14 June 2017 (gig)
15 June 2017
The 50th anniversary of The Beatles' Sergeant Pepper... and a major retrospective on Pink Floyd at London's Victoria & Albert Museum have put classic UK albums from the past century in the spotlight of late.
While the influence of both titans on Radiohead's work is obvious, frontman Thom Yorke seems to have turned to another past century icon for on-stage inspiration, and clearly has the moves like Jagger.
Throughout this sell-out performance on the banks of the river Arno, Yorke writhed and waggled around the stage in sweltering heat, while peppering the night with Italian salutations.
This, the band's first show in Florence since 2012, served as a reminder of the Oxford group's collosal canon; 'Karma Police' and 'In Rainbow's' 'Weird Fishes' are just two of many magical moments in this two-hour tour de force.
Seminal and therefore worthy of its 20th anniversary re-issue this month, Paranoid Android has the potential to enlighten and inform newcomers to the Radiohead fold.
Looking back is, of course, very much a British thing, with the country prone to nostalgia of both the personal and political kind.
Despite the current Paranoid Android revival, Radiohead continue to point the way forward and their Florence set says everything about the band's ability to cut smoothly across genres and effortlessly change pace.
The show is further evidence of Radiohead's restlessness (Moon Shaped Pool's mellow 'The Numbers' sits alongside infectiously bouncy 'Idioteque' from Kid A). Did the band move with the times, or did it instead move the times?
There's an absolute treat in store for those who haven't seen Radiohead on this current tour. To reveal the stage trick would be unfair.
Glastonbury and the BBC's wall-to-wall coverage await a band that never ceases to surprise.
