Radiohead delivered a spectacular surprise to fans at their final London show on Tuesday night, performing the rarely-heard “Like Spinning Plates” at the O2 Arena.
The performance marked the song’s debut on the band’s current reunion tour, sending fans into a frenzy of excitement across social media.
The Amnesiac track closed out Radiohead’s four-show London run in memorable fashion, with one fan expressing their disbelief on X, writing: “wtf do you mean i just heard like spinning plates live??????” The performance represents just one of several rare song debuts that have characterised this highly anticipated European tour.
“Like Spinning Plates” holds particular significance in Radiohead’s catalogue due to its unique creation process. The song was constructed over the backing track of an early recording of “I Will”, which later appeared on 2003’s Hail to the Thief, but played in reverse.
Thom Yorke explained the discovery to The Wire in 2001, revealing: “We’d turned the tape around, and I was in another room, heard the vocal melody coming backwards, and thought, ‘That’s miles better than the right way round,’ then spent the rest of the night trying to learn the melody.”
The London performance continues a pattern of surprise song selections that has defined Radiohead’s reunion tour. Earlier this month at Bologna’s Unipol Arena, the band performed both “Kid A” and “Talk Show Host” for the first time since 2018. The current trek has also featured other Amnesiac tracks including “You and Whose Army” and “Pyramid Song”.
This European tour marks Radiohead’s first live performances together since 2018, following months of speculation about their return. The band announced the reunion in September, with drummer Philip Selway explaining their motivation: “Last year, we got together to rehearse, just for the hell of it. After a seven-year pause, it felt really good to play the songs again and reconnect with a musical identity that has become lodged deep inside all five of us.”
