In primates, what looks like a smile usually signifies submission. In humans, it’s more complicated.
“There is a smile of love and there is a smile of deceit,” intones a disembodied voice – actor Cillian Murphy’s – at the start of the third live performance in a series by the Smile, the latest band headed up by Thom Yorke of Radiohead. The power trio is completed by fellow ’Head Jonny Greenwood, latter-day composer of film soundtracks, and drummer Tom Skinner of jazz activists Sons of Kemet. (Producer Nigel Godrich is a silent partner.) It’s a sunny January morning outside, contrasting with the dimly lit, alternative Sunday service indoors, in which a churchy Fender Rhodes features. The band have snuck a few hours’ kip after their earlier 11pm and 1am live streams. The only sign that they are not fresh as daisies is one slight mistake on one song.
