See Radiohead Side Project the Smile Perform New Song ‘We Don’t Know What Tomorrow Brings’
The Smile — the Radiohead side project featuring Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood alongside drummer Tom Skinner — made their debut Saturday during Glastonbury’s Live at Worthy Farm livestream, with the trio performing a set boasting a handful of new songs as well as revisiting an unreleased Radiohead rarity.
The band opened their first-ever gig — played within a giant tent on the Glastonbury site — with “Skating on the Surface,” an updated take on Radiohead’s “Skirting on the Surface,” a thrice-played relic from The King of Limbs tour that hadn’t been performed since 2012.
In case you missed it, you can catch it again today @glastonbury pic.twitter.com/N9t4M43lor
— The Smile (@thesmiletheband) May 23, 2021
After that, the Smile kicked off a string of seven new songs: According to a setlist posted on social media, those tracks were titled “The Smoke,” “You Will Never Work in Television Again,” “Opposites,” “Panavision,” “Just Eyes and Mouth,” “We Don’t Know What Tomorrow Brings” (which the band later posted on Twitter, above) and “Thin Thing.”
A side project that should satiate Radiohead fans who long clamored for the band’s return to “guitar-rock,” the Smile’s eight-song set found the trio bouncing between post-punk assaults and a few slower numbers similar to Yorke’s solo works. Yorke and Greenwood also rotated bass and guitar throughout the performance.
— The Smile (@thesmiletheband) May 23, 2021
In his lone remark during the performance, Yorke introduced the band, “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 trio took their name from a Ted Hughes poem of the same name.
Since the Smile were revealed Saturday, the band has launched social media accounts and an official website, but no release plans have been announced. The Smile’s entire concert can be replayed Sunday during encore streams of the Live at Worthy Farm event, which also featured Coldplay, Haim, Damon Albarn, Jorja Smith and more. Due to technical difficulties during the initial livestream, two more streams have been scheduled for Sunday:
A reminder that ticket purchasers for last night’s 7pm stream have been emailed details of how to watch today’s encore streamings, at 2pm & 7pm. We’ve also been assured by Driift that last night’s technical issues have been resolved. We really hope you enjoy this magical show. pic.twitter.com/7k6eT107x2
— Glastonbury Festival (@glastonbury) May 23, 2021
