A new generation might have reclaimed Reading Festival, but on Sunday night (August 25th) festival favourites Foo Fighters still found a fertile audience as they returned to their British stomping ground. The festival is a firm-favourite of Dave Grohl, “it was my first love of festivals. I think this will be my 10th time playing” he told NME about his time here with Foo Fighters and previous band Nirvana.
This is not another gig for them, so they pulled out all the stops for an explosive, fun-filled set. NME’s Jenn Five got up close with the band for these intimate pictures…
1Foo Fighters at Reading
On Sunday night, the Foo Fighters headlined Reading Festival for the fourth time. They’ve made seven appearances at the festival since their first show back in 1995.
2Foo Fighters at Reading
Ever the Reading lover, Dave Grohl was on scintillating form – sprinting across the stage during opening songs ‘The Pretender’, ‘Learn To Fly’, and, er, ‘Run’.
3Foo Fighters at Reading
During ‘Run’, Grohl paid tribute to late Prodigy frontman Keith Flint, who died earlier this year. “I wanna sing this one for Keith from The Prodigy,” he said. “I remember playing here with The Prodigy, 2009. That was the craziest shit I’ve ever seen,” he told the crowd.
4Foo Fighters at Reading
5Foo Fighters at Reading
During the set, drummer Taylor Hawkins stuck a picture of Oasis brothers Liam & Noel Gallagher to his drumkit. After Grohl and Hawkins’ swapped positions for a cover of Queen’s ‘Under Pressure’, Hawkins said: “One of these days we’ll get Oasis back,” and suggested the crowd should “sign a petition” to get them to reunite.
6Foo Fighters at Reading
The two-and-half-hour show featured hits from throughout the band’s back catalogue, including four songs from their last album ‘Concrete and Gold’, released in 2017. Earlier this month, Hawkins suggested that the band could have a new album out in 2020.
7Foo Fighters at Reading
During band introductions, each band member performed snippets of some classics, with Chic’s ‘Good Times’, Bowie’s ‘Ziggy Stardust’ and Ozzy Osbourne’s ‘Crazy Train’ getting an airing. Here’s keyboardist Rami Jaffee having an absolute blast during his moment.
8Foo Fighters at Reading
There were more surprises in store, obviously. After linking up at Club NME a couple of weeks back, Grohl introduced ’80s popstar Rick Astley to perform a beefed-up cover of his song ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’. Grohl had plenty of praise for Astley too: “Rick Astley’s got balls the size of the fucking London Eye, and I’m not kidding right now,” he said before dedicating ‘Big Me’ to the singer.
9Foo Fighters at Reading
An extended version of ‘Everlong’ rounded out the headline show for one of the festival’s most beloved and dependable bands. See you back here in five years?