Tag: Jonny Greenwood

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Manchester Classical 2025 Opening Night – Live Review

Friday 27 June 2025

Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

For a review of day one click here and for day two click here

Jonny Greenwood performs Reich with the Hallé

The first Manchester Classical music festival took place two years ago, in June 2023. The festival won the RPS (Royal Philharmonic Society) ‘Series and Events’ award in 2024. The panel said,

‘We all know music’s power to bring us together. This was stupendously evident as the classical organisations of this very city united for Manchester Classical. It was a marvellous weekend of the finest music-making…

Mancunians came out in force to discover and take pride in the remarkable musical forces on their doorstep.‘

This year’s festival opened with music by Steve Reich. The Hallé was conducted by Colin Currie, who curated last year’s Reich Festival. Jonny Greenwood, guitarist with Radiohead and now an Oscar and BAFTA-nominated film composer, joined to play bass guitar on Pulse. Currie told BBC Radio 3 presenter Elizabeth Alker that Greenwood is a great fan of the American composer and brings ‘great serenity’ to Reich’s music.

Greenwood has previously performed Reich’s Electric Counterpoint on guitar with the Hallé, but his bass playing was immaculate, with a lovely tone, particularly on the lower notes. The bass part occupies its own acoustic space below the other instruments – upper strings, woodwind and piano – and provides the emotional heart of the piece. His bass and the interlaced strings had a lovely interaction, with gorgeous melancholy and joyous harmonies. The serene pulsing of his line became more adventurous as the piece progressed. The audience sat in rapt attention, so quiet that when it finished, you could hear the air conditioning (essential during such a hot weekend) before the applause. Greenwood, an intensely self-effacing stage presence, gave a shy wave as he left the stage.     

Clapping Music, performed by Colin Currie (left) and David Hext
Clapping Music, performed by Colin Currie (left) and David Hext. Image © Alex Burns

The concert began with Reich’s iconic Clapping Music, deftly executed by Currie and David Hext. The subtle phasing of the four clapping hands created a mesmerising effect, and they gave each other a high five at the end. Runner, for two pianos, two vibraphones, strings and woodwind, relies on the two pianos to provide (for want of a better word) a running commentary throughout the piece, and the amplified sound slightly obscured their parts. Otherwise, though, it was an excellent performance. Currie brought out the jazzy elements and flourishes with his precise conducting. The music became quietly ecstatic, with heart-stopping key changes and a moment of profound stasis at the end. The final piece was Variations for Vibes, Piano and Strings, driven by syncopated bass lines from two pianos, with three string quartets and four vibraphones creating a unique sound world. The amplified sound was more transparent now, and the intricate lines were played with great precision. At the end, Currie held the score to his chest as if to acknowledge Reich’s mastery.

Artists and Repertoire

Steve Reich
Clapping Music
Runner
Pulse
Variations for Vibes, Piano and Strings

Colin Currie conductor
Jonny Greenwood bass guitar

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The Smile – Live Review

The Smile perform at Manchester Academy

Thursday 3 June 2022

Manchester Academy

Radiohead members bring new band The Smile to Manchester

*****

Last time Radiohead played in Manchester was five years ago, when the Manchester Bombing forced the Arena to close and the gig was moved to Old Trafford Cricket Ground. It was an emotional evening, with the crowd singing Karma Police, ‘For a minute there I lost myself’, which became even more poignant in that context. Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood returned with their new band The Smile, and again there was a change of venue, from The Albert Hall to The Academy, but this time for a more benign reason, described as ‘production issues’.

This year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of Radiohead’s seminal album OK Computer, and many bands would have marked it with a world tour, promising to ‘play the whole classic album in full.’ It would be hard to criticise them if they had decided to do so, and many fans would certainly have appreciated it. Instead, Yorke and Greenwood decided to do something radically different, to form a new band with drummer Tom Skinner from the jazz group Sons of Kemet. Thom Yorke’s distinctive falsetto vocals and Jonny Greenwood’s intense guitar playing provide a strong link to Radiohead, but The Smile are far from being a slimmed-down version of the famous band. The most obvious musical link appears in the song You Will Never Work in Television Again which looks back to the post-punk of the early Radiohead era of The Bends.

But both men have moved on; it seems unlikely that they will ever write a song like Creep again. Thom Yorke has released some excellent solo albums, in particular Anima from 2019, and Jonny Greenwood has written Oscar-nominated film scores Phantom Thread and The Power of the Dog. So it’s no surprise that The Smile’s new album A Light for Attracting Attention has moved on from Radiohead in style. And to stress that they aren’t Radiohead, the new band didn’t play any songs from the band’s rich back catalogue, restricting themselves to playing only one song not written by The Smile, a compelling version of Thom Yorke’s solo single Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses in the encore.

The role that Tom Skinner plays in the band shouldn’t be underestimated. He brought a more loose-limbed, jazz style to many of the songs, and the rhythmic complexity and precision of the intertwining instrumental and vocal lines was a highlight of the evening, starting with the pulsating synths of The Same which opened the gig. Thom Yorke’s voice was a strong and emotive as it has ever been; sometimes it felt as he if was an ascetic solo troubadour in troubled times. Elsewhere he was nearly drowned out in a maelstrom of psychedelic sound that was reminiscent of early Pink Floyd instrumentals. Jonny Greenwood brought a funky swagger to some of his basslines, as well as his more familiar introspective guitar-playing. Sequenced synth lines wrapped around the band, weaving in and out like vines around a tree. The band have created their own style, making them hard to categorise, a mesmerizing mix of post-rock, math rock, contemplative balladry, and the complex time signatures of prog rock. The audience listened intensely, with some members gently swaying to the hypnotic beats. 30 years since Radiohead released Creep as their first single, members of the band continue to innovate, and to bring their audience with them as their musical journey continues.