Melody Maker finds Radiohead stand-offish at the London Forum

Radiohead closed their March UK tour with a sold-out show at the Forum in London on Friday 24 March, 11 days after The Bends came out. Before the first of three encores Thom Yorke told the crowd the band had just played a blinder³. Andrew Mueller, reviewing the night in this week's Melody Maker, found them stand-offish.

The tour) had begun at Cardiff University on 9 March. Three songs in, a technical fault stopped things for about half a minute before “Bones”. The third encore was one song, “Lozenge of Love”, a B-side from the My Iron Lung EP. A recording taped off FM radio survives, ending on the announcer signing off.

Mueller likes The Bends as a record. On stage, to his ears, the band pummelled the delicate songs and made the rockers sound weedy, and “Planet Telex” was the one song that clearly worked. “Creep” no longer stands out, he says, in a set where the songs the crowd wanted were “High and Dry” and “The Bends”. He still has the band heading for arenas.

Setlist