An hour before the most talked about show on the Meltdown bill – and the most feverishly anticipated gig of the year – the scenes at the Royal Festival Hall were very un-Festival Hallish indeed. Any South Bank regulars who fancied wandering in for an insanely expensive slice of quiche or a book about Polish cinema would have found padlocks and security guards on the building’s doors. Outside, the terraces were crowded, and prowling touts tried to flog tickets for three-figure sums. No disrespect to the BBC Concert Orchestra, but when they perform Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances tonight at the same venue, the atmosphere won’t be quite the same.
Last Saturday’s show was Radiohead’s first British gig in three years. More significantly, it was the first time they’d unveiled any new material since 1997’s OK Computer – a record that has been lodged in Top 10 Best Albums In The Universe lists ever since its release. How does any band follow such an achievement? By all accounts – all right, by the account their guitarist Ed O’Brien has posted on their web site – Radiohead have spent long and painful months trying.It must have been a relief for them to escape from the studio and stretch their muscles on the stage.

In the middle of one new song, Thom Yorke landed a couple of sulky kicks on his keyboard, but otherwise the group appeared much fitter and happier than their reputation. There were we-are-not-worthy bows in deference to Scott Walker, Meltdown’s director, and O’Brien delivered a short lecture on the mating habits of the chinchilla, for reasons best known to himself. Stranger still, when the group lost their way during “My Iron Lung”, Yorke actually threw back his head and cackled.They were right to be relaxed. As the singer and the two guitarists moved between guitars, keyboards, glockenspiels and bizarre-noise-making boxes of various sizes, Radiohead’s sheer skill wasn’t in question. They are one of the few bands to whom each member makes a vital contribution, even if the focal points in concert are Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood. The former, lest we forget, has a heart-rending falsetto that leaves him trembling; the latter conjures up guitar melodies of unrivalled, sparkling beauty – and he is just as physical a performer as Yorke.

When he plays the keyboard, he hunches over it, one leg braced behind the other, as if he’s trying to push it off the stage.You’ve only to be overwhelmed by the hymnal intensity of “Lucky” or “Street Spirit” to understand why the public has lost patience with Suede, for instance. Numerous British bands have promised vision, ambition, intelligence and subversion, but almost none apart from Radiohead has kept pushing onwards. They forge ahead tirelessly – which explains why the new material is barely identifiable as their work.More than half of the set comprised new songs. The first of these was “Optimistic” – a swirling fug of tribal tom-toms and rickety, open-tuned twangs.