Foo Fighters perform a 'surprise' set at Glastonbury as The Churnups

2023 marks 25 years since Foo Fighters first performed at Glastonbury Festival in 1998. When the full Glastonbury line-up was revealed, and The Churnups were billed in the same slot, the rumour mill started working overtime.

Slotted just before Royal Blood, and headliners Arctic Monkeys, Foo Fighters performed a career-spanning set which included "All My Life", "Learn To Fly", "My Hero", and "Everlong", alongside songs from their latest album, But Here We Are.

Addressing the badly kept secret, Dave Grohl said: "You guys fucking knew it was us this whole time. You knew it right? We’re not good at secrets. It’s nice to see your face again, it’s been a long time".

Slipping in riffs from Metallica's "Enter Sandman", Black Sabbath's "War Pigs", and a snippet of Rage Against the Machine, Grohl and co made sure to cram in as much as possible into their set. “We only have an hour so we gotta make sure we fit in all the songs we can," he said.

Whilst introducing the band, who played a few seconds of a solo on their instrument, Grohl joked around with guitarist Chris Shiflett – "Slash is watching so you've gotta give him something good" – before inviting his daughter on stage to play "Show Me How", which he explains is a song that they wrote for his late mother.

We're trusting @richwoodywood isn't pulling a fast one with a photo from previous years, but it appears he's spotted a certain D Grohl in the vicinity of some musical instruments and the Pyramid stage. https://t.co/VmZqIFgJGF

— Secretglasto (@secretglasto) June 23, 2023

Taking the time to dedicate "Everlong" to Foo Fighters' late drummer Taylor Hawkins, Grohl let slip that the band will return to the UK next summer for a full tour.

"It’s been nice to be here for 58 mins and 22 seconds. We usually play this one as our way of saying goodbye because we never like to say goodbye cause I always figure if you guys come back, we’ll come back. I already know we are coming back next summer for a whole tour so you can come back to that shit. I would like to thank everyone of you for coming back for the last 20 years, and I’d like to dedicate this song to Taylor Hawkins so let’s sing this one loud as shit for Mr. Taylor."

Foo Fighters headlined the festival in 2017, having had to pull out two years before when Dave Grohl broke his leg, and they were subsequently replaced by Florence & The Machine.

Dave Grohl joined Sir Paul McCartney as a special guest last year, alongside Bruce Springsteen. It was the first time he had appeared on stage since the death of the band's drummer Taylor Hawkins.

Setlist:

1. All My Life
2. No Son of Mine (with Metallica's "Enter Sandman")
3. Learn To Fly
4. Rescued
5. The Pretender
6. My Hero
7. Show Me How
8. Best of You
9. Everlong (dedicated to Taylor Hawkins)