On film · at home with radiohead · 2020
Live From A Tent In Dublin (October 2000)
Thom Yorke called eight to ten thousand the ideal crowd, so Radiohead toured Kid A in a tent built to hold that many.
2000
the big top at Punchestown
Radiohead put their tent up at Punchestown Racecourse, near Naas in County Kildare, for three nights in the week Kid A came out, the last European stop of the autumn. The film's title says Dublin, and it does not say which of the three nights it shows, 6, 7 or 8 October, or whether it draws on more than one.
John Lane of The Irish Times was there on the Friday, with about 10,000 others under a custom-built big top that put him in mind of the set of Alien, and screens round the edge for the people at the back. The crowd had come for the old songs, he thought, and the band gave those less than they gave the new. Only “Paranoid Android” matched the Kid A songs for him, and “Idioteque” was the best thing all night. James McCartney, reviewing for musicOMH, found no tunes and no riffs in the new songs, and left before the last encore.
The film is ten songs long, and the two that are not from Kid A are “Paranoid Android” and “Just”, which closes it. Dilly Gent, who commissioned the band's videos, produced and directed it, and Quin Williams edited it. The credits also name the people who made the room: Andi Watson on lights, Ed Moore on the screens and Jim Warren on sound. Lane rated the lighting spectacular and the sound close to perfect. In April 2020 it was the first of the concerts the band put on YouTube once a week.
On the British albums chart dated 8 October, the day of the last night in the tent, Kid A went in at number one.
the film
Live From A Tent In Dublin (October 2000)· Radioheadwatch on youtube →
sources7
- Radiohead, “Radiohead - Live From A Tent In Dublin (October 2000)”, YouTube, 9 April 2020, youtube.com (the place, the running order, the running time, the credits)
- John Lane, “Inside your head”, The Irish Times, 9 October 2000, irishtimes.com (the Friday, the big top, about 10,000, the screens, the old songs and the new, “Idioteque”, the lights and sound)
- James McCartney, “Radiohead @ Punchestown Racecourse, Dublin”, musicOMH, October 2000, musicomh.com (his verdict, leaving early)
- Luca Dondoni, La Stampa, 20 June 2000, in Italian, archive.org (Yorke on the ideal crowd and the tent)
- Consequence, 8 April 2020, consequence.net (Dilly Gent and Quin Williams, the first of the weekly films)
- Official Charts Company, Official Albums Chart, 8 October 2000 to 14 October 2000, officialcharts.com (Kid A new at number one)
- This site's show pages for the three nights, its stories of June and October 2000 (La Stampa, Punchestown), and the page for the Best Of DVD (Dilly Gent commissioning the videos)