagged jazz-rock of The Smile<\/a> \u2013 and a dose of controversy.<\/p>\n

After playing in Tel Aviv in 2017<\/a>, scrutiny magnified over the band\u2019s ties to Israel amid the increasing horror of the genocide in Gaza. There was some heat over Greenwood\u2019s collab with Dudu Tassa<\/a> (an Israeli musician who has performed for the IDF) and over Yorke\u2019s follow-up statements against backlash<\/a>. The guitarist himself had been on anti-government marches in Israel (the homeland of his wife), and the band recently made their stance clear by further condemning Netanyahu\u2019s regime<\/a>, arguing that they hope music can bring people of all cultures<\/a> together. That\u2019s the M.O. tonight, without a whiff of protest or boycott in the air.<\/p>\n

The crowd surrounds the stage, set up in the round for a far more intimate and immersive experience than most corporate enormo-dome shows allow. A twitching vocoder builds and teases kick-off before the band arrive and get immediately old-school with the snotty guitar misery of \u2018The Bends\u2019 opener \u2018Planet Telex\u2019. It\u2019s the first of many crowd-pleasing moves from a band not always known for them, as the packed-out room giddily howl back \u201ceverything is broken \u2013 why can\u2019t you forget?\u201d, united against the fuckery coming from all directions of society.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

With a \u201cbusking approach\u201d that has seen the band rehearse over 70 songs<\/a> for the tour \u2013 airing around 43 of those so far<\/a> \u2013 this ain\u2019t the repeated banger machine of Oasis\u2019 shows, and it\u2019s a joy to be kept guessing. It\u2019s a setlist weighted equally heavily towards the crown jewels of \u2018OK Computer\u2019 and \u2018In Rainbows\u2019 alongside the once-maligned but now rightfully reappraised \u2018Hail To The Thief\u2019; a hit-parade (in a Radiohead way, no \u2018Creep\u2019, obviously) punctuated with occasional glammed-up curios for breathing space.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve got the roaring political paranoia of \u20182+2=5\u2019, the widescreen, bittersweet \u2018Lucky\u2019, the pumping rave of \u201815 Step\u2019 and glorious sing-along of \u2018No Surprises\u2019 at the top of the first act. It\u2019s an opening chapter that\u2019s also peppered with \u2018Sit Down. Stand Up\u2019\u2019s new subtle happy hardcore outro, \u2018Bloom\u2019 from the brittle \u2018The King Of Limbs\u2019 \u2013 now with more of a neon pulse \u2013 and \u2018The Gloaming\u2019 into \u2018Kid A\u2019, allowing the set a needed collapse before shit really gets real.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no room for a toilet break from then on out. From the tender ache of \u2018Videotape\u2019, the wig-out one-two-three punch of \u2018Weird Fishes\/Arpeggi\u2019 into \u2018Idioteque\u2019 and \u2018Everything In Its Right Place\u2019, to the rocky \u2018In Rainbows\u2019 cuts and an almighty first set closer of \u2018There There\u2019, it\u2019s all a Radiohead faithful would want and it looks quite stunning, to boot.<\/p>\n

\"Radiohead,Radiohead, live in Madrid, 2025. Credit: Alex Lake<\/p>\n

Then come the spoils of a seven-song encore that reads on paper like fan fiction \u2013 complete with the recently-viral \u2018Let Down<\/a>\u2019, a cheeky turn from \u201ca song we wrote on a freezing cold farm in 1994\u201d (indie beast \u2018Just\u2019) and the almighty full-stop of \u2018Karma Police\u2019. This is the cinematic, arty yin to Oasis\u2019 hedonistic yang: that dynamic of \u201cstanding on the edge\u201d and taking it all in. What a show: a visceral energy, a tasteful spectacle, all delivered with a generosity of spirit, Yorke in full rockstar mode as the band trade places to tend to each corner of the venue. For a band once embarrassed by the notion of \u2018arena rock\u2019, nobody does it better. A new album and another night like this can\u2019t come soon enough.<\/p>\n

Radiohead played:<\/p>\n

\u2018Planet Telex\u2019
\u20182 + 2 = 5\u2019
\u2018Sit Down. Stand Up.\u2019
\u2018Lucky\u2019
\u2018Bloom\u2019
\u201815 Step\u2019
\u2018The Gloaming\u2019
\u2018Kid A\u2019
\u2018No Surprises\u2019
\u2018Videotape\u2019
\u2018Weird Fishes\/Arpeggi\u2019
\u2018Idioteque\u2019
\u2018Everything In Its Right Place\u2019
\u2018The National Anthem\u2019
\u2018Daydreaming\u2019
\u2018Jigsaw Falling Into Place\u2019
\u2018Bodysnatchers\u2019
\u2018There There\u2019
\u2018Fake Plastic Trees\u2019
\u2018Let Down\u2019
\u2018Paranoid Android\u2019
\u2018You and Whose Army?\u2019
\u2018A Wolf at the Door\u2019
\u2018Just\u2019
\u2018Karma Police\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arriving at The O2 for the opener of Radiohead\u2019s London residency, we\u2019re greeted by Stanley Donwood artwork along…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,3583,128,3584,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-278162","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-indie","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-rock","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}