Radiohead headline a sold-out Varsity Arena in Toronto

Radiohead played three new songs to a sold-out Varsity Arena in Toronto on Saturday 6 April, and this time, The Varsity points out, they were the headliners rather than bit players. The new songs were “Electioneering”, “I Promise” and “Lift”, and Natalie Secretan of The Medium found them eagerly received. Jonny Greenwood spent the night at a tiny amplifier in one corner with his head down. At the encore he mumbled something into an unamplified microphone, Thom Yorke told him to speak clearly to the nice people, and then passed the message on himself.

There's a lot of love in the room tonight. We thank you.

Thom Yorke²

Before the show The Medium's Cue Duong found the Hard Rock Cafe packed out to the street for Jonny and Colin Greenwood's interview with Brother Bill of 102.1 The Edge. The brothers arrived late and stayed to sign autographs while their manager tried to move them on. The Bends, Duong reports, has spent the past eight weeks back in the UK top ten.

Jonny, 24, also sat down with The Varsity, late because the band's bags had been searched at the border.

I sort of play with no regard to the audience. It's a bit too show-bizzy, isn't it?

Jonny Greenwood¹

He pictures one imaginary listener, he says, and has never understood the thrill of being in a crowd. He remembers watching Throwing Muses at 13 or 14 and feeling no one else was watching the way he was. He left music college for the band without regret, and uses the training more now than any job would have asked of him. Yorke comes to him to find out how a celeste works and how to score for other instruments.

For their videos the band gathered scripts from new directors, and the record company at first said no. The man who made “High and Dry” had just left the army and had made one five-minute film. Were they to tour again now, Jonny says, it would be in stupidly large places. T in the Park, the Scottish festival Radiohead are headlining this summer, asked whether they would rather go on after the Sex Pistols or after Lou Reed.