Foo Fighters Perform A Surprise Set At Glastonbury Festival

It’s official: after weeks of rumours about a mystery band called The Churnups performing at Glastonbury, Foo Fighters confirmed it was them all along.

“You guys fuckin’ knew it was us this whole time, you knew it was us, right?” Grohl quipped about the band’s speculated set before launching into My Hero. “We’re not good at secrets.”

In case you missed it: earlier this month, Glastonbury organisers unveiled the festival’s four-day timetable weeks out from the festival, which began on Thursday (22 June). This year’s edition, headlined by Guns N’ Roses, Elton John and Arctic Monkeys, also made note of a surprise act called The Churnups scheduled to perform on the Pyramid Stage before Royal Blood and Arctic Monkeys.

Speculation mounted as The ChurnUps made a Twitter account with a white header image – But Here We Are? – and a profile photo that features a snippet of Foo Fighters’ well-known logo.

The ChurnUps were also tweeting, “IS THIS HAPPENING NOW”, “BUT HERE WE ARE”, “YOU MUST RELEASE WHAT YOU HOLD DEAR” (which Foo Fighters also tweeted), and a potential setlist teaser, “MONKEY WRENCH ALONE + EASY TARGET BIG ME I’LL STICK AROUND THIS IS A CALL ENOUGH SPACE EVERLONG”.

2023 marks the 25^th anniversary of Foo Fighters’ first-ever performance at the festival, which occurred at the same time on the same day in 1998.

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.

As NME reports, Foo Fighters really were terrible at keeping the secret. Grohl was spotted backstage hours before their set took place, and with Arctic Monkeys gear behind him, fans quickly figured out that it was a new photo.

You can check out some footage below.

Last weekend, Foo Fighters rocked the Bonnaroo stage in style, bringing Paramore’s Hayley Williams on stage to perform an emotional rendition of My Hero. You can check that out here.

Foo Fighters will return to Australia later this year, confirming a second and final show in Melbourne after the pre-sale met unprecedented demand.

The tour comes in support of the Foos’ 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”.

Thank you @glastonbury!!! ❤️#glastonbury2023 #thechurnups pic.twitter.com/TgtHAzYMag

— Foo Fighters (@foofighters) June 23, 2023

The Churnups sound a whole lot like @FooFighters.#Glastonbury #FooFighters pic.twitter.com/vmIHwdvDU6

— CONSEQUENCE (@consequence) June 23, 2023

Foo Fighters performing "The Pretender" to a crowd of 100,000 at Glastonbury 🤌 pic.twitter.com/f1kI6ppiA9

— CONSEQUENCE (@consequence) June 23, 2023

The Foo Fighters playing 'Everlong' at #Glastonbury - dedicated to Taylor Hawkins ❤️#Glastonbury23 pic.twitter.com/N12l9GpUay

— Far Out Magazine (@FarOutMag) June 23, 2023

"there goes my heroooooo" such a moment from @foofighters at #glastonbury 🥺

listen on bbc sounds
watch on bbc iplayer pic.twitter.com/rixYwZHz8C

— BBC Radio 1 (@BBCR1) June 23, 2023