Radiohead, eh? More a box of chocolates than a jar of marmite, the band are notorious at bucking tradition and doing whatever they want. Consequences be damned. Love it, loathe it or just think that a handful of their songs are alright, they’re both the most comfortable and the most outlandish headliner of the year. Foo Fighters and Ed Sheeran never stray far from the centre of their own lanes, but Radiohead go their own way.
Tonight is no different. Rather than changing opinion or pleasing crowds, this is a set of reinforcement and solidification. At times it’s genius. At others it feels like they might just be making it up as they go along, but it’s consistently evoking. Moments of blissful escape sweep into jarring crashes of electronics and guitar while Thom Yorke’s daydream vocals inspire beauty and crashing truths. There’s little interaction, but Radiohead have always been about creating little worlds to get lost in. Trying to inspire mass participation would shatter that fragile reality.
The hits are delivered without ceremony, there are barbed comments about The Real World (“See you later Theresa. Just shut the door on the way out”) celebrations of the temporary reprieve from it, and self-aware laughter at how ridiculous this all is. How did we get here?
The closing one-two of ‘Creep’ and ‘Karma Police’ is a fleeting glimpse into how glorious tonight could have been if they’d played to the mainstream, but they aren’t that band. Radiohead are one of a kind. Headlining Glastonbury for the third time, they light that fact up in neon blue, red and gold.
Radiohead played:
Daydreaming
Lucky
Ful Stop
Airbag
15 Step
Myxomatosis
Exit Music (for a Film)
Pyramid Song
Everything in Its Right Place
Let Down
Bloom
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
Idioteque
You and Whose Army?
There There
Bodysnatchers
Street Spirit (Fade Out)
Encore:
No Surprises
Nude
2 + 2 = 5
Paranoid Android
Fake Plastic Trees
Encore 2:
Lotus Flower
Creep
Karma Police