Radiohead play “Creep” twice at their Oxford homecoming

Radiohead played “Creep”, the single Parlophone releases on Monday, twice at their homecoming show at the Venue in Oxford, the second time as the last encore. Dave Jennings, reviewing the night in this week's Melody Maker, calls it a triumph, though faults in the PA broke into almost every song with bursts of electronic crackle.

The place was packed and the band played with confidence. For Jennings the whole evening is justified by “Creep”, in which he hears pride and ambition wrestling with guilt and self-disgust, the song swinging from a tight whisper to a scream that clears the air.

They could go quiet, as on “Anyone Can Play Guitar”, but never for long before the two guitarists were staggering about the stage and tearing noise out of their instruments. Jennings likens them to Brett Anderson in an uneasy partnership with Sonic Youth, and hears in Thom Yorke's words a man who loves and hates himself in turn, with the hate mostly winning.