Green Day has given punters one hell of a surprise at the Reading Festival by doing an unscheduled performance in one of the festival’s tents over the weekend.
BBC Online reports that punters scrambled inside the BBC1/NME tent at the festival to watch the American punksters play at the festival for the first time since they headlined it back in 2004.
The band had hinted on Radio 1 earlier this week that they might be performing, but they didn’t confirm their appearance. Their set included two new tracks from forthcoming triple album ¡Uno! ¡Dos! ¡Tre!, including Oh Love and Stay the Night, along with past hits such as American Idiot and Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
The night before, The Cure blitzed fans with a two-and-a-half-hour set at Reading – filled with 31 songs across their three-decade-long career.
And over at Leeds, a downpour couldn’t halt fans from rockin’ their tits off to Foo Fighters, who also played for two-and-a-half hours and smashed out 22 songs in that time.
BBC Online reports that Taylor Hawkins gave up his drum stool for Rufus Taylor, son of Queen’s Roger Taylor, while Hawkins took on vocal duties for a cover of Queen’s Tie Your Mama Down.
Much like V-Festival last weekend, Leeds and Reading have lineups that switch between the two sites on different days. More than 87,000 fans were expected to converge at Reading’s Richfield Avenue site, while 75,000 punters were set to take in the action each day in Leeds.
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Green Day – Basket Case at Reading
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7bvWLGhnlk
The Cure – Friday I’m In Love at Reading
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uf32bE4LBY
Foo Fighters – Monkey Wrench at Leeds
The Shins – Simple Song at Reading Festival 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68Guc8nELnw