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This weekend's Reading 09 daily round-ups have all begun with some theorising on what makes a good headliner. Kings Of Leon were slightly damned by inter-band grumbling and poor sound but still deliver some dusty rock goodness. Arctic Monkeys trod their own path and denied the crowd fat fistfuls of hits that remained unplayed. But what about the final night of Reading? The 'Radiohead night'.

Alan Partridge, the greatest unheralded music critic going, once said that Wings were the band The Beatles could have been. Well, Radiohead are the band The Beatles would have been if they'd formed in the early 1990s. From their early poppy period writing the songs they were expected to deliver with Pablo Honey to the Revolver-like development of The Bends and on to experimentation coupled with commercial success with OK Computer and the White Album-esque double hit of Kid A and Amnesiac.

The Beatles stopped performing live. Radiohead didn't go that far, they simply stopped performing one particular song live - Creep. For a while the slicing chords and sneering lyrics were an albatross for a band desperate to constantly move forward. But those days are over. As Thom Yorke's solo performance at Latitude earlier this summer revealed, he's a far less angst-ridden and conflicted figure than he once was and it seems that new relaxed attitude has seeped in to the band's approach to playing live. The band all smile throughout shows now and in a treat for the Reading 09 crowd...open with Creep.

Beneath vast LED tubes that flash and cycle through patterns and flanked by two video screens showing live feeds of all the band members in action, the gig jumps from first to fifth gear immediately. The crowd almost feels privileged to be given Creep as an opening number. Their happiness continues as the bass rumble of The National Anthem begins. A twitchy, rabbit meets headlights rendition of 15 Step follows before the latter period guitar anthem of There There.

All I Need surfs in on a slow hip-hop beat and 2+2=5 continues the brittle and beautiful mood. Big Ideas (Don't Get Any) is a fragile treat while Climbing Up The Walls dirties the water with fuzz and fury. Thom reminds us that he sits firmly near the top of the jerky indie singer dancing league (deceased champion: Ian Curtis, retired champion: David Byrne (Talking Heads model)).

Street Spirit (Fade Out) pulls a heavenly sound from the crowd. Reckoner scrambles out from an avalanche of beats then another moment to match Creep. Next there's one of the gentle new songs that Thom previewed during his solo gig at Latitude. Then Thom pulls on his acoustic guitar and the familiar piano chords of Karma Police hit the crowd with a shockwave of excitement.

With the video screens appropriately tinted blue, Weird Fishes (Arpeggi)...um...swims into view woozy and dreamlike. The revelry is shattered by the guitar stabs of Just which draws a mass of new people in to the crowd - the populist punch of the misanthropic pop anthem seemingly too hard to resist.

Idioteque, glitchy and itchy, finds Thom in a world of flailing limbs while the song itself breaks right down at one point, stripping back its skin to reveal the bleepy, beatsy skeleton. The whole effect is like being preached to by a keyboard carrying charismatic preacher.

Exit Music (From A Film) is emotional, still and hypnotic. In front of me, a couple kisses to the incongruous soundtrack of Thom and the crowd crooning "We hope that you choke". Bodysnatchers gets the audience bouncing again and the main set ends with screams for an encore.

Thom slopes back on stage alone: "Please take your seats, the interval is now over." His guitar strikes up the intro to You And Whose Army, his vocal alone making him sound like a deranged man in a "The End Of The World Is Nigh" sandwich board. Then the band crashes in. Lucky provides another sweet singalong before Thom invites the crowd back for a boozeup: "There's a party round backstage. You're all invited, wanna come? You just need to know the right man...his name's Colin."

With its pounding drums and cyclical guitars, These Are My Twisted Words is the second new song of the set slipping in neatly. Jigsaw Falling Into Place is twitchy and glitchy. "This is a song for anyone who has experimented with drugs for the first time this weekend," says Thom and the epic, proggy mini-epic Paranoid Android begins - the whole crowd dragged in to its world.

Everything In Its Right Place brings the set to an end, emerging from a burble of improvised hums and moans. "Yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon..." Yep, that's waking up at a festival summed up. Thom thanks the crowd and the band leave the stage with the vocals and music looped over and over to leave the empty stage still singing as if a robot Thom has fallen down somewhere malfunctioning.

Bloc Party had a tough job playing warm-up men to Radiohead but they pull it off, their catalogue still a surprising treasure trove of festival songs - from the stuttering of Mercury to earlier songs like This Modern Love. Helicopter lands heavily and sends the crowd in to a flailing frenzy. It's not surprising that it ended up on the tracklist for a Guitar Hero game really with its descending guitars and vocal sloganeering.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs deliver a great set of old favourites and new ravey songs from their latest album but there's something about Karen O's constant costume changes and fidgety stage antics that seem like trying too hard. The fact that she's dressed in an outfit that makes her look like a giant prawn doesn't help. Maps in a slightly slower arrangement is sublime and Gold Lion gets the whole crowd clapping as one.

The lack of sun over Reading doesn't dampen the bright, summery sound of Passion Pit and Vampire Weekend. Passion Pit have evolved over a summer of festival gigs from a slightly shy collection of college kids to a crowd pleasing electro-pop gang. Vampire Weekend established themselves as the world's most polite rockstars a while back. They are a brilliant festival band with pocket anthems to spare. There's definitely something to admire too in Ezra Koenig's dogged determination to keep his sunglasses on despite the gloom.

Vampire Weekend's drummer rocks one of The XX's t-shirts. The band were a suprisingly strong presence at the festival, thanks to a volunteer army of friends giving out the black t-shirts bedecked with a giant white 'X' as well as badges, stickers and advice to see this mesmerising new band. They were entirely spot on.

At the little Festival Republic Stage, The XX play the kind of set that has word of mouth spreading across the site. They dress like provincial night club bouncers - big black jackets and black jeans - but they sound like the future. Basic Space with its spacious, fragile sound is already in the running to be the best love song of the past 10 years while Crystallised shines beneath the lights the interlocking vocals showing the band's R&B influence.

The Festival Republic Stage was a nest of innovative, exciting new music on Sunday with the Nirvana (Bleach Era) meets psych-rock explosion of Titus Andronicus shaking out our cobwebs and the joyous dance injected indie of Magistrates inspiring spontaneous pockets of dancing.

Later in the day, La Roux brought a tent toppling crowd to the stage. With a number one single behind her, the 80s electro popster deserved a larger stage. The ice queen frontwoman even melted a little faced by the huge crowd looking back at her. Meanwhile on the Radio 1 stage, Lostprophets showed why their following is still strong and feverent with a set of unexpected heaviness.

The final day of Reading 2009 was a day of two very contrasting experiences - the wide-eyed wonder of watching new bands already attaining brilliance (The XX) and the radiant and still surprising power of Radiohead. With the rain holding off and the option of three great headliners, it was a great conclusion to a brilliant weekend of music.

Words: Mic Wright

12:19 PM | 31/08/2009