Watch Foo Fighters and Rick Astley rickroll Reading Festival during epic setlist

Foo Fighters (Image credit: Brantley Gutierrez)

Foo Fighters returned to the Reading and Leeds festivals over the weekend for two stunning headline sets.

Friday night in Leeds saw the band take to the stage for a hit-packed set, where they were joined by Dave Grohl’s daughter Violet. They even pulled a Freddie Mercury lookalike from the crowd to join them in a cover of Queen’s Under Pressure, while Grohl also dedicated Run to late Prodigy frontman Keith Flint, who died in March this year.

At the Reading Festival last night, they delivered a blistering cover of AC/DC classic Let There Be Rock. Fans even thought the Foos were about to launch into an old Nirvana track – only for the assembled throng to be Rickrolled in spectacular fashion.

Grohl told the crowd: “Some of you may know that the Reading Festival holds a very special place in my heart. This is the first big festival I ever played in my life when I was 22 in 1991. It was a long time ago.”

“I thought tonight we’ll do something special for you that pays tribute to a song that brings us way back in time. It’s maybe the reason why I’m here tonight headlining the main stage. If you know it you can bounce around to it.”

Grohl them broke into a riff before 80s pop star Rick Astley appeared onstage where he joined the band for a rock version of his 1987 hit single Never Gonna Give You Up.

Check out the footage below, where you’ll also find other clips and the setlist from last night's show.

You gotta love Dave Grohl! Teasing Nirvana and then bringing out @rickastley to perform ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ at @OfficialRandL 😂😂😂 | @foofighters (1/2) pic.twitter.com/oJ8KpP8p0yAugust 25, 2019

So @foofighters do this part where Taylor somgs under pressure whilst Dave Grohl Drums, but as they started Taylor notices a guy actually dressed as Freddie Mercury and it provided comedy GOLD pic.twitter.com/Jq7RfRRBNUAugust 24, 2019

Foo Fighters: Reading Festival setlist, August 25
1. The Pretender
2. Learn To Fly
3. Run
4. The Sky Is A Neighborhood
5. Times Like These
6. Drum Solo
7. Sunday Rain
8. My Hero
9. These Days
10. La Dee Da
11. Walk
12. Crazy Train / Good Times / Ziggy Stardust / Dragon Attack
13. Under Pressure
14. All My Life
15. I’ll Stick Around
16. Wheels
17. Monkey Wrench
18. Hey, Johnny Park!
19. Never Gonna Give You Up
20. Big Me
21. Best of You
22. For All The Cows
23. This Is a Call
24. Let There Be Rock
25. Everlong

Scott has spent 35 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott keeps Louder’s buyer’s guides up to date, writes about the best deals for music fans, keeps on top of the latest tech releases and reviews headphones, speakers, earplugs and more. Over the last 10 years, Scott has written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog. He's previously written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald newspapers, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to tech reviews, video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.