Music
24 May 21

Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood debut as new band The Smile at Glastonbury livestream

The Radiohead duo were joined by drummer Tom Skinner for the trio’s surprise headline gig.

New alt-rock act The Smile were announced as a surprise headliner for Glastonbury’s live stream event, Live at Worthy Farm.

The riveting new band is made up of Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke of Radiohead and Tom Skinner from Sons of Kemet. The Smile played their set between Jorja Smith and Kano at 11:05pm on Saturday, playing for 30 minutes and debuting seven new songs as well as delivering a remake of a rare Radiohead song.

The eight song setlist featured a reworked version of the unreleased, ‘Skirting on the Surface’ - renamed ‘Skating on the Surface' - which Radiohead last played in 2012 on their King Of Limbs tour.

In case you missed it, you can catch it again today @glastonbury pic.twitter.com/N9t4M43lor

— The Smile (@thesmiletheband) May 23, 2021

Other tracks from setlist included new offerings, ‘The Smoke,’ ‘You Will Never Work In Television Again,’ ‘Opposites,’ ‘Panavision,’ ‘Just Eyes and Mouth,’ ‘We Don’t Know What Tomorrow Brings,’ and ‘Thin Thing.’

Greenwood and Yorke juggled and rotated guitars, bass, a Moog Synthesizer and a Rhodes piano during the performance, which took place in a corrugated shed with a parachute for a roof on the Glastonbury site.

Yorke introduced the band and explained the origins of the name. “Ladies and gentlemen, we are called ‘The Smile.’ Not the smile as in ‘ahh!’, more ‘the smile’ as in, the guy who lies to you every day.”

The band, who were announced as performers just hours before the livestream, takes its name from a Ted Hughes poem of the same name. The Smile haven't revealed any plans for releases of the songs they played on Saturday as of yet.

Nigel Goldrich was announced as the band’s collaborator by Thom Yorke before the gig, though the long-term Radiohead producer was not present for Saturday's performance.

Before the livestream began, event organiser Emily Eavis said that the Glastonbury team were, “truly honoured that Thom and Jonny have chosen our livestream event to premiere their brand new project”.

The Glastonbury Live At Worthy Farm event was ticketed, but was later opened to the public due to technical difficulties. Two more ‘encore’ streams were scheduled for Sunday at 2pm and 7pm for those who bought tickets.

The Glastonbury 2021 lineup also included Coldplay, Haim, George Ezra, Idles, Wolf Alice, Michael Kiwanuka, Damon Albarn and DJ Honey Dijon featuring Roisín Murphy.

Watch the band's performance of 'Thin Thing,' below: