Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood have formed a new project called the Smile.
It is a trio with jazz drummer Tom Skinner, who plays in Sons of Kemet and other groups including solo project Hello Skinny. Nigel Godrich, Radiohead’s longtime producer who also plays with Yorke in Atoms for Peace, is also involved. The Smile are named after a Ted Hughes poem.
Yorke, Greenwood and Skinner will debut the project on Saturday, as special guests for Live at Worthy Farm, the livestream event held on the Glastonbury festival site that also features Coldplay, Haim and more. The Smile are scheduled to perform at 11.00pm.
Our #LiveAtWorthyFarm SPECIAL GUESTS!
— Glastonbury Festival (@glastonbury) May 22, 2021
Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood & Tom Skinner - aka The Smile - with their debut performance as part of our 5-hour global livestream.
Tonight from 7pm BST (timed worldwide & Sunday screenings also available).
Tickets: https://t.co/QTGMwcTlhK pic.twitter.com/WYtubXEq7Z
Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis said she was “truly honoured” that the trio were debuting the project there, saying: “This has all the makings of a special Glastonbury moment.”
Radiohead have headlined the festival three times, in 1997, 2003 and 2017, and did a smaller secret show in 2011. Yorke, briefly accompanied by Greenwood, also made a surprise acoustic appearance in 2010.
The band remain a going concern, though are currently on a hiatus. Their most recent album is 2016’s A Moon Shaped Pool.
Yorke released his soundtrack to Luca Guadagnino’s remake of Suspiria in 2018, and solo album Anima in 2019. In 2018, Greenwood released two film soundtracks, to Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread – for which he was Oscar-nominated – and Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here. Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien released a solo album as EOB in 2020.
