GIG: Radiohead - Victoria Park, 25th June

I was looking forward to this gig more than anything.

Last week, monsters Radiohead played a run of four massive concerts in the UK, two of them at Victoria Park in London. All this is off the back of them doing exactly what they wanted through their career, and fortunately getting a massive following with it. The Bends, OK Computer, Kid A and latest album In Rainbows are all masterpieces, each packed with great songwriting and an unnerving penchant for no compromises when it comes to direction.

Here, on this warm night in London, having arrived just in time for the band, everything is set in place for a fantastic show. Thom Yorke, Ed O’Brien, Phil Selway, and Jonny and Colin Greenwood make their way onto the stage, launch into Reckoner, and five songs later I’m still not feeling it. It’s a bizarre and tragic thing – here are an incredible band, playing with blazing conviction and proficiency, with a sound mix to die for. For reasons unknown to me, I am not feeling it. Even No Surprises does nothing to raise my spirits. A back-to-back whammy of Everything in its Right Place and Idioteque is undoubtedly euphoric, however.

A whopping seventeen tracks make up the first set, and I’m hoping for a lot more from the encores. Perhaps it’s Yorke and Co.’s annoying determination to stuff the whole of In Rainbows into the gig. It doesn’t stop there, sadly: the god-fucking-awful Bangers & Mash and Go Slowly perpetrate their way onto both encores, which mar awesome renditions of Karma Police, 2+2=5 and even closer Paranoid Android.

Despite the welcome surfacing of The Bends, the songs that are nowhere to be seen are Pyramid Song, Fake Plastic Trees, You and Whose Army?and yes, even possibly Radiohead’s greatest moment, Street Spirit. Oh, they left out Just too. What the FUCK is going on here?

When the show finishes, the 20,000-strong crowd cheer as if it’s the greatest thing they’ve seen in their lives. I just wish I could say the same thing.
Disappointment in its greatest form, readers. Be right back while I slash my wrists.

Rating – 6.5 / 10