Legends Return

Radiohead shows in London are an increasingly rare commodity. So the announcement of a double header in Victoria Park was a real treat for their legion of fans. The band have ditched the tent they played in last time and plotted the shows outside doubling the audience capacity.

In truth, the venue is a good shout - this time of year, everyone is craving the festivals, so putting 40,000 people in a field with a beer tent and a few overpriced hot dog stands is good public relations, and the strangely clement weather makes for a doubly chirpy crowd.

Radiohead continue to push themselves to that seat at music’s top table, where you no longer have anything to prove, and can churn out an album of pap once in a while in return for mass adulation. There is a huge difference with this band though because seven albums in, they've never slipped from their A game and have consistently come up with the very best music this country has in its arsenal.

Emerging to the massive stage at 8.30pm, illuminated by an array of carbon neutral lights, they kick off with 15 Step, and from there on in it’s clear that they have the entire park eating from the palm of their hands. The In Rainbows material sounds fantastic on record, but is brought to life in exhilarating fashion in the live arena - Bodysnatchers, Weird Fishes/Arpeggi and All I Need are all tunes of a calibre not many bands can match, and sit perfectly alongside classics such as The National Anthem and There There.

An enthralling two and a half hours passes in mere minutes, and it’s not until the band depart after an encore of You and Whose Army and Idioteque, that you realise they’ve barely touched two of the greatest albums ever written, The Bends and OK Computer. A punked up version of Just, and an almost reluctant rendition of Planet Telex are all from the former, and the brilliant Airbag and Climbing Up The Walls the only offerings from the latter.