Radiohead/the Smile principal Thom Yorke is taking a break from band duties this fall for a first-of-its-kind solo tour, during which he’ll be playing material from throughout his career. At the opening gig last night (Oct. 23) in Christchurch, New Zealand, the artist debuted a new song, “Back in the Game,” which is tipped for inclusion on an upcoming collaborative album with Mark Pritchard.
Yorke rarely plays Radiohead material in a solo setting, but the 24-song set featured 10 of the group’s songs, including an acoustic show-opening take on “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi,” “Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box,” “Daydreaming,” “How To Disappear Completely,” “Karma Police” and “Bodysnatchers.”
Although Yorke performed only one tune (“Bodies Laughing”) from the Smile, which has released three albums in the past two years, he unearthed his 1998 UNKLE team-up “Rabbit in Your Headlights,” Atoms for Peace’s “Default” and the live debuts of “Volk” from his soundtrack to the remake of Suspiria plus the first airing of the 2009 single “Hearing Damage.”
In an interview with Double J, Yorke admitted he’s been building this iteration of his solo show “for awhile” in tandem with the Smile producer Sam Petts-Davies. “It is an experiment, a relatively simple one — well, not all of it. On stage there will be some machines, a guitar, piano and myself. If it’s working, hopefully it will explain itself.”
Asked to comment on Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood’s recent revelation that the band, which hasn’t toured since 2018, assembled for a rehearsal earlier this year, Yorke said, “No offense to anyone and err, thanks for caring. But I think we’ve earned the right to do what makes sense to us without having to explain ourselves or be answerable to anyone else’s historical idea of what we should be doing. I don’t think we feel the need to live up to anything. That feels like a non-problem. We are in this privileged position where we are still able to make music because of Radiohead, so, no complaints.”
Yorke also said Radiohead/the Smile’s Jonny Greenwood is continuing his recovery from an infection that required the Smile to scrap a European tour. “Touring is not really something we are currently discussing,” he said. “We’re on a pause.”