Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood play three new songs at KOKO

Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood played three new songs at KOKO in Camden tonight, at a benefit for The Big Ask, Friends of the Earth's climate campaign. It was their first show of the year, and a rare night away from the Oxford studio where Radiohead are making the follow-up to Hail to the Thief. The whole band's tour starts in Copenhagen on Saturday, with British dates in the middle of May.

“Arpeggi” is slow, Yorke finger-picking an acoustic guitar while Jonny plays softly distorted electric, moving to organ near the end. “Bodysnatchers” is much faster and runs on an acoustic riff. For the third, Yorke sampled his own voice and looped it as a beat, then played piano over it, with Jonny on the ondes Martenot, an early electronic keyboard. Yorke set the loop too fast at first and had to start again. The song had no title on the night; NME, which rated it the best of the three, calls it “Cymbal Rush”.

Simon Amstell, once of Popworld, hosted, and Kate Rusby and Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals also played. Colin Greenwood and Ed O'Brien watched from the balcony, with Nigel Godrich and Michael and Emily Eavis. David Cameron, the Conservative leader, was in the VIP area, and after the opening “Karma Police” a fan shouted Thom Yorke for Prime Minister!⁴ It drew cheers.

During “Fake Plastic Trees” Jonny's guitar got so wild that Yorke broke off laughing mid-line, and they stopped short of the end. In the encore came the first live “Gagging Order”, a B-side of the 2003 single “Go to Sleep”. Between songs Yorke talked about climate change. It's not too late.⁴

Setlist