Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood put three KOKO songs on a free CD

Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood have three live tracks, “Pyramid Song”, “No Surprises” and “Cymbal Rush”, on Artists Taking Action On Climate Change, a Friends of the Earth CD given away with The Observer on Sunday 18 March. They come from Big Ask Live at KOKO in London on 1 May last year, the benefit where the pair played 13 songs as a duo. That night brought the first performances of “Bodysnatchers”, “Cymbal Rush” and “Gagging Order”, and “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi”, introduced as “Arpeggi”; the whole set is on the show page.

The CD backs The Big Ask, Friends of the Earth's campaign for a law making the government cut the UK's carbon dioxide emissions by at least three per cent a year. Yorke helped launch it in 2005. The CD comes out in the week the government publishes its draft Climate Change Bill, the law the campaign has been asking for.

The best thing about The Big Ask for me is the fact that there's no longer this sense of powerlessness, which is what I had for so long about climate change.

Thom Yorke¹