Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins has told how he is feeling the pressure as the band prepare to headline Glastonbury Festival tonight.

The American rockers will take over the main Pyramid Stage, two years after frontman Dave Grohl fell off a stage and injured his leg, forcing the group to cancel their festival appearance.

Promising the “best performance possible,” Hawkins told the Press Association: “I am so self-deprecating as a performer so I always try to do the best performance I have ever done… so that has even added to that.

“It has been built up, so it had better be good.”

The 2006 Silver Clef Lunch, Park Lane Hilton – London
Taylor (right) with bandmates Nate Mendel and Dave Grohl (Ian West/PA)

While he praised his fellow Best Of You stars’ traditional performance style, the 45-year-old said the band would have to stand up against modern artists using advanced music technology and effects.

“We don’t have any backing tracks, we don’t have any dancers,” he said, “and nowadays that is somewhat unique.”

He added: “I would say 90% of the bands, if you can call them bands, out there are all connected to some kind of iMac interspace system… but with us what you hear up there is really just what we have managed to put together at that moment.

“In a way we are up against that, so the best thing we can do is just throw a party – one big giant keg party and have fun.”

Thom Yorke of Radiohead performing on the Pyramid Stage (Yui Mok/PA Wire).

Saturday night’s appearance also comes days after the announcement of the release of Foo Fighters’ latest album, Concrete And Gold, a work which Hawkins jokingly described as “our most psychedelic, most Radiohead” record.

The band will follow Friday night headliners Radiohead – some of Hawkins’ oldest industry friends.

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke told Prime Minister Theresa May to “shut the door on the way out” as they closed the first day of music at the festival.

Radiohead performing on the Pyramid Stage, at the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset.
Radiohead performing on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival (Yui Mok/PA).

The singer repeatedly recited Mrs May’s “strong and stable” election slogan during the band’s headline set on the Pyramid Stage.

He chanted the phrase during a rendition of Myxomatosis and later muttered: “See you later, Theresa, shut the door on the way out.”

At one point the crowd broke into chanting “Oh, Jeremy Corbyn” to the tune of the White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army.

Radiohead’s appearance marked 20 years since the band’s heavily criticised 1997 show at the Somerset festival and the release of hit album OK Computer.

Their return prompted mixed political reactions from the crowd as some festival-goers held up banners in protest against the group’s decision to perform in Tel Aviv.

But the British rockers proved a hit with the audience, and they delighted fans with nostalgic renditions of hit tracks No Surprises, Creep and Karma Police.

The band also treated fans to renditions of Street Spirit and Exit Music (For A Film).

Earlier in the day, Hollywood star Johnny Depp apologised for joking about assassinating US President Donald Trump.

Johnny Depp at a Cineramageddon screening of The Libertine during the Glastonbury music festival (Ben Birchall/PA).

The Hollywood actor courted controversy on Thursday night at Cineramageddon – a drive-in cinema on the Somerset site – when he said: “When was the last time an actor assassinated a president? I want to qualify, I am not an actor. I lie for a living. However, it has been a while and maybe it is time.”

Saturday’s headline show will follow sets from Katy Perry and Craig David, with Alt-J and Stormzy taking over the Other Stage.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will also step onto the Pyramid stage to introduce US rap duo Run The Jewels.