Radiohead play Amnesty's human rights concert at Bercy

Radiohead played ten songs at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy on 10 December, at Amnesty International's concert for the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was their first show since the Tibetan Freedom Concert in Washington) in June, and their only one in Europe this year.

Thom Yorke told Channel 4 News before the show that playing it was a way of addressing my guilt, I guess⁴. He is happy to use his fame for Amnesty, he said, because he doesn't use it for anything else. Radiohead came out of the grunge culture of complaint. I think we've grown up and it's dawned on us that our problems are utterly, utterly irrelevant⁴. He had no patience either with Hello magazine, for turning anyone successful into a lifestyle to copy, or with MTV, for pushing bands' own troubles at its viewers.

Without the work of organisations like Amnesty International, the Universal Declaration would be mere rhetoric.

Radiohead²

That was the band's statement when the concert was announced in early October, with the Body Shop as sponsor. Bruce Springsteen played an acoustic set very early in the evening. The Dalai Lama spoke from the stage.

NME reported a sold-out crowd of 16,000, and its reviewer James Oldham says Radiohead had 50 minutes, 20 minutes more than any other act. They opened with “Lucky”. Just before “Paranoid Android” Yorke was punching the air and jumping on the spot, and set off fainting fits around the hall. His French got no further than the odd “Ça va?”. Before the last song he reminded the crowd why they were there and thanked them. Then “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” stopped dead, and the band left the stage in silence.

Setlist