Taylor Hawkins was sunshine incarnate. The late Foo Fighters drummer – also a songwriter, singer and multi-instrumentalist – had an unrivalled sense of positivity and joie de vivre. His megawatt smile could power a stadium show all of its own.
The first of two tribute concerts to Hawkins, who died aged 50 in March this year, does its utmost to summon that same energy. Gathered here at Wembley Stadium are some of Hawkins’s closest friends – the surviving Foos members, of course – family, collaborators and admirers, for a six-hour marathon of a show. Understandably, the mood that fills the 80,000-capacity venue is a strange one. Hawkins’s favourite songs are played ahead of the late-afternoon start time – Abba, ELO, George Michael – but no one feels like dancing just yet.
