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Review by Rob.

Band play new songs some even have guitar on.

Blackpool once the playground of Victorian workers from Yorkshire and Lancashire, designed to rival Brighton as the UK capital of seaside holiday destinations. Today it is the UK capital of the stag and hen party as well as binge drinkers and drunken Glaswegians looking for another fight. Relegated by cheap package holidays abroad it is a shadow of its former self and has seen better days. So too has the Winter Gardens. Queueing outside it is easy to envisage it in all its splendour with magnificent arched frontage and once impressive decor. Now it is visibly and artistically crumbling, the music hall giants and big band sounds that used to play there are long gone. However in recent years it has had a second lease of life on the gig circuit. Morrissey, The White Stripes, Beautiful South and (ahem) The Saw Doctors have all played there.

Tonight that list is added to by Radiohead, on a short tour to road test some new songs from their forthcoming album, the first since 2004's Hail to the Thief. It is designed to be a low key event so there is only a small stage set up, but there are some impressive video effects on the backdrop which come to life as the band amble on and the familiar keyboard intro the 'Everything in its Right Place' starts up. They stay with Kid A to play one of my favourite tracks 'The National Anthem', with its dark moody and threatening bass line I realise it is the perfect song for Blackpool. '2 + 2 = 5' follows then we get some new stuff. It is a bit of a mixed bag with two of the songs still sounding very experimental 'Bangers and Mash' was one title, but a couple of really guitar heavy short thrashy tracks in there too one of which might have been called 'Dollars and Cents'.

In truth the first hour is a bit slow due to the lack of any real classics, its only 12 songs in when the familiar piano led intro to 'Karma Police' starts up that the audience gets into gear and we get the rare sight of a crowd surfer at a Radiohead gig. As at Glastonbury Thom leads the audience in a sing along at the end. Now they have the crowd warmed up they treat us to 'Airbag' from OK Computer and a dip into Amnesiac for 'You and Whose Army?'. Throughout the show the band are really tight and holding it all together is Jonny Buckland who has really took over in British guitar music where Johnny Marr left off. The visual similarities between them are quite striking too. 'There There' finishes the main set, another of my faves, with the triple drum attack enhancing the tribal style of the song. It is at this point where a young punter decides to add some more percussion by vomiting on the wooden floor just in front of us. Just when we think he has finished, more comes out in true 'Team America' style forcing us to move across to the other side for the encores. And yes there were carrots in it.

The Bends I reckon is their finest hour and they duly honour it when they return playing 3 tracks including the awesome 'Just' and 'Street Spirit'. They also play a newish song called 'I want none of this', a track featuring on the latest Warchild album, which features just Thom and a piano. Its magnificent, possibly the best new song of the night. As expected 'Paranoid Android' ends things off and it almost demolishes the venue with its 3 pronged guitar attack outro. So the new songs then. Mostly pretty good and some of them hinting at a return to Bends territory, the ambient leanings of the last few albums seems to be not so dominant. And a good balance of older songs thrown in too though it would have been nice to have 'Fake Plastic Trees' somewhere in the middle.

We could have stayed over in Blackpool for the night but as we didn't really fancy getting caught up in the midst of a hen party (Trust me you just don't). So we decided to get the hell out as soon as it was over. The tower was all lit up as we left and actually looked quite impressive. The streets were also quiet and for a moment it looked an ok place. The we were almost barged over by 2 hammered Irish blokes and we came to our senses and headed off to Wakefield to do some partying. Top show chaps just pick somewhere else to play next time.

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