Nick Cave says Radiohead at The O2 made him realise “just how powerful live music is”
Nick Cave has shared a glowing review of Radiohead’s recent residency at The O2 Arena in London.
In November, Radiohead returned to the stage for the first time in seven years, performing four show residencies in Madrid, Bologna, London, Copenhagen, and Berlin, with the final show taking place on December 12th in the German city.
Now, in the latest edition of his newsletter, The Red Hand Files, Cave has revealed that he was in attendance for one of the London shows and was full of superlatives for Radiohead’s performance.
Cave stated, in response to two fans, that while he’s on tour “the last thing I want to do is go to someone else’s concert” but has been recently watching artists live due to not being on the road himself, sharing, “Over the past couple of months I’ve attended many gigs – incredible evenings, all of them – including Bob Dylan, Swans, Radiohead, Cameron Winter, and Dirty Three.”
He then spoke specifically about Radiohead, adding, “Bizarrely, it was the first time I had ever been in the audience at such a large show, and I was stunned by the depth of love in the room – people dancing, screaming, crying, hugging each other, throwing themselves around.”
Cave earnestly continued, “I was struck by the realisation of just how powerful live music is – that a group of individuals can come together and concoct a sound unique to them, and that people can connect with that distinctive vision as if it were their own experience. I could feel its moral quality – how this singular force has the capacity to repair the world with its goodness.”
The Australian then detailed the various activities he regularly does, such as soaking up nature, swimming and attending church, but “none offer the transcendent opportunity of a live concert”.
He then described concerts as “a form of human activity that radiates goodness, working its way through the crowd and into the world as a reparative, cosmic force, improving matters, keeping the devil at bay.”
Cave finished up his assessment of Radiohead at The O2 by commending them for their “astonishing” performance and putting the crowd reaction down to “the courage of the performers – the sheer nerve to stand before a crowd and offer up their souls”.
While Cave is currently on a break from touring, he will return to the road in early 2026 for a number of shows in Australia and New Zealand before an extensive run of shows across the UK and Europe in the summer, including a huge sold-out hometown show in Brighton.
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