Lewis Railton
1 AM Show Provides Wake-Up Call For New Band As Thom Yorke Returns To The Music Industry In Style.
The Magazine, a new intimate venue overlooked by the O2 Arena in Greenwich, London was the location where Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead, along with Sons of Kemmet drummer Tom Skinner, played their first set of live shows across the 29th/30th January, debuting with their newly formed group, The Smile in front of an intimately packed audience, as well as being streamed worldwide for fans to purchase. The handful of people lucky enough to purchase the highly demanded tickets for the well awaited set of performances were most certainly left smiling with joy after the 70 minute-long performance filled with songs that debuted on May 22nd on a live stream hosted by Glastonbury, amidst the pandemic that made a performance in front of a crowd unattainable as a result of current government restrictions at the time, including their first single, available on all streaming platforms, “You Will Never Work In Television Again” which saw Thom Yorke take an unexpected step away from electronic music and revert to his pre 2000 rock sound that has rarely seen the light of day since Radiohead’s 4th album release “KID A”. Despite Thom Yorke’s stellar vocal performance, as well as playing a pivotal role on bass guitar, producing riffs that Sir Paul McCartney would be proud of; it was Jonny Greenwood who stole the show, playing the piano and the harp concurrently - a sight that left many in the venue bewildered.
Being lucky enough to snap up a pair of tickets to the 1 AM show, it was undoubtedly an unfamiliar experience for myself, the spectators, as well as the band who played 3 separate performances within the space of 16 hours. This may have been the cause for the odd mistake during the performance, as Thom Yorke laughs off a fault within the first 10 seconds of the opening song “Panavision”, proving that even individuals of their expertise can make mistakes! But this performance was anything but tiring, with the trio returning to the stage for an encore, finishing with a cover of Joe Jackson’s “Different For Girls”, something that was exclusive to the 1 AM show; most likely as a reward for staying up until past 2 AM! As the crowds dispersed from The Magazine, met with the dimly lit sky of London; many were still trying to process the unworldly experience they had just been faced with, except for the woman sitting next to me who had seen the prior 8 PM performance and had tickets to the 11 AM performance! Was £231 to see all three shows worth it? I most certainly think so.
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