Radiohead close a wet Field Day at Giants Stadium

Radiohead closed Field Day at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Saturday 7 June, opening a two-hour set with the new single, “There There”, and going straight into “2 + 2 = 5”. Hail to the Thief is not in the shops until Monday in Britain and Tuesday in North America, but the crowd cheered each new song as they recognised it. Everyone comes up to me saying, 'Great record.' It's not out yet!¹ Eight of the 22 songs came from the album, and “Sail to the Moon” brought the stadium to a hush.

Field Day was meant to be two days of camping and music at Calverton, on Long Island, with Radiohead billed for the Saturday and about 50,000 people expected. Without enough security from New York state and Suffolk County it moved to Giants Stadium and shrank to one day, losing Sigur Ros, Interpol and The Streets along the way.

It rained for most of the day. The Morning Call counted ten hours of cold rain on a crowd of 20,000.

Beck never played. A minute before his set an announcement said he had been hurt backstage and was going to hospital, and the Beastie Boys played a longer set in his place.

The crowd waited nearly an hour for Radiohead, chanting, and the rain stopped before they came on. I'm sorry it had to come, in the end, to this³, Yorke told the crowd. Within minutes of the last song, “How to Disappear Completely”, the rain was back.

Setlist, Giants Stadium, 7 June 2003