Newport hears “Idioteque” as Radiohead's British tent tour opens

Radiohead opened their first British tour in almost three years on Friday 1 September, and played “Idioteque” live for the first time. About 10,000 people filled a tent in the grounds of Tredegar House, Newport, for the first of two nights there. Thom Yorke said nothing to the crowd all night but thank you very much¹. He shook a tambourine, played piano on “Morning Bell” and “You And Whose Army?”, and through “Idioteque” danced in a tight, jerking circle, while Ed O'Brien and Jonny Greenwood never stopped moving beside him.

The band walked on in a haze of red light, with three screens above the crowd following Yorke. Clark Davies, who was there and wrote to NME, counted the new things on stage: looped beats, a double bass, a beat box, a transistor radio, projected visuals, and vocals cut up live by Jonny.

NME's reviewer found that the new songs, billed as a turn away from guitars towards Aphex Twin and Autechre, came across in the tent as guitar music. “The National Anthem”, which opened the show, had the drive of The Bends, and “Optimistic” was fierce and focused. The biggest roars went to “Paranoid Android” and “My Iron Lung”, and the crowd grew quieter whenever the band moved on to songs nobody knew yet.

Setlist