Radiohead Bring Tour Debut of “Climbing Up the Walls” to London

Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, photo by Stevo Rood

Radiohead returned to London’s O2 Arena last night, Nov. 24, to wrap up the first stop on their long–awaited reunion tour. The legendary avant-rock quintet promised a different show for all 20 dates on their first tour in seven years, and they’ve held to that high standard so far, consistently reshuffling their sampling of hits and occasionally introducing new songs into the rotation. Last night, the band expanded its live repertoire with the welcome addition of “Climbing Up the Walls.”

Radiohead ripped into the third show in their four-night residency in London with “Plant Telex,” the sleeper hit from 1995’s The Bends that’s emerged at six of their recent tour dates. The quintet continued with “2 + 2 = 5,” which has been included in all 11 shows on their reunion tour, then wound through other Hail to the Thief selections like “Sit Down. Stand Up.” and “The Gloaming” before opening out into their broader discography with essentials including ”Kid A,” “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi,” “The National Anthem,” and “Let Down.” In keeping with previous engagements, the band included at least one song from each of its albums, except Pablo Honey.

“Climbing Up the Walls” arrived onstage for the first time since 2018 as the second to last track in the main portion of the performance; a slinking, distorted, almost dubby version of the OK Computer classic was only the third tour debut since Radiohead’s kickoff series in Madrid, following returns to “Kid A” and “Talk Show Host” at Bologna, Italy’s Unipol Area. Following a set-closing “Bodysnatchers,” the band wrapped up its third London show with an encore of “Fake Plastic Trees,” “Jigsaw Falling Into Place,” “Paranoid Android,” “All I Need,” “You and Whose Army?,” “Just” and “Karma Police.”

Raiohead will return to the stage tonight to conclude their series at O2 Arena, then continue with four shows each at Copenhagen’s Royal Arena and Berlin’s Uber Arena through Dec. 12. Find more information at radiohead.com.