Radiohead play Tel Aviv, their longest set in 11 years

Radiohead ended this year's touring with 27 songs over two encores at Park HaYarkon in Tel Aviv on 19 July, their longest set since Bonnaroo in 2006. It was their first show in Israel since 2000, and about 47,000 people were in the park.

Before “Creep”, which opened the second encore, Thom Yorke turned to Jonny Greenwood to check his memory of their first visit. So, uh, in 1993 we came here. Somewhere called the Roxan. Didn't we Johnny?⁶ He thought they had played this one then, and probably “The Bends” too. Israel was where “Creep” first took off, as Vulture told it before the show: in late 1992 the army radio presenter Yoav Kutner played it on Galei Tzahal again and again, and EMI sent the band out for three club nights in Tel Aviv the following spring.

“Like Spinning Plates”, rarely played, came in the first encore. The Times of Israel's reporter in the park counted three drummers during “There There”: Phil Selway on the main kit, Jonny on a smaller one and Ed O'Brien on bongos.

Roger Waters, Brian Eno and the director Ken Loach, with others, had spent months calling on the band to cancel, and Yorke had answered that playing in a country is not the same as endorsing its government. On stage he said little beyond thanks, though a “yalla”, Hebrew for “come on”, drew a cheer. He gave the argument one line, just before “Karma Police” closed the show. A lot of stuff was said about this. But in the end, we played some music.⁶

Setlist