Thom Yorke plays a surprise DJ set at Low End Theory

Thom Yorke DJed unannounced at Low End Theory, the Wednesday night at the Airliner in Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles, on 9 March. It was the first time anyone from Radiohead had appeared in public since The King of Limbs came out on 18 February. Earlier that evening the club had told the crowd he wasn't coming.

Flying Lotus, a regular at the club, set it up. He first raised it with Daddy Kev, the club's co-founder, the Sunday before, and Kev suggested the Wednesday. On the day it wavered. That morning Lotus rang to say it looked unlikely, by 4pm it was back on, and by 8pm the queue went round the block. Then, at 9.37pm, came his text, No go – sorry man², and the club passed it on.

Kev told LA Weekly that once he had finished his own set, Lotus emailed Yorke a photo of the crowd. Thom then replied, 'Fuck it. I'm coming.' That's when I knew it was really going to happen.²

Kev introduced him as a very special guest to be treated as one of their own. Yorke went on at about 11pm, with Nigel Godrich along, and played off a laptop for about an hour. Jeff Weiss of the Los Angeles Times and Tom Diehl of Rolling Stone were both in the room, and they report that he started out reserved and was soon dancing behind the decks, through house, minimal techno, dubstep, Afrobeat and hip-hop: Burial, Modeselektor, Madvillain, Fela Kuti's “Zombie” and Kraftwerk's “Pocket Calculator”, with Fun Boy Three's “The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum)” in there too.

Kev reckons at least 70 per cent of the crowd were Low End regulars; the newcomers rushed the front when Yorke went on. His verdict on his guests is that both he and Nigel Godrich were complete gentlemen².