Thom Yorke plays Tomorrow's Modern Boxes live for the first time, at Latitude

Thom Yorke played the songs of Tomorrow's Modern Boxes live for the first time just after midnight on Sunday 19 July, in an unbilled set with Nigel Godrich on the iArena, Latitude's small stage in the woods at Henham Park in Suffolk. He introduced the two of them with My name's Pharrell, and this is Robin Thicke.⁹

Godrich gave the set away on Twitter only that Saturday, first with the Tomorrow's Modern Boxes artwork beside the Latitude logo, then a picture giving Thom Yorke at 00:30, then the letter i, for the iArena. The first show announced for the record is in Tokyo on 15 August.

Earlier on Saturday evening Yorke had walked on during Portishead's headline set on the Obelisk Arena, after the encore break, to sing “The Rip”, from their 2008 album Third, with Beth Gibbons. He last played Latitude in 2009, with a solo set at noon on the main stage.

Clark, the electronic act, had the iArena slot before him, and the crowd grew big enough that admission was closed for a while; some fans climbed trees to see. This is an experiment, relax and let our machines talk to you⁹, Yorke told them. The crew had spent about an hour setting up synths, projections and GoPro cameras, but the first beats cut out to silence and Yorke left the stage. Faults came back through much of the set, which ran about 90 minutes.

He moved between electronics, bass and acoustic guitar, and played no Radiohead songs; “Default” was heard at the soundcheck and not again. Andrew Trendell of Gigwise thought the night underwhelming and saw many fans leave. Jamie Milton, reviewing for DIY, rated the quieter songs from the record best, “Guess Again!” above all.

Songs reported at the iArena (the first four in Gigwise's order; the rest unordered)