Radiohead; fitter, happier, Manchester
"Let something give you this feeling"
We are fanatical about bands. It goes beyond the gig to the whole experience around it. As part of uniqulture's artbeat inspiration, Radiohead are a thread woven into the tapestry of TheZineUK's tale. They are essential to 2017 reclaiming a Summer of Love, a year after Brexit's Summer of Hate began. Britain is powered by making a song and dance about everything. Music consistently saves us. One of our national treasure rock bands, enjoying the moment, lifts all our hearts. There to witness something special, Lucy Brouwer (words) and Keira Cullinane (all images are copyright and not to be used without permission) grace us with this in depth report in feelings and pictures.
RADIOHEAD - Old Trafford LCCC - Tuesday 4th July 2017
This year I’m only going to one Radiohead gig*. What was going to be two shows at Manchester Arena becomes a single super-sized Tuesday night at Old Trafford Cricket Ground. The events of 22nd May have had a far reaching effect on Manchester. Life is fragile, fate is cruel. But the worst humanity can throw at us brings out the best in people. The “I Heart Manchester” logo is everywhere, Mancunians are friendlier than ever and there is a party atmosphere around the Manchester International Festival (MIF) which is in full swing by the time I arrive.
I step off the train at Piccadilly in the morning and make a quick stop in a charity shop for a suitably cricket-friendly hat (in case of weather extremes). I take a tram to the venue and do a lap around the outside where I run into old friends. After dropping my kit bag off at the B&B, I go back to town. I’m not prepared for the rigours of the queue today. I find myself in Albert Square and the MIF tent – food, drink and BBC 6 Music broadcasting live. I keep expecting to bump into DJ (and Radiohead fan) Mary Ann Hobbs (who is programming some of the gigs). The atmosphere is conducive to chilling out, so I settle in and have some magnificent peanut butter ice cream. Turns out the friend who has my ticket is already on the way here, so I hang around and as the afternoon wears on, more friends, old and new (and more beer), arrive.
I’m more relaxed than I’ve ever been on a Radiohead gig day, but I can still feel the jumps coming on when we’ve still not left at 6pm… a packed tram, a long walk and I’m in a queue.. a very long queue. It takes an age to get through the security, where a gender segregated pat-down and ticket check is in operation. By the time I get inside the venue my beats per minute are at “Don’t Stop Me Now” levels. I don’t get to see the supports, I don’t get to go through my usual warm up rituals, it all happens in a few seconds and my heart bangs in my chest.
I barely have time to have another beer put in my hand before the air changes and Radiohead are on the stage. I’ve lost all sense of space and time. But the shock is not that they have appeared, but that they are opening with 'Let Down'!
I’m near the sound desk. The sound (for such a big venue) is balanced, the view is, to be honest, better than at the back of a small indoor venue – better than it would have been in the Arena (where last time in 2012, spent most of the show looking at the floor and crying my eyes out). I have room to dance and jump and shout. They get straight on with it into 'Lucky' and this is the show I needed.
It’s a full on assault with few breathers until the clatter of 'Bloom' (it’s ok for me to not be so into this one) but the pace picks up again and this band are on fire again. Smiling a lot. The encore starts with 'Daydreaming', the lights beautiful. 'Paranoid Android' and 'Fake Plastic Trees' pull me back in. A second break then 'There There' (Jonny giving Colin rabbit ears, with his drum sticks).
Thom makes no direct mention to the change of venue, but gives heartfelt thanks to everyone for coming “out here” today. Then we get 'I Promise', someone is asking me what my favourite is, the beer kicking in, and I’m trying to say that much as I love all of it, 'The Bends' is the one that’s always playing in the disco in my head… and then… Thom is saying something about a treat “depending on how we play it, or even if we can remember it, please sing along ‘cause I’ll probably forget the first verse…” and there it is. The chords crash and the noise I make comes from the very core of my being and is beyond my control.
'The Bends'. This one, since the very first time I saw them. This one. And we sing it and we know every note like the strings of our own hearts and every word like the lines on our hands.
Thom just about remembers it (pluralising the bar and girlfriend line..) and doesn’t ham it up for a change and I’m in tears and in love and these are my boys still and again and always.
Radiohead, 'The Bends' on the fourth of July
I may be a little bit tired and emotional at this point.
'Karma Police' is the only place they can go after this and the crowd take it up with gusto. This shining positive force (Is it new? Is it stronger than ever?) It opens you up, it switches you on. That feeling - let me keep it. The lazer beams shoot from my fingertips, I’ve had a dose of my Radiohead medicine and it’s a release, the panic pours away.
A slow departure, not wanting it to end, saying hello to old friends, hugging it out. And I realise I’ve lost my hat. I blub until I reach the Meeting People Is Easy-style travelators of the 24 hour Tesco (it’s OK Computer’s world and we just live in it).
The next day I recover gradually. There is an exhibition inspired by Joy Division & New Order (True Faith at Manchester Art Gallery – it’s wonderful go and see it) and in my post-gig, open, reactive state, I start to visualize what a similar Radiohead-themed show would look like.
Later I am interviewed by Jamie and Tyler, Americans who are making a film about fans called 'Where I End And You Begin'. Jamie wants to know what it was like, back in the day at the Pablo Honey gigs. She’s an In Rainbows-era fan and I feel like I’m talking about pre-history. She wants to know The Big Why. But I don’t know what my life would be like without this band in it. Maybe I would have channelled this passion into something else, it would have made me a different person. But as it is, I’m me because of this and the most me because of this.
Two days after and it’s a sunny day in Manchester, I get a day alone to decompress and see some art shows and walk in the warm and feel alive and every step is a YES. On my way to the train home, I stop in at a bar to hydrate and use the facilities. I realise the lady in the other cubical is Mary Ann Hobbs. I babble at her over the noise of the hand dryer. She was at the gig too, and she also, was crying by the end. This band.
THIS BAND.
At 3am I’m awake and trying to capture the buzz in my brain: For once maybe I can make the universe do my bidding, a coin the in the fountain, the light (an interstellar burst) radiating out of me like love, like hope, like something mystic. (For a minute there…).
Life is fragile, fate is cruel. You might not be where you thought you’d be. But let something give you this feeling. Seize it. Do it and don’t wait. Every idea feels like a good one and all the doors are open.
*but never say never.
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