Tour Archive: Diary from 2003 Radiohead tour

July 10 -

We had today off - slept in, walked around Florence and then had probably the best Italian meal we've ever had. The 2nd show in Florence, last night, went well (I always say that...) It's hard to distinguish each show from the next - the stage is always the same, it's outdoors, and there's a lot of people. We continue to enjoy it. Louder songs definitely go over best. We did "La La La Song" and people all clapped and sang along. The Radiohead set was the best so far. These are the first shows since their new record came out where they are playing their full two-hour-plus set. Before these, they had only done festivals where they do 90 minutes, tops. Before the shows, you see several of them sitting together working on the set lists, discussing and revising them. It seems to me that they are getting it down pretty good by now. I imagine it takes some time, not knowing how new songs will work with the energy of the crowd. Now that the record is out, it's probably a change for people to be singing along to the new ones. Not sure if I am explaining it well enough, but it's interesting watching them work through it all.

Zak, Karla, and I stayed around for the after-show "party." The rest went back to the hotel before Radiohead were done to get Hollis to bed. We mostly just sat around backstage and talked to each other and Ingrid and John, who are here from the states filming us... There were a few dozen people backstage that seemed to be local music industry folks. The Radiohead guys dutifully mingled and wandered a bit. Colin came over and asked if we had ever done any Al Green songs, saying that some of our phrasing and harmonies sounded like Al Green. Never heard us compared to him, but I'll take it as a complement. Al Green is just fine with me. Not much else to spill about the big backstage action. Tomorrow we go to Ferrara which is another two-night stand. Wish it was always this casual.

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