On film · concert film · 2010
Live in Praha
Sixty-two people in the crowd are credited with footage, and four fans cut it together into one two-hour film.
2009
the first Czech show
Radiohead played the Czech Republic for the first time on 23 August 2009, the second of five August nights in Europe that summer, on a site built for the night beside the Výstaviště exhibition grounds. Wyndham Wallace of The Quietus put the crowd at about 18,000 and watched the band come on as the sun went down. To him it was a celebration, about as far from the band's gloomy reputation as it could get, and he singled out Jonny Greenwood's riffing at the end of “Bangers + Mash”.
The rarity came in the first encore. “These Are My Twisted Words” had been a free download for six days and had been played live once, two nights earlier at the Frequency festival in St. Pölten. Prague was its second night anywhere, and Wallace saw the crowd take it like a song they had always known. “True Love Waits” followed in the second encore.
2009–2010
the Flip cameras
The film began with a fan who signed the project as Nataly. Noticing that fans' videos of concerts were getting better, Nataly set out to gather people willing to film the August shows in Europe from as many places in the room as they could. They shot on small handheld Flip cameras, and Prague was the night they made into a film. Four editors, Peter Halliwell, Jeff Keiler, Vasek Chalupa and one credited as 00Liadon, took a stretch of the set each, and Tim Ziegler graded the colour. Chalupa, who cut the first encore and “The Bends”, thanked the band for playing his hometown. Then Radiohead gave the editors their own mixing-desk recordings of the night to lay under the pictures.
And for a final and unhoped-for touch, Radiohead themselves accept to join this project by providing their audio mixes.
Nataly · the film's own site, 2010
2010
free
Live in Praha went out at the end of August 2010, free to download in versions from DVD quality down to a file for the iPhone, and marked strictly not for sale. The project's site buckled under the traffic, and the songs went up on YouTube one at a time. On 11 September a fan put the whole two hours up in one piece, the copy here, at the fourth attempt.
The Guardian pointed out that the band had not released a film of a whole concert since Live at the Astoria in 1995.
a fan's copy
Live in Praha· Radiohead Concertswatch on youtube →
sources8
- Radiohead Concerts, “[720p] Radiohead - Prague 2009 [Full Concert]”, YouTube, 11 September 2010, youtube.com (the running order, the running time, the soundboard audio, the fourth attempt)
- Nataly and the editors, “Radiohead in Prague - 23 08 2009”, the film's own site, 2010, web.archive.org (the mission, not for sale, the audio masters; the Credits page for the producer, the four editors and who cut which songs, Tim Ziegler, the 62 people who gave footage; the Thanks page for Nataly's idea and quote and Chalupa's hometown)
- Sean Michaels, “Radiohead lend their music to fan-made live DVD”, The Guardian, 1 September 2010, theguardian.com (more than 50 Flip cameras, the site overwhelmed, the iPhone version, no concert film since 1995)
- Randy Ray, “Radiohead's Live in Praha”, Jambands, 3 September 2010, jambands.com (produced by Nataly, the formats)
- Sarah Pittman, “Flipping out over Radiohead”, Pollstar, 3 September 2010, news.pollstar.com (the improving fan videos, the editing team)
- Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, “Radiohead keeps giving things away for free”, The FADER, 31 August 2010, thefader.com (out by 31 August, song by song on YouTube)
- Wyndham Wallace, “Reading & Leeds preview: Radiohead triumph in Prague”, The Quietus, 26 August 2009, thequietus.com (the crowd, sundown, the verdict, Greenwood on “Bangers + Mash”, “These Are My Twisted Words”)
- This site's story of 23 August 2009, and the show pages for St. Pölten and Prague