Besides the fact that they have both made hugely triumphant and long-awaited comebacks this year, come from the UK and are made up of humans who play music, there really aren’t many similarities between Radiohead and Oasis. I can attest to this. I was lucky enough to see Oasis three times during their Live ’25 run of shows during the summer and the standard didn’t drop once – it was wall-to-wall holler-alongs as gigs so euphoric it didn’t matter that Oasis played exactly the same setlist each time. This wasn’t just something they did for me – Noel and Liam have played exactly the same setlist on every single night of the Oasis Live ’25 tour which, whilst noting that the shows have been brilliant, is also a bit weird.
The difference could not be more marked to Radiohead. Whilst I really, really like Oasis, the Oxford five-piece are my number one and have been since I saw them support R.E.M. at my very first gig in July 1995. I went to see them twice in Madrid last week, where they chose to launch their first tour since 2018, and they were 10/10 shows the both of them. But my double-thumbs-up score is pretty much they only thing the two gigs shared: Radiohead played 25 songs each night and, astoundingly, swapped out 15 from one night to the next. The gigs were so good, the vibes so exhilarating, and the song choices so strong that I only really noticed the next day. Mid-gig, there was simply no room in my brain to think, ‘Hold on, they haven’t played Climbing Up The Walls’.
But now, with five days of decompression from these monumental gigs, I can go there. Radiohead, you see, helpfully explained in interviews that they had rehearsed around 65 songs ahead of the tour. As they take the second leg of the tour to Bologna, Italy this weekend (the first show was last night), that means there’s there a further 24 songs in the bank on top of the 41 they played over the four Madrid performances. Plus, it was reported that they had only rehearsed material from 1995’s The Bends onwards, so factor in any knee-jerk decisions to revisit anything from their 1993 debut Pablo Honey (including, erm, a certain track called C***p), and there is still a truckful of material Radiohead could chose to cover over the rest of the tour.
Despite already witnessing two incredible shows over which not even a picky bugger like me can find fault in any of the song choices, I am ungrateful enough to raise my hand and say ‘Here’s 10 songs Radiohead need to try and fit into their setlist over the coming weeks’...
Lurgee
Whilst it’s rare for Radiohead to play anything off Pablo Honey that isn’t Creep (also, umm, quite rare), it isn’t impossible. They played the record’s final song Blow Out on their 2018 US tour and this dreamy, hypnotic cut, which sounds like a gloriously slo-mo R.E.M., would be an equally good fit alongside their later material. Unlike a lot of the songs on Pablo Honey, it also has the benefit of being played this millennium, given an outing on a US tour in 2003.
Bones
You almost have to go as far back to find the last time they played this barbed rocker from The Bends, last played in 2006. But this has been a very Bends-friendly tour so far so there is hope. Seeing Radiohead play this in the in-the-round set-up they’ve got on this tour with Thom Yorke free to concentrate on delivering that scintillating vocal would be ridiculous. Come on lads!
Talk Show Host
This B-side to Street Spirit (Fade Out) was pretty much the moment Radiohead went from the band who made The Bends to the band who were about to make OK Computer, where they started turning guitar music inside out and experimenting with cut-up beats. It would slide right into the setlist at the moment, maybe as one of the seven encore tracks.
Climbing Up The Walls
It would be criminal if Radiohead get through this tour without letting the peak of the OK Computer numbers specialising in restrained, high-tension anguish come to play, which they surely will – it has featured on every tour they’ve done since its release.
The Tourist
There hasn’t been as many outings for OK Computer’s closer though, which makes me think it might be one they go for. Everything feels fresh and newfangled on this tour, even songs they’ve played over and over for years, and some of that is down to the old stuff they’ve revisited amongst it all. This could fall into that category.
I Might Be Wrong
There’s a couple of songs in the set, Videotape chief amongst them, that have been given very gentle but mega effective reworkings. That would work for this future-blues cut from Amnesiac, which is usually delivered live with a punky pace but might benefit on the current tour from something more akin to what features on the record.
4 Minute Warning
It made sense to include something from In Rainbows here but the band have done well by their 2008 masterpiece. The only songs left to cover are Faust Arp, a haunting folk number and excellent track but one that it's hard to imagine fitting into the vibe at the current shows, and House Of Cards, which I’ve never really got on board despite all my friends loving it and getting angry that I don’t. Instead, I’d turn to this outtake that featured on a bonus disc, a really lovely, mournful ballad that I’ve never seen live.
Lotus Flower
Since its release as the lead single from The King Of Limbs in 2012, the fleet-footed electronic-rock of Lotus Flower has near been an ever-present in Radiohead sets, making its absence so far a bit of a mystery. Plus Thom always does some great dancing during it. Surely it won’t be long until it makes its tour bow.
Staircase
The period around The King Of Limbs was a bit of a curious time, mainly because not long after its release they put out a couple of double-A singles that were up there or better than what had actually made the record. This was the pick of the bunch, one of the finest Radiohead grooves of the modern age, a song where their willingness to experiment but remain accessible and be a rock band but one seeking to break new ground all join in holy matrimony.
Spectre
Recently, I’ve been watching the Daniel Craig Bond series with my son, giving me a great opportunity to lecture him on what an international outrage it is that Radiohead’s proposed theme tune to Spectre was overlooked in favour of Sam Smith’s hollow soul ‘what did Adele do?’ nonsense. Despite the injustice, this is just a brilliant song, grand but never overblown, featuring some sweeping major-minor chord changes and a mesmeric vocal from Yorke. Live versions tend to be performed by a reduced line-up of Yorke and bassist Colin Greenwood but it would be great to see a full band version.
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