Courtney Barnett To Rock UK Stadiums With Foo Fighters

Australia’s own indie-rock sensation Courtney Barnett will join Foo Fighters on four massive dates in the UK in June 2024.

Barnett will be the sole opener on 15 June when the US rockers perform at the Manchester United home ground, Emirates Old Trafford Stadium.

On 17 June, Barnett and Scottish indie rock duo Honeyblood will head to Hampden Park in Glasgow, Scotland, before playing shows at London Stadium and Birmingham’s Villa Park alongside Hot Milk – a band also joining Foo Fighters in Australia later this year.

Other artists accompanying Foo Fighters in the UK include Wet Leg, Shame, Himalayas and Loose Articles.

Foo Fighters announced their UK stadium tour after their not-so-secret appearance at Glastonbury last week. Billed as a surprise act called The Churnups, vocalist Dave Grohl teased the audience, “You guys fuckin’ knew it was us this whole time, you knew it was us, right?” before launching into My Hero. “We’re not good at secrets.”

Armed with a 60-minute runtime, Foo Fighters ripped into All My Life, followed by No Son Of Mine (with teases of Metallica’s Enter Sandman and Black Sabbath’s Paranoid riffs), Learn To Fly, Rescued, The Pretender, My Hero, Show Me How (featuring Violet Grohl and a flash of Beastie Boys’ Sabotage riff), Best Of You, and closed with Everlong, which was dedicated to Taylor Hawkins.

Foo Fighters’ Australian tour, which touches down under in November and December, is in support of the band’s just-released 11th album, But Here We Are, which earned a 4.5-star review from The Music. In it, Stephen Green wrote that Grohl “has created a pop-rock opus, delivering complex emotion through simple lyrics and melodies in a way that hits directly at the heart”.

The write-up continued: “It's emotionally heavy, yet completely accessible and in working through his own pain, Dave Grohl has created a mainstream album for thinking and feeling. It delivers hit rock songs, takes the listener on an almost crushing emotional journey, but crucially sets them free.”

In recent Courtney Barnett news, she was mentioned and praised in The Music’s exploration into why more Australian artists don’t sing with an Aussie accent.

Writer Rosalind Moran commented, “Singing in an Australian accent is not just an aesthetic choice: it is also a political one. Doing so helps represent and celebrate Australian culture and vernacular, including on a global stage, as well as to break down antiquated notions of ‘correct’ speech.”