Radiohead would not be pleased to read a live review beginning with mention of their 1993 single, "Creep". The awesome bedsit anthem, which makes the Smiths' "How Soon is Now" seem like a rugby song, brought them American acclaim well past anything that nobodies like Blur have achieved. It also brought them a "one-hit-wonder" tag, and they're now likely to hit anyone who asks to hear the song again.

And yet, at the London Forum on Friday, they play it, which is as much of a pleasant surprise as Adam Ant's oldies. "Don't know what this one's called, never heard of it. . ." mumbles singer Thom Yorke, but the 'Head boys wrench it out with passion, and it epitomises their strengths.

Almost obscured in smoke and shadows, Yorke's scraggy frame twitches and hunches and writhes as if he were having a painful fit, and I mean that in a nice way. His voice, racked with longing, soars effortlessly to registers that give most rock singers altitude sickness. Like Suede, Radiohead go beyond the pop ballad and into the realm of the torch song. Yorke is flanked by guitarists Ed O'Brien and Jonny Greenwood, who come up with a novel sound on this and almost every other song.

Radiohead are Britain's Nirvana (but then, Britain's Elvis was Cliff Richard), and it's all thanks to my friend James. Back when they were at school in Oxford, when even O'Brien, the largest of them, was nicknamed "Foetus", James used to bully them. This experience no doubt set off the self-loathing that fuels their art, and as a direct result, their potent second album, The Bends (EMI), has gone straight into the British charts at number six.

Even though they dispense with That Song in the main set they are called back for three encores. Well done, James.