Again, a bit late in the day this one, but on 29th June I went with my girlfriend to see Radiohead play live in Manchester.
They played at Lancashire County Cricket Club’s ground. The place was really easy to get to - though we ended up paying £10 for ‘event parking’ in some car park around the corner which is a bit gutting having paid nearly £50 for a ticket in the first place.
However, we got there at about 17:30, I peed in a bush due to lack of facilities and we ate packed lunch then headed in. I haven’t seen so many people in a crowd like that before - but then I’ve never been to football matches where they get twice that number every week.
The weather was atrocious on the East side of the Pennines but once we’d gone over the top it faired up and the weather was absolutely gorgeous - we were lucky not to get sunburnt.
Anyway, we got to see MGMT and Bat for Lashes for warmup. MGMT really surprised me, good live band and Bat for Lashes had a cracking voice but seemed a little bit out of place on the day - she may have been better as the first act, but that isn’t to disparage her as an artist at all.
The main problem with the venue was visibility - I’m 6′ tall and I kept finding I couldn’t see anything so I feel for those that were smaller. However, with the exception of the usual minority, the atmosphere was the friendliest of any gig I have been to.
So, enter Radiohead: naturally they were sublime, there’s lots been written about it above plus lots of photos on Flickr and I’m sure that Youtube is awash with videos.
It took about 45 minutes to get out of the £10 car park and a further 45 to get to the motorway out of Manchester and we got home at 01:30 … but it was a really fantastic event and I would go and do it today if I could.
I’ve just looked up where we parked and it shows clearly why it took so long to get out - we had to get East to White City Way and were right at the back. Oh well!
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