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Music

Come! Gather Around the Gazebo, and Watch Thom Yorke's Acoustic Garden Party Set

The Radiohead frontman serenades an Oxford crowd for the Queen's 90th birthday.

Who is the last person you'd expect to see strumming an acoustic guitar at a garden party for the Queen's 90th birthday in Oxford? GG Allin? Slash? The cast of Geordie Shore? I don't think it would take this weird list of yours very long to get to Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke; a guy more famed for charged lyrics, environmental awareness, complex melodic masterpieces, and soundtracking documentaries about tax avoiders, than toasting Pimms in the backyard to the British monarchy.

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But for some reason – yes, there needs to be a reason, because famous people can't just go around acting as inconsistently as the rest of us, alright? – Thom Yorke decided to head over to his neighbours' garden party over the weekend, acoustic guitar and amp in tow, to treat the gathering to some lowkey classics like "The Reckoner", "No Surprises", "Street Spirit" and more. According to the person who first leaked this story on Reddit, their dad text them to say "in Oxford at garden party with Suzie's neighbours, about to hear entertainment from neighbour Tom York of Radiohead!" General assumption was that it was some classic dad banter until pictures and videos started surfacing online.

What this video will do for your emotional connection as a Radiohead fan I'm unsure. It's certainly quite weird to see Yorke sheepishly playing guitar for fairly pre-occupied old people under a gazebo while they snack on party sized sausage rolls and spritzers. It brings back memories of coming downstairs from my bedroom as a child and asking everyone to watch me play the riff from "Smoke on the Water". They would all carry on doing what they were doing, and at the end my mother would say "Yes, very good."

So, here's a video of the man himself strumming away like he's cornered you at a house party and launched into "Wonderwall". For what it's worth, Thom… very good.