June 29, 2003

Glastonbury : Pyramid Stage (Saturday Evening)

Old and new Radiohead combine to devastating effect and the Flaming Lips sing 'Happy Birthday', all of which rather overshadows Supergrass and Turin Brakes...

Thom Yorke has a smile on his face as soon as he walks onstage. It's a good sign. Tonight is the night when the old and the new Radioheads combine. Even though they open with new material - 'There There' and '2+2=5', this is Radiohead in crowd-pleasing, world-conquering excelsis. Any accusations that 'Hail To The Thief' is awkward and unfriendly are effortlessly blown away, as new stuff flows elegantly into hand-picked classics - 'No Surprises' and 'Fake Plastic Trees' cruise into the same skies as those mighty RadioheadGlastonbury shows of old. Thom, meanwhile, is effusive, dedicating 'Lucky' to REM, "with love". Ed, in particular, looks like a man possessed, but Thom's epileptic jolts are levelled out by the moments when he grins like a lovesick schoolboy. After a final, solo 'Street Spirit', the daft look on his face has already gone down as a classic Glasto image.

Wayne Coyne, meanwhile, isn't a man to be upstaged on Good Vibes Day, and he isn't when he leads thousands of people in a chorus of 'Happy Birthday' to five-year-old Marley, daughter of their T-shirt seller. That the [a][/a]' own songs can make the campfires burn with an extra Ready Brek glow is no surprise, but it's still mouthwatering that a man called Wayne can make sounds as cloudbursting as 'Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots' and 'Waiting For A Superman'. Top of a day of class.

Supergrass have played more pre-sunset festival sets than Michael Eavis has sent celebrities onstage to tell people not to piss in the rivers. Well-oiled and packed with ammo - it's not so much a slur on Gaz, Danny and Mickey that we're so bored, just a testament to the talent that's superseded them.

Though fine in theory, Turin Brakes on the main stage at Glasto was never really going to work, was it? Their decent enough 'Ether Song' album might have tingled spines on some acoustic stage, but here, people have the serious business of getting stoned to worry about.

Dan Martin