The Smile are the new side project from Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead along with Tom Skinner from Sons Of Kemet.

They first went public on the Driift livestream from Glastonbury in May 2021 (yes, the one that had a few technical problems) and released their debut single, ‘You Will Never Work In Television Again’ at the very start of this year. Two other singles have followed and a debut album is expected in the summer. Possibly.

They have done no interviews to date and so far have only existed in the streaming milieu – putting tracks on DSPs as well as playing three livestreamed shows on the night of 29th and morning of 30th January to cater for different time zones.

They are, however, slowly stepping into the physical world. A European and UK tour is confirmed for May, June and July this year, but before that they are making their first two singles (‘You Will Never Work In Television Again’ and ‘The Smoke’) available as limited-pressing 7-inch singles.

The twist, however, was that the singles were not available to purchase. Instead, eager fans had to go to any participating record store around the world between 12th and 24th March and pick up a free lottery ticket to be in with a chance of winning one.

Those tickets contained a QR code that had to be scanned before 24th March for inclusion in the lottery.

A full list of the participating record stores were on the band’s website and they were nothing if not thorough, with over 3,000 retailers included.

They announced it all on their social media sites on 10th March with a 22-second video showing Thom Yorke (with a fetching beanie hat and yellow mask combination) overseeing the printing of the single sleeves.

It’s a fascinating example of a band still wanting to keep a level of mystique around themselves while playing with the divisions between the digital world and the physical world. In an age of over-saturated social media activity, it’s a rare trick indeed.