NME's Keith Cameron slates Radiohead at Smashed! in Islington

Keith Cameron thinks “Creep” is the best song Radiohead have, and that they took it from the Hollies' “The Air That I Breathe”. He saw them at Smashed!, the club night at the Powerhaus in Islington, and reviews the set in this week's NME.

Radiohead are angry young men, Cameron writes, by all accounts and chiefly their own, but he saw no anger at all. Thom Yorke scowls and screams, then looks a little sorry and thanks the crowd after every song. Cameron calls him charismatic in an ugly way and the only vaguely interesting thing on stage, in 40 minutes of tight, slightly noisy power pop that was mannered and anxious not to offend.

He hears “Faithless The Wonder Boy” as a weaker copy of the Everly Brothers' “Crying In The Rain”. An A&R man, he jokes, would sack the band and give the singer a publishing deal. His last word is that Radiohead are a feeble, spineless excuse for a rock'n'roll group.