nme.com
04.09.2022 / 12:15
Brian May and Roger Taylor join Foo Fighters for Queen set at Taylor Hawkins tribute concert
Queen – lead guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor – joined the Foo Fighters to perform a five-song set of their own hits at the first Taylor Hawkins tribute concert.The special gig – which took place at Wembley Stadium last night (September 3) and was simulcast all over the web, TV and streaming platforms – honoured the late Foos drummer with performances from Liam Gallagher, Mark Ronson, Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme, Supergrass, Metallica’s Lars Ulrich and AC/DC’s Brian Johnson, The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde, Blink-182’s Travis Barker, Kesha, and more.The Queen/Foos supergroup were introduced with archival footage of Hawkins himself, who welcomed Roger Taylor out at one of the Foos own shows before he passed. Hawkins was a noted superfan of the British rock icons, and Foos sets would often see the drummer take over from Dave Grohl to perform lead vocals on a cover of ‘Somebody To Love’.“When I was 10 years old, my older sister took me to go see Queen in concert – the first concert I ever saw – and I watched the fucking drummer, and I said, ‘I wanna fucking be him, I wanna do that’,” Hawkins says in the archival clip screened at last night’s concert, after hyping the crowd up with his imitation of Freddie Mercury’s famous “ay-oh” chant.The set itself began with a cover of Queen’s 1977 hit ‘We Will Rock You’, for which Taylor was joined on drums by his son Rufus, and Luke Spiller of The Struts sang lead vocals.