The surviving members of Foo Fighters – along with a huge number of other big-name musicians – gathered at Wembley Stadium in London earlier today for a concert. The show in question was the first of two planned tribute concerts in honor of Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, who died in March. It was, to put it bluntly, a huge and star-studded affair: In addition to Dave Grohl and the other members of Foo Fighters—who are performing together in public for the first time since Hawkins’ death—the setlist also included appearances by Dave Chappelle, Josh Homme, John Paul Jones, Liam Gallagher, Kesha, Nile Rodgers, The Pretenders, Krist Novoselic, Lars Ulrich, Roger Taylor, Brian May, Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, Brian Johnson, Stewart Copeland, Nandi Bushell, Paul McCartney and others. Although the entire event lasted six hours today – encompassing around 50 songs in its setlist – we’ve picked out a few highlights from the day, which combined heartfelt emotion with powerful music, as many of Hawkins’ favorite acts joined bandmates of to pay homage. For example: Liam Gallagher, who helped open the show with a version of Oasis’ “Life Forever.” Homme, Jones and Grohl later reunited their supergroup Them Crooked Vultures for the first time in 12 years: G/O Media may receive a commission Members of two of Hawkins’ biggest influences, Queen and Rush, also took to the stage to pay tribute: And here’s McCartney and Chrissie Hynde playing together for “Oh Darling!” of the Beatles. The most emotional moments of the night, unsurprisingly, came from the set of the Foo Fighters themselves, who brought a revolving set of drummers to pay tribute to Hawkins. That included Josh Freese, Travis Barker, Rufus Taylor and, yes, Bushell, who helped out in force through a version of the band’s “Learn To Fly.” The final drummer of the night was Hawkins’ 16-year-old son Shane Hawkins, who played on the bands “My Hero.” Which, yes: It’s hard to stay dry-eyed about it. Grohl ended the show with one last solo offering — for a definition of “solo” that includes an entire arena of people singing along — to the man he often referred to as his brother: An acoustic version of “Everlong”: Foo Fighters (Dave Grohl solo) – Everlong [Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert] The second Taylor Hawkins tribute concert is scheduled for September 27 in California.
