Radiohead’s environmental initiatives bring people closer together

I’m standing so close to a woman I don’t know that if I were anywhere else, and in any country, I’d probably be being read my rights now. Where am I? I’m on Dublin’s Dart, a cross-link over-ground railway that cuts through the Irish capital, on my way to a Radiohead gig and this, apparently, is an eco-friendly way of getting there.

If I’m honest, I wouldn’t normally think about the most environmentally friendly way of getting to a gig – it’s normally just a car, train or foot journey to a venue and back. For this concert, however, I feel compelled to. Why?

Well, ahead of Radiohead’s current world tour the band issued a very thorough set of eco-friendly guidelines that people going to one of their gigs should follow in order to minimise their carbon footprint. They said, for example, that, where possible, fans should consider public transport or increased car sharing. As if this wasn’t enough, the day before I left for Dublin an email arrived to remind me in even more detail. It read like the Ten Commandments, only written by Thom Yorke and not Moses.

1. Thou shall ride a bicycle and take advantage of the big bicycle park.
2. Thou shall take advantage of the extra trains.
3. Thou shall use a shuttle bus.
4. Thou shall kill anyone seen getting into a car…and so on.

OK, so I made the last one up, but this was still a very comprehensive list.

Consequently, I set off to the concert last Saturday with some trepidation, with only my friend, who lives in the city, for company. We arrived at Killester station, a quaint little place where I imagine that the electronic ticket machine is still a novelty, to see one of the “extra trains” pull into the platform. We froze. “Is it normally like this?” I ask, as I look at a woman’s face creased against one of the train’s windows. My friend doesn’t reply vocally – words aren’t needed at moments like this.

Suffice to say, the next 20 minutes are spent in the bosom of an Irish woman I’ve never met, glancing to my left only to see what the chance of Malahide being the next station is – which, for seven stops, it isn’t.

Despite the journey, which improved a little on the way back, I can’t complain about my first eco-friendly gig. I’ve never walked into a concert so swiftly; been treated with such warmth; or, seen better use of recyclable paper cups at any other outdoor European event. And Radiohead weren’t bad either. Blimey, I guess this means I’m an eco-friendly gig goer now, which, by all accounts, brings everyone just a little closer together.