Following a week of nationwide mourning the prospect of seeing Radiohead at the Empress Ballroom in Blackpool provided a glimmer of hope that life could be, at last, returning to normal.
Credit must go to staff at the ballroom as Radiohead are now packing venues as big as Nynex Arena and if they can bag them again they'll win a lot of young fans.
Radiohead are an impressive five-piece band from Oxford who are definitely flavour of the month and much was anticipated from an expectant sell-out crowd of 3,200 packing the ballroom.
They did not disappoint.
Opening with Airbag, the first-track from OK Computer, the band effortlessly slipped into what must seem to the fans like a greatest hits collection for, despite Radiohead not being a singles band, every track they played from OK Computer and the Bends is familiar territory.
Karma Police provided frontman Thom Yorke with the perfect vehicle for his haunting vocal style which had the crowd hanging on every syllable. The band were as tight as one would expect and managed to provide, without any tapes, superb backing. Blending eerie guitar breaks with intricate harmonies which, on vinyl, sound like they come from the modern producer's box-of-tricks on the mixing desk.
Radiohead have been accused of being a muso band - more Pink Floyd than Sex Pistols if you like. Well the latter's certainly true but their style is no less appreciated by today's disaffected youth than any rock band for the last 30 years.
The crowd roared as Yorke introduced one of the few concessions to Pablo Honey by playing Creep which I'm delighted to say he dedicated to beleaguered Daily Mirror editor, Piers Morgan, for no better reason than it simply being true.
Paranoid Android, Lucky, and No Surprises fused seamlessly with Planet Telex, Fake Plastic Trees and My Iron Lung and were delivered with Yorke's tortured vocals riding on the crest of the band's muscular backing. Despite the No Surprises track Radiohead did have one for the crowd - which roared them back on for an encore of Street Spirit and finally, bafflingly, Carly Simon's Bond theme-tune Nobody does it Better.
How true Thom, how true?
Thom Yorke in action
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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