The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

Menu

Navigation

You are here: Home / Nights Out / Radiohead

Radiohead

by 38 Comments

Venue:

O2 Arena – London

Date: 21/11/2025

This show was the climax of a fairly short (cold!) visit back home, I was lucky to get a ticket for their first UK show in more than 8 years. I had last seen them on the Moon Shaped Pool tour in Montreal 2018. this was my 8th Radiohead gig overall and, suprisingly, my first one in their home country (Did see them twice in Wales though many years ago) I had avoided all spoilers, apart from catching a glimpse of the opening track for their first gig back. I did know they would be appearing “in the round” on a 360 degree stage, hopefully making the vast O2 arena feel a little more intimate.

The stage setup was pretty amazing, before the show what could be seen was a round stage which appeared to be surrounded by a semi-transparent cage on which images were appearing as the ambient music blasted through the arena. They came on stage and launched into Planet Telex whilst in the “cage” with images of Thom Yorke and the rest of the band projected on to the screens. Reminded me a bit of The Wall with the band semi-hidden at the start of the show. By about the 3rd song the “cage” was lifted and served as screens for the rest of the show with incredible images throughout. The screen did not rotate, but the band moved around so that all parts of the arena got a pretty decent view.

After Planet Telex we got a couple of songs from Hail to the Thief before the first OK Computer track appeared to great excitement – Lucky. Pretty much svery track however was greeted with much love from the enraptured crowd. All of their albums except the first were was featured in the 25 song setlist. The other poor relations being Amnesiac, The King of Limbs and A Moon Shaped Pool getting one track each, in the latter case an absolutely stunning Daydreaming. Everything was brilliantly played, but for me the show grew and grew just getting better and better throughout. Maybe they are still a little rusty, and at times the sound was somewhat lacking (normal for the O2 I believe), I also sometimes had some difficulty seeing what was going on on the stage with it being a somewhat cluttered setup.

Checking setlists afterwards it seems they have roughly adopted 2 alternating ones. On the second night at the O2 2/3rds of it changed from night 1. So 41 different tracks played over 2 nights (with 2 more to come). I was happy getting setlist A as my favourite Radiohead track Fake Plastic Trees (stunning) was played, also Just from the same album and 5 OK Computer tracks including a magnificent Paranoid Android. In an evening of highlights, another one was Idioteque with Thom Yorke cavorting across the stage like a manic street urchin, and one of several hairs on the back of the neck moments was the heavily percussive There There with Jonny Greenwood losing his mind as the song built and built. The sound was quite bass heavy making me think that brother Colin could be the secret sauce that holds this whole thing together. The generous 7 song encore after There There was magnificent, moving and thrilling in equal measures. Hearing 20,000 people singing “For a minute there, I lost myself” during final song Karma Police is something I will never forget. I think the band did manage to achieve a degree of intimacy in such a huge place. A special evening.

The audience:

Losing their minds throughout

It made me think..

I should have gone second night too.

5

Comments

  1. Setlist:

    Planet Telex
    2 + 2 = 5
    Sit Down. Stand Up.
    Lucky
    Bloom
    15 Step
    The Gloaming
    Kid A
    No Surprises
    Videotape
    Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
    Idioteque
    Everything in Its Right Place
    The National Anthem
    Daydreaming
    Jigsaw Falling Into Place
    Bodysnatchers
    There There

    Encore:
    Fake Plastic Trees
    Let Down
    Paranoid Android
    You and Whose Army?
    A Wolf at the Door
    Just
    Karma Police

  3. Pleased you enjoyed it. They are really not my cup of Darjeeling, but I was impressed with the clip I saw of the communal singing.

    I would say that the in-the-round thing isn’t a new or revolutionary idea; Prince had the Symbol stage setup in similar fashion for his 21 Nights’ residency in 2007… now that *was* Revolutionary (geddit?).

  4. Yes, we have proved that playing the round is not a new thing (which I was well aware of). This clip of Friday’s opener gives a good idea of the whole stage set up

  5. Risking the ire of Dai, Dylan performed on a revolving stage in Sydney in 1966. Presumably many others who performed at the now demolished Stadium did too.
    Sounds like a dodgey set up.
    The Stadium was an ‘in-the-round’ venue, with a circular stage in the centre of the hall. This could be slowly rotated so that the performers could be seen by everyone as it turned. The stage rotation was not mechanical, however, it was actually pushed around by stage hands, and the rotating stage was typically moved around a quarter turn or so at a time, and left in that position for a few minutues. Many performers nearly fell when the stage was rotated, as the motion was often very jerky.

  7. I saw them on the OK Computer tour, when the world was at their feet. They put on a brilliant performance then and I have no reason to doubt that this was every bit as good as you made out. For all their detractors, they are undoubtedly a distinctive and adventurous band. That alone deserves applause, but they also have the ability to move.

Leave a Reply