Radiohead dedicate “Reckoner” to Scott Johnson in Nîmes

Radiohead came back for a third encore, the first of the tour, at the Arènes de Nîmes, a Roman amphitheatre in southern France, on Tuesday 10 July, their first show since the stage collapse in Toronto, and Thom Yorke thanked the crew and dedicated “Reckoner” to our friend Scott¹. Photographs of Scott Johnson, the band's drum technician, were shown on the screens behind them as they played it.

Johnson was killed when the stage at Downsview Park collapsed on 16 June, about an hour before the gates were due to open. Three other crew members setting up the stage were hurt, and the Toronto show was cancelled. Ontario's Ministry of Labour is investigating the collapse, and Live Nation and the band's touring company are among the parties it is looking at. The band postponed the first seven dates of the European leg, and Nîmes is where the tour picks up.

Much of the production was lost in Toronto. The screens that used to move above the band were fixed to the back of the stage, and the large screen on top of the lighting rig was gone.

The first encore opened with “Treefingers”, the instrumental from Kid A, played live for the first time, 12 years after the record. “Lucky” opened the show, the first time it had opened a Radiohead concert since 1998; “Bloom” had opened every other night of the tour. “Videotape” was back for the first time since St. Louis on 9 March.

The band played Nîmes again the next night, with Caribou supporting. Yorke introduced “Supercollider” as a new song, though it had been out for a year on a single with “The Butcher”. “Treefingers” opened the encores a second time and “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” closed the night.

Setlists, Arènes de Nîmes, 10 and 11 July 2012