Tour Archive: Diary from 2003 Radiohead tour

July 16 -

Tonight is the last show (Madrid.) We play in the city bull ring. Should be the biggest show. We had the day off yesterday but decided to do the whole drive from Nemes, France (13 hours!) so we could have the whole day off from driving today. In fact, I guess all the driving is done now since we fly out of Madrid tomorrow morning. The drive was brutal. There's no a/c in the van so it was quite hot, but it's nice to sleep in and relax today. Almost everyone is out wandering around the city. I'm back here with Hollis. We walked around a bit, but she's only up for that for an hour or so, tops.

Nimes was a pretty fun time. We played in an old Roman coliseum. It was a very hot day. The sun was beating down onto the stage for soundcheck. I think I was slightly hallucinating by the end. Ingrid and John, who have been filming us on the trip, have not been able to film any Radiohead-related footage. They are trying to do a documentary about us doing these shows, and a big part of its "setting" needs to even in the smallest way establish the connection with these actually being shows opening for Radiohead. The closest thing they had was to just do a shot of a show poster with our name on it with theirs. Otherwise all they have is footage of us playing and hanging out backstage by ourselves. I asked Radiohead's tour manager about this and he suggested that they could film the changeover from our set, then their first song, but that's it. This seemed to maybe be a sort of solution. Meanwhile, I guess while we did soundcheck that day, Johnny from Radiohead came on stage and watched a bit on the side. Ingric candidly caught a little of this on film. That may be all she needs.

Anyway, the place was amazing, and it was packed - 12,000 is what I heard from someone. Those Romans really knew how to put on a show. Radiohead did 3 encores. At one point, Thom played and sang the first verse of Neil Young's "After the Gold Rush." I'm pretty sure it was impromptu. He then went into a song from the new record. There was another meet-and-greet after their show - same thing, we mostly just sat there, watched, and talked to each other. I did talk to Colin a little, again. He introduced us to a famous writer named Adam Thorp. I don't know who he is, but he and his family were very nice.

So, tonight is the last one. I suppose we will scramble to get some photos, etc. with them tonight afterward. They have been very nice to us - very supportive and encouraging. It's been interesting watching the world of the rock star from this angle. It's easy to watch and shake your head if it's a band you have nothing in common with, but these guys are artists we highly respect and have at least similar "motivations" to. It's easy to imagine yourself in the same position and wonder how you would feel, act, etc. We have, in many conversations as a band, come to know that we will never ever be in that position, thank goodness, but it's easy to think about as we sit there watching each night.

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