Anyone that knows Oxford's South Park will be able to describe to you exactly what it's like: On the side of a hill, South Park is a large area of grass with trees around one side, and fence around the other. There are the odd few trees dotted throughout this, and the overall effect is the surreal blend of countryside, urbanised victorian housing at the bottom of a large hill, and the dreaming spires of Oxford as a panorama, soaring above the city. This calm, tranquil area was quite a juxtaposition to the South park in which the 10-hour festival which constituted the Radiohead concert took place in. The trees and houses hidden by wooden pallisades, the grass covered by Radiohead fans, blankets, footpaths, and kebab vans, and the spires of Oxford utterly hidden by the immense stage which confronted all who had been fortunate enough to get tickets for this, the largest concert Oxford has ever seen.

Although the transformation of a once tranquil area of grass might seem frownable to some, the atmosphere was incredible: A mixture of Radiohead fans who'd been listening to Radiohead since Pablo Honey and Oxford students (not to mention a good sampling of the population from most of Oxfordshire) made up the nicest crowd this researcher has ever seen, and the only where two moshing fans bumping into each other exchanged profuse and sincere apologies. And the generosity of the nice Computer Science Students knew no bounds... it's thanks to one and his umbrella that I wasn't soaked until after the performance.

The music, then. Not on until 8:40, there was well over 7 hours to kill before the icons themselves stepped onto the stage. And so, before them, we heard the varying talents of Rock of Travolta, Sigur Ros, Supergrass and Beck. The former two groups were by no means up to the standard of Radiohead, but they were reasonable background music for the mid-afternoon chat which the time frame which they occupied seemed to provide the 42,000 assembled persons time for. Beck, however, drew a little more attention.

Starting with a bluesy guitar and harmonica song, he was then joined by the rest of his group for a cheerful, if uninspiring, selection of bluesy and country songs. His regret-laced-with-humility after his first song (Which contained the line "looks like it's going to rain" ) seemingly caused the heavens to open seemed to set the mood for the rest of his time on the stage, which was nice in a sort of museful way.

Supergrass, however, were quite another kettle of fish: Far from regretting the rain, Supergrass opened with the line "This is a local gig... for local people..." which raised the crowd's spirits no end, causing a not insignificant cheer from all assembled. Supergrass played well, especially with some of their older songs (Sun hits the sky, for example) and not all of the people pogoing were students, as some more widely read reviews than this might suggest. Supergrass didn't play for very long, though, before throwing their instruments aside (literally), and the fans were left waiting (to the tune of a quiet selection of jazz being piped out of the speakers).

After half an hour or so of waiting, the antics of several lighting crew who had - very subtly - been dangling from the gantry around the stage for the last 10 minutes, inspired nervous chuckles from the enclosure of 4,000 people at the front.... 10 minutes later, the cheering Supergrass received was dwarfed when Radiohead appeared on the stage, not pausing to open with The National Anthem, one of the better songs off their pair of recently released albums.

This was closely followed by Airbag, an excellent song off one of their older albums (OK Computer) and although the slight technical hiccup at the beginning of Airbag inspired a "bugger" from Thom, the song was thoroughly well played. (And it wasn't all that noticable, guys). The approximate half-and-half mix of old and new material seemed to satisfy, and I feel it as my duty to add that Radiohead's live playing of their old material is just as good, if not better, than the album versions (Especially Paranoid Android, Karma Police, and Street Spirit).

The very end of the concert would be best described as inspiring: after two encores, Radiohead launched into a third encore, previously planned to be Motion Picture Soundtrack followed by Creep... but due to another technical failure, Thom moved swiftly onto Creep, a true sing-along (This and most of the other tracks off the older two albums) - a truly inspiring ending. Really. ;)...

Unfortunately for the 41,996 people who HADN'T had the presence of mind to make their way to the back just before the end, the heavens opened, at this point, leaving a very wet crowd of Radiohead fans trying to make their way out of Oxford. But someone's smiling up above, because - in spite of my quick exit - I still got soaked.

(as a conclusion, I feel like I'm at primary school again, and I'm convinced that this was written, and reads, like one of the holiday reports I once wrote, oh - so - many years ago. And it probably does, too.

The Pictures of the concert taken by myself.

Njan

19.07.01. Front Page

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