Stars unite to honour the late Foo Fighters drummer – Sam Ryder brings down the house with Queen
Press reports coming in from last night’s Wembley Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert:
BBC NEWS
Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert: Foo Fighters give drummer a loving send-off
Queen – Hawkins’ favourite band – also ran through a compact set of their biggest hits, including We Will Rock You and Somebody To Love, the latter ably assisted by a jump-suited Sam Ryder.
Queen were the first group Hawkins ever saw live, at the age of 10; and he would regularly step out from behind his kit to serenade Foo Fighters’ fans with one of their songs.
Somebody To Love was the last track he ever performed live, during a show in Argentina earlier this year
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DAILY MAIL
Eurovision star Sam Ryder joins Queen onstage at Taylor Hawkins memorial concert after Dave Grohl revealed he agreed to perform ‘within 20 minutes of being asked’.
Sam Ryder’s dramatic rise to stardom was never more apparent on Saturday evening as he took to the stage with rock legends Queen at the late Taylor Hawkins’ Wembley Stadium memorial concert.
The singer, a former Essex sandwich shop owner, performed Queen classic Somebody To Love with the band’s founding members Brian May and Roger Taylor in front of 90,000 fans at the cavernous venue.
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DAILY TELEGRAPH
Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert, Wembley: an epic, tearful send-off for rock’s favourite drummer
5/5 Review The big question, of course, is what happens now. Do these shows represent a full stop or a comma in the Foo Fighters’ story? Do they call it a day or carry on with a new drummer? If it’s the latter, then Rufus Taylor, son of Queen’s Roger and a big part of the evening, must surely be the frontrunner. But that is perhaps a question for another time.
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THE GUARDIAN
Taylor Hawkins tribute concert review – stars unite to honour the late Foo Fighters drummer
The audience are on safer ground with the surviving members of Queen, the first band Hawkins saw live. There’s no sign of current vocalist Adam Lambert: instead Eurovision star Sam Ryder– by Grohl’s account a late addition to the bill – delivers such a masterly version of Somebody to Love that you rather imagine Lambert watching at home, frantically scanning the terms of his contract.
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METRO
Sam Ryder brings down the house with Queen as surprise guest at Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert
Eurovision star Sam Ryder took to the stage with Taylor Hawkins’ favourite band Queen to provide surprise lead vocals for Somebody To Love at the tribute concert for the late drummer.
Providing perfect vocals for Somebody To Love, Ryder had the crowd singing along as he soared to those high notes of Freddie Mercury’s with ease.
Ahead of leading the crowd in some of the band’s biggest hits, Taylor and co were introduced by Hawkins himself in archive footage.
Queen finished off their set with May singing in tribute to both Mercury and Hawkins. Read in full
YAHOO.COM
3:30 p.m. – We’re at the four hour mark of the concert, and there’s no signs of the music slowing down.
Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor, along with Foo Fighters, The Darkness’ Rufus Taylor and The Struts’ Luke Spiller, unite to perform “We Will Rock You” and “I’m in Love With My Car.” Later, The Darkness’ Justin Hawkins sings lead on “Under Pressure” and Sam Ryder gets the chance to front “Somebody to Love.”
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ESC BUBBLE
Sam Ryder Performs at Taylor Hawkins Tribute Show
“We have a very special guest tonight who you may not expect – we didn’t! When we were talking about this next song [“Somebody To Love”] to perform we weren’t entirely sure who should come up to sing it with us, and I think it might have been Roger [Taylor] that had this idea. […]
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NME
Brian May and Roger Taylor join Foo Fighters for Queen set at Taylor Hawkins tribute concert
The supergroup performed five songs in honour of the late Foos drummer
Both active founding members of Queen– lead guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor – joined theFoo Fighters to perform a five-song set of their own hits at the first Taylor Hawkins tribute concert.
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SKY NEWS
Foo Fighters say emotional goodbye to drummer Taylor Hawkins with star-studded tribute gig
As dusk fell, Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor – one of Hawkins’ musical heroes – came on to perform hits including We Will Rock You, Under Pressure and Love Of My Life, another emotional number as May remembered Freddie Mercury – and told the crowd he would have been happy to share the song in the drummer’s memory.
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ULTIMATE CLASSIC ROCK
Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor perform at Taylor Hawkins Tribute
The second to last scheduled performance of the Wembley Stadium extravaganza opened with film footage of Hawkins’ well-known love for Queen and drummer Taylor in particular. It led directly into the actual performance, with an on-screen Taylor counting the band into “We Will Rock You,” sung by Struts frontman Luke Spiller.
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VARIETY
Foo Fighters Play Emotional Tribute Concert for Taylor Hawkins With Paul McCartney, Travis Barker, Members of Queen
Brian May and Roger Taylor also clearly tapped into their own feelings of loss over Freddie Mercury, who had his own tribute concert in this stadium just over 30 years ago. Luke Spiller from the Struts and Justin Hawkins both had a go at channelling their inner Freddie, but Eurovision star Sam Ryder was the surprise package…
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