Radiohead in 100 gigs
In the morning we find ourselves in a hungover daze wandering around the huge and incredibly well stocked FNAC record shop. It’s a department store sized depository of music with large generically organised sections. I get lost in Funk & Soul and then wind up looking through the further reaches of Jazz. I find the… Continue reading 54. Porto, Coliseu do Porto, 27 July 2002
The Radiohead TV/ Chieftan Mews Webcast took place just before Christmas 2002. (The DVD entitled The Most Gigantic Lying Mouth of All Time – or as I like to think of it, The Most Chaotic Stocking Filler Of All Time – which came out some time later, contains the best bits.) Drinking along, joining a… Continue reading 2003: Hail To The Chief
I found the notebook that I was carrying on this tour, there’s a lot of blank pages left in it. There are a few scribbled lines trying to capture a conversation, hardly anything about the shows and on one page, Thom’s scratchy handwriting, to remind me to listen to a couple of records. At the… Continue reading 55. Dublin Olympia, 17 May 2003
Something is afoot with the people in the queue. There is an atmosphere. It turns out the people who arrived first, and one American in particular, have started their own system. They are giving people numbers, drawing on people’s hands with a felt tip pen. Don’t they understand? We are British (and Irish…) and we… Continue reading 56. Dublin, Olympia, 18 May 2003
We left Dublin, but I recall few details. Clara, who was touring with me, remembers leaving the envelopes with ALL the tickets for ALL the rest of the gigs in the hostel and having to go back for them. The rest of us had taken the train to Belfast and she had to follow on… Continue reading 57. Belfast, Waterfront, 19 May 2003
A travel day. It’s Melody’s turn to rescue the tickets, which once again get left in the hostel. This is getting ridiculous, at least we realise in time to alert her and she is on a later flight... We regroup in Glasgow and are joined by Dop from Belgium and Pocki from Sweden, who are… Continue reading 58. Edinburgh, Corn Exchange, 21 May 2003
A ramshackle bunch of us roll up to catch the train to Manchester from Edinburgh in the morning. Some more hungover than others. The gig is at The Apollo. I’ve not been here since 1996 when I came down for the T in the Park warm up show, Manchester has changed a lot since then. We… Continue reading 59. Manchester, Apollo, 22 May 2003
Another day off and we travel down to London. I stay in Bow with Clarabelle and have a rest. I go for a walk in the West End and into Hamley’s toy shop. I have a memory of going there with my parents on a sightseeing trip long ago, not being allowed to buy anything.… Continue reading 60. London, Shepherds Bush Empire, 24 May 2003
MTV are filming tonight’s show and someone has the idea that I should make a T-shirt for the occasion. Clarabelle takes a marker pen to a plain grey shirt and soon my chest bares the legend “Radiowho?” It’s an in-joke for us as members of the band’s Message Board where mentioning said band often sparks… Continue reading 61. London, Shepherds Bush Empire, 25 May 2003
The following night (May 26), Bjork is playing a rare live show at the same venue. A couple of our group have already got tickets and between us we score some more off people who are selling spares. (I rendezvous with a girl at Waterloo Station and buy her spare, she’d also been at Radiohead… Continue reading May-June 2003.