Everything In Its First Place

It's my birthday! Here's 3 hours of Radiohead!

Explosions of applause. The stage is enveloped in a thick haze, even though it’s August in southwestern Ontario and still sunny out. Five familiar-looking men saunter onstage and wave.

I can’t believe my heroes are real and right there, in front of me. I grab Candice’s tiny shoulders, shake and hug her.

Radio static and discombobulated voices emerge from the PA. Colin Greenwood’s fuzz bass rips through the speakers. I’ve been studying the tour setlists online, I know it’s “The National Anthem”, track three from my favourite album, Kid A, released a year earlier.

Our national anthem.
My national anthem.
“Everyone is so near
It's holdin' on”
I’m barely holding on.

I’ve been a nervous wreck all day. My cousin Dann¹ drove my girlfriend Candice and I, plus his pal James, four hours from Windsor to the gig. (I’ve written about Dann before: here and here and here.)

Finally, it’s showtime. My first time seeing Radiohead. August 3, 2001 at Molson Park, an outdoor amphitheatre outside of Toronto.

After the anthemic opening, they perform 23 mesmerising songs. I still remember many details, 24 years later:

• Darkness falls just in time for the chilling “Exit Music (For a Film)” and the stage is beautifully bathed in ice-blue light.

• “Dollars and Cents” live becomes percussive and heavy, with an epic climax that’s absent from Amnesiac.

• Thom Yorke’s vocal “boop, boop, boop” imitating the electronic pulse intro to “Paranoid Android.”

• Jonny Greenwood’s live sampling of Thom’s vocals and electric piano throughout “Everything In Its Right Place” — the sampled sounds ring out after the band exits the stage.

• The sultry guitar intro to “Talk Show Host” – a sound I never expected to hear live as the song is rarely performed.

• Four fans in front of me, each holding a small sign, spelling the letters N-U-D-E. The band play it in the 2^nd encore, one of the first times ever. I had obsessed over this rare track, researching it on Radiohead message boards and downloading shitty live bootleg recordings. I thought it was called “Big Ideas.”

• One of only three songs performed from the band’s second album (and none from their first), “The Bends” features the hilarious lyric alteration: “I wish it was the sixties / I wish we were Oasis”.

• Ending the two-hour show with a steadying, cathartic rendition of “The Tourist” and a single note goodbye from Phil Selway’s ride cymbal, just like on Ok Computer.

It was life-changing to see Radiohead for the first time, aged eighteen and on the cusp of my adult life. I suppose August 3, 2001 was my Radiohead awakening. A metaphorical, musical birth.

Since then, I’ve experienced twelve more Radiohead birthdays, most incredibly at Glastonbury Festival in 2016 and most recently three times in 2017. I’ve seen Thom Yorke and/or Jonny Greenwood’s side projects in concert around ten times. To say I’m obsessed with their music would be an understatement. I’m even a digital card-carrying member of the fan club, for whatever that’s worth²:

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Today, 25 February, is my birthday. It’s also the one year anniversary of starting this Substack. Felicitations!

I care A LOT about birthdays and anniversaries. If I only get one day a year to fully indulge in myself, then by default, my birthday must be that day. I simply don’t understand how some people hate their birthdays and don’t take advantage of it, however they so choose.

I never, ever work on my birthday. I like to do my favourite activities: yoga, cycling if the weather allows, writing, maybe a massage. Definitely a dinner with loved ones, preferably somewhere special they’ve chosen for me. I don’t need gifts. I gift myself the luxury of time and space to relax and reflect.

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I started this Substack on 25 February 2024 by posting an ever-growing playlist of my favourite songs of all-time. (This year I have added “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay“ by Otis Redding.)

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To celebrate my birthday and Substack anniversary, I’m going to be really indulgent and share my favourite 42 songs by Radiohead. Yes, that’s a lot, but it’s my birthday and it’s what I want. You’re welcome.

42 songs is a long playlist by Soundtracks to Adventure standards. I spent hours playing with the order in an Excel spreadsheet and on Spotify. It was simply too challenging to get right. Much like my all-time favourites playlist, I have opted to arrange the songs alphabetically. I think it works surprisingly well, but you could listen on shuffle.

Enjoy!

1. It was his birthday yesterday. Happy Birthday, cuz!

2. I suppose what it’s worth to Radiohead is the thousands of pounds I spend on their records and merchandise…