Pyramid stage
A vast crowd have got wise to the secret – the band were billed as ‘the Churnups’ – and are greeted with a set that shows Foo Fighters have recaptured their very essence
It’s one of the cruel rules of love and attraction that the more you try to impress someone, the less you’ll succeed; no-one likes a try-hard. And so it proves with rock’n’roll: heavily produced, overthought and desperate to please bands just don’t resonate like the ones who are doing it to please themselves. After a few albums on which Foo Fighters have felt like they were trying too hard to do the thing they once did so naturally – rock out – this secret set at Glastonbury, loosened of expectation, sees them finally relax back into what made them great.
They were billed as the Churnups, but this audience has clearly cracked the code: it’s one of the biggest crowds ever seen on this field, stretching back to verdant turf once staked out by the Rolling Stones, Chemical Brothers and (improbably) the Levellers in the annals of Pyramid big-hitters. “We’re not good at secrets,” smiles Dave Grohl at one point.
