Thom Yorke - Solo - New Song - Latitude 2009 - The Present Tense

While the set was packed with The Eraser highlights and stripped-back Radiohead classics, it was a brand-new, unnamed song that stopped everyone in their tracks. We now know it as but back then, it was a fragile, bossa-nova-inflected mystery.

The Day the Earth Stood Still: Remembering Thom Yorke at Latitude 2009 While the set was packed with The Eraser

Was anyone else there that afternoon? Or do you remember the first time you heard the bootleg recording that circled the forums for years after? Or do you remember the first time you

This sounds like a deep dive into a legendary moment in lore. That Latitude 2009 performance was the first time the world heard "The Present Tense," and it remains one of the most intimate snapshots of Thom Yorke’s solo evolution. There are moments in music history that feel

There are moments in music history that feel like a collective intake of breath. For those standing in the grass at the in July 2009, that moment arrived during Thom Yorke’s "surprise" solo set.

The lyrics— “Keep it moving, keep it light” —felt like a mantra for survival. In the context of 2009, seeing Thom perform it solo emphasized the raw songwriting at the core of his genius, long before the lush, orchestral arrangements of A Moon Shaped Pool would bring the song to its final studio form seven years later.