Thom Yorke gives first interview since release of A Moon Shaped Pool

Speaking to Q Magazine's Nial Doherty, Yorke said he was surprised at the positive reaction from fans: “We expected the opposite. I cherish the band, but I don’t expect anyone else to...”

“He wondered if people would care, given how long it had been since The King Of Limbs,” Doherty writes. “There were times when he wasn’t sure if there would ever be another Radiohead LP, but he says that he thinks that every time.”

One track that people were surprised to see crop up in recent live shows was '90s staple "Creep". Doherty writes:

Yorke says that the idea to play “Creep” came up two nights ago in Amsterdam when someone in the crowd spent the majority of the gig shouting for it. “I kind of wound him up by starting to play it, which was a bad idea as it was like lighting a fire.” The band decided they would perform it during the encore only for their crew to veto it because they weren’t prepared. But the idea had been planted - “Creep” was back on the rota. “We just said, ‘Let’s see what the reaction is, just to see how it feels.’”

Yorke continues: “Like we played 'No Surprises' just to see if it feels alright. Songs go into phases where they don’t feel right and then they come back. 'No Surprises' was out for ages. We didn’t play it once on the whole of The King Of Limbs tour. ... If you play it right, it is fucking dark. But it’s like acting. It’s on the edge of totally hamming it up but you’re not. it’s just the words are so dark. When we play it, we have to play it so slow. It only sounds good if it’s really fragile.”

The interview with Yorke - plus some info from Colin Greenwood - appears in the new issue of Q, which is out today (28 June).