The Radioheadism of SUV Steve

Christianity has been served up lukewarm by mediocre and infantile priests, catechists and teachers. But SUV Steve still has a soul, which continues to be orientated to seeking out the divine.

Thom Yorke of the band Radiohead

This article was written by Sarah Ward for Catholic Unscripted.

A couple of weeks ago I went to see Radiohead at the O2 in London.

It was my first time at a large stadium gig and 20+ years since I last saw a band play live. You see, for the last 2 decades I’ve been married and raising a large family. My late teens and early twenties were very different - music was my passion. And 32 years ago, one of the first live music gigs I attended was Radiohead, at the YMCA “Y” Club in Chelmsford.

My recent trip to the O2 was ostensibly a trip down memory lane with my sister, who had accompanied me to that first Radiohead gig. It was brilliant and we had a really great night, singing along to the cerebral lyrics, dancing to the melancholic sounds and energised beats. But a number of things struck me as I marvelled at the musicianship of the band, the wonderful staging and the ambience with my 20,000 co-attendees. What was happening here?

First, the demographics. I’m 49 and there were a lot of people my age, with some older and some younger. The standing audience was at least 5:1 male to female. And the audience was almost entirely white. This was an overwhelmingly white, male, middle-aged and middle-class audience. I noticed a lot of wedding rings. A lot of grey hair. A lot of glasses. (Reader, it’s ok, I have grey hair and glasses). 30 years ago, Prime Minister Tony Blair called this demographic Mondeo Man. I believe it is now called SUV Steve.

SUV Steve was in his element. He knew all the words to every song and sang his heart out, arms raised in veneration, eyes closed or tearing up. The irony of the 5 white wealthy middle-aged men on stage, railing against the patriarchy, was lost on SUV Steve because SUV Steve was fully immersed in the moment. Like an anthem for white middle-aged middle-class men everywhere, 20,000 SUV Steves belted out the words to Karma Police: “I lost myself, I lost myself”.

When I got home, my social media feeds were full of pictures and videos from the event and I started to notice a trend in the comments, describing the show as nothing less than a religious experience: