Thom Yorke joins Flea for “Traffic Lights” in London and Paris

Thom Yorke came out as Flea's surprise guest at KOKO in Camden on Tuesday 26 May, the only UK show of Flea's Honora tour, and sang “Traffic Lights” and Marvin Gaye's “Got to Give It Up”. He did the same at both of Flea's nights at the Alhambra in Paris later in the week. Flea's band had never played the Gaye song before KOKO, though Yorke and Flea had, in the second encore of Atoms for Peace's show in Mexico City on 9 October 2013.

Yorke wrote “Traffic Lights” with Flea and Josh Johnson for Honora, Flea's first solo album, and sings on the record. Something about it reminded me of Atoms for Peace, so I sent it to Thom², Flea said when the song came out. At KOKO it was the second song of the night, after an unreleased Flea song, “Good Night Darius”. It was the song's first live performance, and they stretched it to nearly ten minutes, Flea moving between bass and trumpet. Stereogum thought the guitar in Yorke's hands was Ed O'Brien's signature Stratocaster. He came back at the end of the main set, on electric guitar, and sang “Got to Give It Up” in falsetto while the band drew it out.

In Paris on Thursday, in a heatwave, word of a special guest went round in the afternoon. Flea opened again with “Good Night Darius”, a lullaby he wrote for his son, who was in the hall with his mother. Yorke walked on without a word for “Traffic Lights”. He returned to close the concert with the Gaye song. Jacky Goldberg of Les Inrocks puts the night at about two hours, much of it improvised. Yorke was back at the Alhambra the next night.

Yorke's guest spots with Flea, May 2026