Date: Sunday 29 June, 2008, 20:15hrs
Venue: Lancashire County Cricket Club (LCCC)
Face Value: £42.50
Gig Buddy: Phil
Sadly a wedding crisis (and no I’m not being bridezilla about it, this was a genuine crisis) prevented us from catching the support acts (MGMT and Bat For Lashes) last night. An unfortunate turn of events indeed, however having 80 guests at a wedding who may be forced to sleep rough took precedence over a gig warm up act. But only just. With that quickly resolved via an internet block booking or two, we take the drive into Manchester and opt out of paying £10 for parking near the cricket ground. Phil’s skilful map reading ensured we would take a sneaky back entrance and actually park closer than the £10 would have gotten us. Handy knowledge as REM will be rocking this same venue in August.
On entry to the ground you can tell it’s not sold out. It’s busy, but not rammed considering it's their final UK date of the World Tour. I’m wearing pink wellies as it’s been raining all week though it’s now a cloudless afternoon and there is a layer of black plastic covering the ground so I needn’t have bothered. Nevermind. People have clearly been here all afternoon as the ground is littered, festival style, with pizza boxes, paper cups and noodles. There’s more than a pungent whiff of wacky-tobacky in the air and lots of people have found their groove (even if it’s just filler music). Radiohead take the stage at 8.15pm to thunderous applause – the accoustics in this place really help bounce the sound around. There’s a lot of material from the new album which was recently launched as a download where listeners could choose what they wanted to pay for it. Perhaps Radiohead were hoping it would bring them a swath of new listeners. Perhaps they felt people would feel inclined to shell out £40 for a gig ticket as thanks. Sadly, evidence has shown that neither of these things has happened. People who took the album for free would have paid for it anyway and the concerts, though widely publicized have not sold out. Still, there seem to be plenty of punters spunking cash on the £20 t-shirts at the merchandise stand.
The show has a good vibe, even if the screen showing what’s happening on stage is more art than anything. Short-asses like me made do with the colourful light show provided by what looked like giant neon strip lights, dangling vertically in wind-chime style above the stage area. Highlights are always the old favourites: Paranoid Android, Karma Police and No Surprises getting the best response from the crowd. No shock that they didn’t play ‘Creep’ as it’s a well published fact that the band abhors that track, despite the commercial success it brought them. Phil says REM is the same with ‘Shiny Happy People’. Shame, these are both good tunes. The set is broken up midway with Thom Yorke shifting to the piano, but returns to guitar. [post-edit: this was not a break, but the end of the show - they came back for their encore]. I can’t tell what strings he playing – he’s small dot of black on a black background from where I stand. 2 [3, duh!] encores follow the show – but we’re already out the gate in the hope of beating a rush for the streets. The second [third] one we totally weren’t expecting and we listened from the road near the train station. Top tip – the sound at this location is BETTER than in the ground itself. If you ever can’t get tickets to a show at LCCC, take a picnic and set up camp on the grassy knoll beyond the tramlink.
Overall: A good Sunday evening out, but not rock your socks off fantastic. 3 mellow guitars – 3 and a half maybe 4 if you’re a massive fan.
By the way, the hotel people called this morning. They are very sorry, but their computer system messed up. We have no hotel rooms available.
Welcome to Monday.
On entry to the ground you can tell it’s not sold out. It’s busy, but not rammed considering it's their final UK date of the World Tour. I’m wearing pink wellies as it’s been raining all week though it’s now a cloudless afternoon and there is a layer of black plastic covering the ground so I needn’t have bothered. Nevermind. People have clearly been here all afternoon as the ground is littered, festival style, with pizza boxes, paper cups and noodles. There’s more than a pungent whiff of wacky-tobacky in the air and lots of people have found their groove (even if it’s just filler music). Radiohead take the stage at 8.15pm to thunderous applause – the accoustics in this place really help bounce the sound around. There’s a lot of material from the new album which was recently launched as a download where listeners could choose what they wanted to pay for it. Perhaps Radiohead were hoping it would bring them a swath of new listeners. Perhaps they felt people would feel inclined to shell out £40 for a gig ticket as thanks. Sadly, evidence has shown that neither of these things has happened. People who took the album for free would have paid for it anyway and the concerts, though widely publicized have not sold out. Still, there seem to be plenty of punters spunking cash on the £20 t-shirts at the merchandise stand.
The show has a good vibe, even if the screen showing what’s happening on stage is more art than anything. Short-asses like me made do with the colourful light show provided by what looked like giant neon strip lights, dangling vertically in wind-chime style above the stage area. Highlights are always the old favourites: Paranoid Android, Karma Police and No Surprises getting the best response from the crowd. No shock that they didn’t play ‘Creep’ as it’s a well published fact that the band abhors that track, despite the commercial success it brought them. Phil says REM is the same with ‘Shiny Happy People’. Shame, these are both good tunes. The set is broken up midway with Thom Yorke shifting to the piano, but returns to guitar. [post-edit: this was not a break, but the end of the show - they came back for their encore]. I can’t tell what strings he playing – he’s small dot of black on a black background from where I stand. 2 [3, duh!] encores follow the show – but we’re already out the gate in the hope of beating a rush for the streets. The second [third] one we totally weren’t expecting and we listened from the road near the train station. Top tip – the sound at this location is BETTER than in the ground itself. If you ever can’t get tickets to a show at LCCC, take a picnic and set up camp on the grassy knoll beyond the tramlink.
Overall: A good Sunday evening out, but not rock your socks off fantastic. 3 mellow guitars – 3 and a half maybe 4 if you’re a massive fan.
By the way, the hotel people called this morning. They are very sorry, but their computer system messed up. We have no hotel rooms available.
Welcome to Monday.
*thanks to Manchester Evening News for the picture. I was never going to get that close.
