Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead will debut a new band, the Smile, tonight at the ticketed Glastonbury livestream event, Live at Worthy Farm. The group will be rounded out by drummer Tom Skinner, in collaboration with producer Nigel Godrich.
“We’re truly honored that Thom and Jonny have chosen our livestream event to premiere their brand new project, the Smile,” Glastonbury co-organizer Emily Eavis said in a statement. “Sadly, we are all unable to gather together at Worthy Farm, but alongside sets from other wonderful performers, this has all the makings of a special Glastonbury moment—and one we can broadcast to the world.”
Though Radiohead itself, whose last album was 2016’s A Moon Shaped Pool, is still on hiatus, York and Greenwood are no strangers to the Glastonbury stage — Radiohead has headlined the event three times, in 1997, 2003 and 2017, and also made a surprise appearance in 2011.
It’s unclear at the moment what the future of the Smile, who took their name from a Ted Hughes poem of the same name, will look like . A preliminary website for the band notes that upcoming announcements may also include information from “W.A.S.T.E. headquarters,” the official source for news relating to Radiohead.
For those who sign up for the band’s email list, a cryptic message awaits in inboxes. “Down the rabbit hole we go as the flames are growing higher for unbelievers, making mushrooms out of men ’til we all turn back again to a face of solid gold, solid gold, sycophantic fawners in double quicktime the beginning at the end ’til we all come back again.”