Review by Pablo Amor:
Yesterday I was at the Radiohead show at Las Ventas ringbull, in Madrid. It was the last gig of Low with the band, and so they say before they played their last song; after that one, they made the crowd chant '¡Radio, Radio!'

When it was time for Radiohead to appear, a excerpt from 'Where bluebirds fly' sounded on stage, just before they started playing 'There There'. After that they played '2+2=5', 'Talk Show Host', 'Morning Bell' and 'Exit Music'.

The show was correct; I only noticed a mistake at the beginning of 'Where I end and you begin', with Colin apparently starting to play his very rythmic bass riff before the others were ready to follow him, and so having to stop and wait for them just after a few notes.

It was amazing to hear ¡three! songs from 'Amnesiac', the album which I think they have less played on this tour -apart from 'Pablo Honey', that was well deleted some time ago-; before the encores they have played 'I might be wrong' and 'Pyramid Song'; to finish the first encore, Colin, Jonny and Thom kept the audience attention with an inspired interpretation of 'Like spinning plates'.

During the show, they had previously played 'Climbing up the walls', 'My iron lung', 'The national anthem', 'Backdrifts', 'Sail to the moon', 'Go to sleep' an 'Myxomatosis'.
The first part of the show ended, as usual, with the perfect pair from 'Kid A': 'Idioteque' + 'Everything in its right place'.

The whole set was closed with a solo interpretation by Thom Yorke of the beautiful ballad 'True love waits' in which he was partly accompanied by the claps of the crowd that, incredibly, didn't lose the rythm that Thom was following for himself on the guitar.

The complete encores were as it follows:

-1st encore:
'The Gloaming'
'No surprises'
'Paranoid Android'
'Like Spinning plates'

-2nd encore:
'Sit down, stand up'
'Street Spirit (fade out)'

-3rd encore:
'True love waits'

Best regards,

Pablo Amor

Review by Barry Spencely:
Not Radiohead at their best, nor Thom at his most happiest. Mainly due to the fact the sound engineers, seemed to be out drinking cervesa's, and eating patas bravas. Thom even walked off stage at one point things were so bad. He sang "we are losing it, can't you tell" on 'My Iron Lung' with extra emphasis, to show things weren't going well. Personally, I was never that comfortable that the concert was in a bull ring.

Things started well, and Colin seemed unbelievably happy! '2+2=5' and 'There There' were really tight, and got a good crowd response. Unusual sight of seeing Ed and Jonny on the drums at the start. There were moments of genius too, on 'sailing to the moon', 'myxomatosis' (great dancing from Thom on that one) and 'ideotec'. Jonny finished a song with an inspired guitar solo that stunned the crowd into still silent awe. I'm embarrassed to say I was so carried away, I forget which song it was.

Despite all the problems, the crowd was genuinely enthusiastic. 'Everything in it's right place' was well received, with Radiohead leaving the stage, to sounds of Thom's sampled "test test" before the song started.

Worth the trip, but not the most comfortable viewing experience. You really felt Thom's passionate concern, to get across a good performance, in difficult circumstances. He and the band pulled it off.

Review by Juancho Pons:
I saw Radiohead in Madrid yesterday and I think it was very good. I had seen them last year in San Sebastian, in a theatre (Kursaal) and the sound was as good as last year. I didn´t hear anyone in the audience complain about the sound so I am surprised about what Barry has said. Of course, "I might be wrong" and maybe the sound wasn´t so good...

The setlist was very good and of course we all missed great songs, but which Radiohead´s song is not that good as to be in the setlist. I saw one thing which also called my attention last year in San Sebastian. They don´t really have to look at each other to begin or end a song, they seemed to have everything prepared and rehearsed so good that they do not need to know when "Myxomatosis" ends (a difficult song to finish, by the way). There, There was excellent and they seem to have taken this song as an Anthem for the band. I think that they have found another Paranoid Android, a song that everyone is waiting to hear. Idioteque surprised me as well because it´s one of the songs that they audience likes most

Finally I have to say that Thom Yorke has an excellent voice to perform songs like "True love waits" with such a strong voice. Excellent. There was just something that I didn´t like. Of course, there were people from the Bullring selling cocacolas and beers, young boys (18-23) who were among the audience selling a beer for 2 euros. But during "True love waits", when all the audience was very quiet and we could only hear Thom singing, there was just a 3 or 4 metres from me an older man screaming "Cerveza, Coca Cola" and everyone looked at him like "shut up" but he just didn´t care, and kept on screaming "Cerveza, Coca Cola". You can´t imagine how bad we felt, ashamed of this. Sorry to anyone who felt bad about it...

Great web, keep up with this very good job

Juancho Pons, Zaragoza, Spain

Review by Pablo Olivera Domingo:
The most important bull-ring of Spain, and obviusly of the world, felt last night the sound of an incredible concert. Everything was in order: the band, the audience, the location… Spanish public it´s one of the hottest, so it reaches the bands to make greats concerts.

Yesterday I see, a non tensionated Thorn, and I say that because at his last apparence in Spain on the Festival Internacional of Benicasim (FIB) 2002 he might have sinned of too much responsibility in doing a concert which pleased Radiohead’s long time wait apparence in one of the most alternative music festival. Last night, he dance, he shake his body with the music and he was communicative with the audience like never I seen…he felt like at home, and that make for doing those great concert, the one that I won`t forget never..

It started with a devastator There There (the drums of Phil supported by Johnny and Ed with simple percusion warmed the air) and the incredible 2+2=5 like almost ever in his last tour, but I think the best moments where Exit Music (at first, Thorn and Johnny alone and then the rest of the band supporting the middle and the end of the song), I Might Be Wrong, Go to sleep (with an smart Johnny) and Paranoid Android, where everybody felt how big they are.

I should mention that because of that greatest ambient, Thorn faced a 3erd encore, alone with his acustic guitar, and sang True Love Waits, one of those strange jewels which it´s difficult to listen at a live concert, but yesterday everything was different… everything was Radiohead.

Pablo Olivera Domingo (17-7-2003 - Madrid, Spain).

Review by daybh:

Gig starts 10.15pm.

Strange but true, the slightly off-putting choice of a bullfighting arena did make for a wonderful music venue. Fans from all over europe and the world packed the sharply sloping concrete seating, and a fantastic atmosphere of anticipation filled the air.

The familiar opening music, and then straight into the usual "There There" to be followed by a cracking version of 2+2=5.

I wont go into the setlist - I'm sure others will in detail. Most songs from the new album got an outing - my own favorites being a wonderful version of "Sail to the Moon" and an unbelivable version of "go to sleep" which allowed johnny to go completely PSYCHOPATHIC on guitar - the others just stood back and watched as he completed an extended outro of the song with only drums for accompaniment. A deserved chant of "johnny! johnny! johnny!" ensued.

Tom was in great form, with he benifit of binoculars I could see him jumping about with insane glee on the songs where he wasn't playing guitar. He did however loose patience during an abortive attempt at....hmm, the one where he plays the little keyboard...the backing sequence was going out of time. He paced around the stage angrily as the others wound down the song.

Other obvious highlights would have been the pure guitar insanity of "Paranoid Android" - but the song that sticks out most in my mind was "Like spinning plates" - a wonderful version - this song has never appealed to me so much as it did during this performance.

On the visual side of things they have abandoned the "plain coloured background with shadows", and now have these strange vertical strips of multicoloured lcd lights that blink and strobe across the back of the stage. As they left the stage for the first time the word "forever" could be seen scrolling and strobing across the array of lights.

Thom got us all to relax with a great solo acoustic version of "true love waits" - the lights came on, and after 2 ours of music people spilled out of the stadium onto the plaza outside. It was covered in stalls selling typical spanish food, sweets and beer, allowing everyone to sit around on the ground and discuss the gig.

2am - The last metro has gone. All that's left on the plaza is the dustmen sweeping the steps.


Review by Simarilion:
An excelent show by Radiohead. For the fan, mind-numbing. For Thom, problematic. The locale was amazing, a beautifful bullring, and yes, with sand on the floor. The Show began with the usual there there and 2+2=5. The band played great, although the drum count was too early on Where I End and You Begin, causing a dissaproving glance from Thom. The only disheartening moment was when, during Backdrifting the crowd did not sing along to "we're backsliding", and Thom stepped aside and refused to sing for the rest of the song. Yes, those of us who understood Thom saying "Let's try to sing along to the next one" felt pretty guilty. Thom was genuinely happy during the rest of the show, and Jonny was simply absorbed, hugging his guitar the only time he had nothing to do. Great show guys.

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