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NME Festival Guide
2009

Radiohead play epic Leeds Festival headline show

Thom Yorke and co bring new material and hits to Bramham Park

Radiohead played an epic headline set at the Leeds Festival tonight (August 29), playing new material plus fan favourites including 'Just', 'Paranoid Android' and 'Lucky'.

The Oxford band played a two-hour set to a large crowd at Bramham Park, with the stage decked out with huge lit-up cylinders and screens projecting live footage of the five band members behind and side stage.

They opened the set with '15 Step', from their most recent album 'In Rainbows', and 'OK Computer''s 'Airbag', before frontman Thom Yorke addressed the crowd.

"You might know this one," he said before 'There There', which features on their 2003 'Hail To The Thief' album. "I have no fucking idea which ones you know and which ones you don't know, to be honest." Guitarists Jonny Greenwood and Ed O'Brien flanked him, playing percussion for the song.

"This one is for when you want it but you can't have it," Yorke later said before 'Lucky'. "Oh, that's the wrong song," he added.

Following 'Nude', the frontman positioned himself behind an electric piano and introduced 'Morning Bell' as "from our record 'Kid A', I don't know if you know it?", prompting cheers.

"Where's the bastard now then?" he said, following '2+2=5', seemingly referring to former US President George W Bush.

Following '(nice dream)', the cylinders above the stage came into full effect, glowing with a green rain-style lighting effect during 'The Gloaming'.

Radiohead ended the first stint of their set with 'Idioteque', before returning to kick off their encore with 'Amnesiac' album track 'You And Whose Army?'.

Yorke stared intently into a camera as he played piano during the song, the lens zooming in to portray a close-up of his eyeball on the big screens.

"This is a new song, called 'These Are My Twisted Words'", he said next, introducing the track that they recently offered as a free download. "For which I need... chords," he added while a tech fiddled with wires at his feet. "It's alright, we can all get drunk later," he said as the problem was quickly sorted.

"We know you're all fucked," Yorke said before playing the opening bars of 'Paranoid Android'. "If you see anyone off on something tonight, this is for them," he added.

They then played 'Just', which Yorke described as a "change of plan" from the setlist. They followed with 'Everything In Its Right Place' to close the set, taking bows before leaving the stage to end the second night of Leeds Festival 2009.

The band now head to the Reading Festival to close events there with a headline slot tomorrow.

Radiohead played:

'15 Step'
'Airbag'
'There There'
'All I Need'
'Lucky'
'Nude'
'Morning Bell'
'Weird Fishes/Arpeggi'
'2+2=5'
'A Wolf At The Door'
'Videotape'
'(Nice Dream)'
'The Gloaming'
'Reckoner'
'The National Anthem'
'Bodysnatchers'
'Idioteque'
'You And Whose Army?'
'These Are My Twisted Words'
'Jigsaw Falling Into Place'
'Paranoid Android'
'Just'
'Everything In Its Right Place'


NME.COM will be coming live from both the Reading And Leeds Festivals sites this weekend (August 28-30). Stay tuned to NME.COM/festivals for news reports, blogs, video interviews and photos from the event.

Get next Wednesday's (September 2) issue of NME for the ultimate Reading And Leeds Festivals review.

Plus have your say on this summer - fill in the annual NME Festival survey now to cast your verdict on 2009, and tell festival chiefs who you want to see next year.

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Comments (8)

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billytheshroom 

Aug 30, 2009

Far too much stuff off Kid A, Hail to the Thief and Amnesiac and only two songs from The Bends? No Karma Police? Pretty poor set list if you ask me. Maybe a few more hits wouldn't have gone a miss...

dolphin30918 

Aug 31, 2009

Karma Police? Come on, they're Radiohead, they don't need to play all the hits to get a show going. I was there right at the front, waited 6 hours to see them, and it was amazing!

Grimbo 

Aug 31, 2009

agree with billy. i was there and we seeing radiohead's Reading seltist, i feel a bit cheated. thy lost half the crowd well before the end too.

MoralMajority 

Aug 31, 2009

They were a joy to watch, and cements their status as one of the great all time acts. However it didn't seem like a great set list for a festival, with the big casual fan singalongs being cut such as No Suprises, Street Spirit, Karma Police and My Iron Lung.

RoCreighton 

Aug 31, 2009

Leeds got screwed!! They Played Karma Police and Creep at Reading!!

[[Thanatos]] 

Aug 31, 2009

More pretentious Radiohead than Classic Radiohead, shame.

thom-morrissey 

Sep 1, 2009

Sorry, I meant to say 'couldn't take my eyes off Thom Yorke', because I couldn't.

thom-morrissey 

Sep 1, 2009

They were superb, I was right down the front and every single song was magnificent, could take my eyes off Thom Yorke. It was the best gig of the weekend, even better than the prodigy, who were superb.Also, if a desire to constantly expand one's musical horizons whilst still keeping one's integrity intact, and a desire to always keep people guessing no matter how long you've been a band is something to be looked down upon and deemed 'pretentious', then I suppose there's no point ever doing anything at all of worth.

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Pic: Richard Johnson

Pic: Richard Johnson

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