NPR posts Radiohead's whole Santa Barbara Bowl show

NPR's All Songs Considered has put the whole of Radiohead's Santa Barbara Bowl concert of 28 August online, to stream, download or embed. It went up just before noon on Monday 8 September, as Bob Boilen had promised, and it can be kept through the programme's Live in Concert podcast. Boilen calls it Radiohead's gift to their fans.

NPR could post the full show only if Radiohead were happy with how they had played, and not at all if they weren't. The answer came at a small after-party, where Laura Eldeiry of Nasty Little Man, the band's PR firm, told Boilen to wait for Thom Yorke, then came back with the news that the band were happy and with CDs of the night's performance. Yorke, when he arrived, said he was “blasted”, worn out after two hours on stage, but Boilen found him pleased with the night.

The recording lasts 2 hours 5 minutes 16 seconds: 25 songs, with Yorke's “Cymbal Rush” from The Eraser opening the first encore. The band webcast the show themselves on the night to see the tour out; this is a copy to keep.

NPR picked Santa Barbara, the last US date of the tour and a venue Boilen says the band love, and Boilen flew out from Washington for it, having already caught the tour in Virginia. He and Yorke had talked in February, when Yorke guest-hosted All Songs Considered down a line from Oxford, and had agreed to meet when the band came to America. It was also the night of Barack Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic convention, and when the talk turned to politics Yorke warned against putting every hope in one person.

Before the show Boilen recorded two interviews, both now up on NPR. Jim Warren, the band's front-of-house engineer, explains mixing a band that tours with 60 songs to choose from. Richard Young, the production manager, talks about the all-LED lighting rig, built to decrease the carbon footprint² of the tour. Nothing quite like it had been done before, Boilen writes, so the crew had to work out how to make it run and how to take it on the road.

Setlist, Santa Barbara Bowl, 28 August 2008