Reviewed on 1st September 2009.

Radiohead

Live at Leeds Festival 2009 on Saturday, 29th August 2009

Facebook Aug 26th:

"I'm off to Leeds Fest as it's the only place on earth I can be absolutely sure of not seeing The Killers, even then I'll take a high powered sniper rifle, just in case"

Yep. Definitely no Brandon Flowers, let's go! Borrow a tent, dig the sleeping bag out of the shed, crisps multi-packs and we're done.

Facebook 27th:

"Apparently there's a sweep on high many times I'll say 'I'm too old for this shit' at Leeds fest. Quid in nearest takes all. Highest guess so far has been 42, which is a little harsh surely"

Only thing happening Thursday night was the Dance To The Radio event. Caught Wild Beasts (beard ratio 25%) their dramatic, tricksy tunes combined with an almost operatic take on vocals was engaging without being compelling. Catch them in a more intimate setting for a different experience. Blood Red Shoes (br 0%) ended the night but sadly the powers that be seem to have decided to only let those within touching distance of the speakers actually hear it. Why when there was nothing else on?

Facebook Fri 28th:

"awake to find 'eurohike' permanently embossed onto my right cheek. Actually awake implies that I slept, tricky, with the annual drug hooverers all night convention happening directly outside my tent. Whatever they were taking affected that part of the brain which allows you to have an unexpressed thought and perhaps recognise the fact that you just might have said it 52 fuckin' times already"

Dinosaur Pile-up (br 100%) kicked off Friday, power pop with a Pavement touch followed in contrast by Delphic (br 25%) an 80's styled (literally in Ian Curtis shiny grey shirts) Manchester synth band whose last 2 songs built to a mesmerising climax.

'Accidentally' caught pure pop act Marina & the Diamonds (br -50%) very Brit school does over dramatic rock-pop with at least 90% of all lyric related hand gesture opportunities taken. One new song 'Champagne' though was a brilliant pop song and should be all over wonderful Radio 1 at some stage.

The Prodigy (br -10%) did the hits and the 'come and have a go' moves but lacked bite and focus. There's only so many times you can be berated by Maxim for not 'bringing it' before you start to think actually "it's not me, it's you".

The Arctic Monkeys (br 10%) were the big ones on Friday, but failed to make it theirs. They played the crowd-pleasers well enough and weren't helped by average sound but failed to fill the arena and be great rather than just good. As a reviewer has already pointed out on this site it might have been very different if they'd played the NME tent. Spot on. They're simply not an arena kind of band and I'd suspect don't really want to be.

Facebook Sat 29th:

"Trenchfoot,dysentery, mindless stumbling charges into the unknown, never ending mud, relentless explosive noise, underage groups of youths from all corners of the country signing up and falling together in some foreign field. It's the first world war. If only Franz Ferdinand were playing."

Token rap acts first thing with Master Shortie (br 0%, not old enough) I say master you say shortie and Lethal Bizzle (LB 100%, entourage 0%) I say bizzle you say bizzle. Shortie rocked a full band pretty well ina 80's pop rap stylee (prince charming sample! Really!) Bizzle was good in an inyerface rap for chavs with ADS stylee.

Then caught The Old Romantic Killer Band (br 75%, there's only 2 of them but the singers got a dodgy tash) I say old romantic, you say actually this lot are pretty good. Definitely impressed an increasing crowd, the introducing stage being open to passing trade. They did a outstanding version of 'Girl you have all the fun' which had people doing that eyebrows raised, quizzical nod of approval at each other. Back and bigger next year? Certainly deserve to be.

Facebook Sat 29th:

"Every other band has asked how old the crowd were including Master Shortie saying put your hands up if you were born in the 80's (about 25%) and then the 90's (the other 75%), this makes me a statistical anomaly. One band asked who'd got their GCSE results, the few who didn't shout out said 'No, but we're going to big school this year'"

Metronomy (br 25% but he's the singer) had the lights on the chest and the quirky electro-pop tunes and were clear contenders for the falsetto of the week prize. Very modern and angular. Alice from Crystal Castles (br 50%) is clearly as mad as a bag of spiders but made for compelling viewing if a little uneasy on the ears. A Lydia Lunch (target audience alert!!!) for the dance generation. Their abrasive, piercing synths and wails drew a good crowd for such 'out-there' stuff

Yeah Yeah Yeahs (br 0%) were very smiley, Karen O's outfits filling the big stage by themselves. Decent sound brought out the subtleties in some of the songs in a generally well paced set with enough of the earlier, funnier stuff to keep everyone happy. The version of 'Maps' was a little low-key and lost the crowd a touch when such a classic song should have been a climax.

Gallows (br 1% for frank carters ginger fluff) were astounding. So much energy and focused aggression , just what had been missing with the Prodigy. As an old part-time punk it brought a nervous smile to my face. Just one question, why no 'Staring at the Rude boys' with Lethal Bizzle playing the same tent earlier in the day? That would have been class.

Then another trudge to the main stage for Radiohead (br 20%). After Gallows it had crossed my mind that they'd seem a little tame and irrelevant. It became clear very early into the set that Radiohead have more energy, tension and focus than anyone I'd seen that weekend. Just stunning. They took over the big screens for a fucked up CCTV show of their own and had some huge vertical light rig that, as the show progressed, brought each song an individuality and 3D dimension of its own. And sooo many songs, some of the 'hits' of course but those album tracks they played were invested with a grandeur of their own. 'you and whose army' and 'morning bell' from Amnesiac were huge but not a patch on 'The National Anthem' which broke over us like an avalanche of light and noise.

Seeing Thom's eyeball 30ft high was a little much after all the junk food but all is forgiven. He even danced pretty well.

Facebook Sun 30th:

"Mother, Father kindly disregard this letter ...............Radiohead astounding, Gallows stunning, Yyy's great. Then I came home had a bath and slept in a bed. Result"

Comments

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On 5th September 2009 at 12:19 Anonymous 13 wrote...

So right about Radiohead. I was astonished to hear several people I know say they "weren't interesting" or some such nonsense. Abnormally truncated attention spans, perhaps?

On 8th September 2009 at 11:23 thirties wrote...

Uninteresting they certainly aren't, but exciting enough to keep one stood out in the cold whilst La Roux offers spiky synth-pop in a tiny tent around the corner? Not on this occasion for me, I'm afraid...