Thom Yorke plays The Big Ask Live

1 May 2006

More than 1,000 people turned up at KOKO club on May Day for a benefit gig headed by Radiohead pairing Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood.

Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys and folk singer Kate Rusby also starred.

The London event topped a series of concerts across the UK in support of Friends of the Earth's The Big Ask climate campaign.

The big wait

Fans outside KOKO club

Music fans, celebrities and politicians were amongst the sell out crowd.

Some fans had been queuing outside for 11 hours before the former Popworld presenter and host for the night Simon Amstell, opened the show.

We are here to save the world. And I don't know whether it's that important but Radiohead are playing too.

Simon Amstell

Music for the masses

Kate Rusby was first on, setting a positive tone with a happy, feel-good set which included album title track Underneath the stars.

Next up was Gruff sporting a keyboard called 'Dave' and strumming an upside down guitar. The crowd were at times confused, but clearly engaged by the Welsh star's evolving cocktail of samples - a mixture of bird songs, aboriginal chanting and synth pop. Not to forget his ironical exit to a keyboard demo of Billy Joel's Just The Way You Are.

I feel privileged to be involved. I think it's a very realistic aim. It's a very small ask of the Government and it's very simple.

Gruff Rhys on The Big Ask campaign

New Radiohead songs

For Radiohead fans the big moment had arrived, and was quickly followed by screams of approval as Yorke and Greenwood eased into Karma Police - a hit single from their award winning album OK Computer.

More classic tracks were to come and the audience responded, sacrificing their vocal chords to the tune of No Surprises and Paranoid Android.

What's more, three new songs were unveiled in an exclusive for The Big Ask Live. The best being the electro-rock driven Bodysnatchers. Another one, Cymbal Rush, featured Thom sampling his own voice as a drum loop.

It's not too late - unless you're banking on the oil prices going down.

Thom on tackling climate change

Success

Of course it wasn't just about the music. Throughout the night images and information flashed up on stage showing people how to beat climate change.

And many gig goers signed up to pledge their support for Friends of the Earth's climate campaign.

The stuff up on the screen between the acts was actually really illuminating.

Radiohead fan

Radiohead play list:

Karma Police
There There
Arpeggi
Fake Plastic Trees
Bodysnatchers
Pyramid Song
How to Disappear Completely
No Surprises
Cymbal Rush
I Might be Wrong
Street Spirit
Gagging Order
Paranoid Android

Extended highlights

Listen to a short clip of Stephen Merchant, co-writer of The Office.

Hear what the leader of the Conservatives, David Cameron had to say.

Find out what happened in the VIP area

Even more pictures and audio coming soon.

‡To view Shockwave Flash files you will need to download the Macromedia Shockwave Flash plugin.

MP3 is an audio file format. To listen to MP3 files, download a free MP3 player like Winamp (Windows) or MusicMatch Jukebox (Macintosh)