Thom Yorke. Photo: Flickr

Brick Lane was thronged with Radiohead fans when frontman Thom Yorke  turned into newspaper salesman in a stunt to promote the band’s new album.

Yorke stood behind a mock newspaper kiosk  outside the Rough Trade East record store to give away  free copies of the band’s one-off newspaper The Universal Sigh, which promotes the record.

The queue of more than 200 fans stretched down Brick Lane and the event briefly trended on Twitter on Monday.

The stand had two billboards saying “All can become normal again” and “This is what keeps me alive”. The freesheet was distributed on the day physical copies of Radiohead’s eight album, The King Of Limbs, were released.

When the singer was approached by journalists he said: “Nope! I ain’t doing no press’ adding in typically enigmatic style: ”There is no need to explain anything.” However, Yorke was happy to pose for pictures with fans.

The Universal Sigh is collaboration between Radiohead and artist Stanley Donwood,  a university friend of Yorke’s who has had a long association with the band, designing their album covers and website. It consists of artwork and humorous articles on a range of social issues and is given as a supplement to the CDs and vinyl in order to get consumers to buy the actual album instead of simply downloading it.

The Kings of Limbs has was released online six weeks ago to a mixed critical response, although there was enormous attention from critics and bloggers to the video for the track Lotus Flower, which features  Yorke dancing a cryptic dance, choreographed by renowned choreographer Wayne McGregor.