Watch Thom Yorke reunite with Flea on stage in London
On May 26th, Thom Yorke surprised fans in attendance at the Flea show in London’s KOKO for a performance of two tracks with his previous Atoms For Peace bandmates.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist released Honora, his debut album, in March, which he brought to London for one night only, backed by guitarist Jeff Parker, bassist Anna Butterss, and drummer Deantoni Parks.
One of the standout tracks on the project, ‘Traffic Lights’ was written alongside Yorke, as well as Josh Johnson.
During the European leg of his tour celebrating the release, Flea was joined by Yorke as a surprise guest in the 1,500-person venue in the British capital.
The pair jammed out to a funkier rendition of ‘Traffic Lights’ and, following this, surprisingly covered the 1977 Marvin Gaye disco-funk track ‘Got To Give It Up’, for which Yorke played electric guitar. After, he slipped off without a wave.
Flea is set to play two more shows, which will take place at Paris’ Alhambra on May 28th and 29th. The musician’s sets are full of new tracks off the new album, including his recorded covers of Frank Ocean and Funkadelic.
It comes after the Radiohead frontman was recently honoured with the Academy Fellowship at the Ivor Novello Awards last week. Yorke was introduced by Harry Styles, and used his moment to critique the current state of the music industry.
During part of his speech, he admonished the room of industry insiders, sharing, “This industry will die and arseholes with it, if all you do is devalue the next generation of artists and their fans. Just remember: without us, you ain’t shit!”
He also revealed that he is attempting to finish a solo album, which is due later this year, sharing, “It’s been a really fun process, and it’s pretty fucking different for me.”
Yorke added, “I’m too close to it to know for certain. I get moments of going, ‘This is good, I like this’. That’s enough for me. What else can I say about it? There’s a song called ‘Arse-Kissers’.”
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