Song · OK Computer era (1996–98)
Skirting on the Surface
The title was on radiohead.com in 1997, and the song finally came out 25 years later on a Smile record, minus a vowel.
1997–2005
a title on a list
The name turns up on the band's website in 1997, attached to nothing anyone could hear. In September 2005 Radiohead put up a photograph of the studio blackboard where Thom Yorke chalked the songs in hand, and it was 11th on the list, with “rewrite” written beside it.
2009–12
yorke alone, then radiohead
Yorke played it on 2 October 2009 at the Echoplex in Los Angeles, the first show by his new band with Flea, alone at the piano after he had sent the others off. On the second of their two nights at the Orpheum that week it took the place of “Open the Floodgates”.
Radiohead brought it to the whole band in Dallas on 5 March 2012, on The King of Limbs tour, with Yorke moving from the piano to acoustic guitar and synthesisers underneath. The next night it opened the encore at the Austin City Limits taping, and it was played on three nights that spring, the last in Mexico City on 18 April 2012. They never released a recording of it.
2022
skrting on the surface
The Smile, the band Yorke and Jonny Greenwood formed with Tom Skinner, put it out as their third single on 17 March 2022, spelt “Skrting on the Surface”, and closed A Light for Attracting Attention with it. It is in 11/8, with Greenwood fingerpicking an electric guitar through heavy delay. Mark Jenkin shot the video on 16mm in the disused Rosevale Tin Mine in Cornwall and developed it by hand in the mine's own water, with Yorke as a miner walling up a tunnel.
Skinner's drums are a single live take, recorded before the song existed. Yorke said afterwards that they had caught something special, and it is the Smile song Skinner names as most his own.
on stage
Live at American Airlines Center 3-5-12.· suprefanwatch on youtube →
on stage(5)
Live history
| Times played | 3 shows |
|---|---|
| Live debut | Monday 5 March 2012 · Dallas |
| Last played | Wednesday 18 April 2012 · Mexico City |
Nights played include broadcasts; opened and closed count gigs only. A cancelled night has no setlist. All setlist stats →
sources9
- The site's own catalogue note, based on Spin and fan archives, for 1997 and the 2012 performances.
- Thom Yorke, “lots of loose ends”, Dead Air Space (radiohead.com), 30 September 2005, with a photograph of the studio blackboard.
- The site's news stories on Yorke's band at the Echoplex (2 October 2009) and at the Orpheum (5 October 2009), for the solo performances.
- “See Radiohead Play New Song ‘Skirting on the Surface’ Live”, Spin, 6 March 2012, for the full-band arrangement in Dallas.
- Austin City Limits taping, Moody Theater, 6 March 2012, setlist as printed the next day, for the encore.
- Cerys Kenneally, The Line of Best Fit, and Christian Eede, The Quietus, both 17 March 2022, for the single, the time signature and the film.
- Aaron Paskin, review of A Light for Attracting Attention, Spectrum Culture, 18 May 2022, for the closing track.
- “Tom Skinner tells Rolling Stone Japan how The Smile began”, the site's news story of 5 August 2026, after Rolling Stone Japan, for the drums.
- Performance dates from this site's own setlist archive.