Last night (the 27th of February), 600 fans were treated to one heck of a show indeed.

The Coverups, who are a cover band, are comprised of Green Day lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong and touring guitarist Jason White, plus Bill Schneider and Chris Dugan on bass and drums, respectively – played a hit-packed 24-song set in north London, having only announced the show just last week.

As if that wasn’t enough of a treat, they were joined on stage midway through the show by Courtney Love — who said she’d been “living in a cave in Birmingham for about nine years”.

Lead singer of ‘Hole’ and a legend in her own right, Love joined the Coverups on stage and lent her signature vocals to covers of Cheap Trick’s He’s A Whore and Tom Petty’s Even The Losers, before she came back out again for another Cheap Trick cover, Surrender.

In an eventful night, The Coverups took on a number of hits from The Ramones to Nirvana and threw in a bonus performance of Love Is For Losers by another of Billie Joe’s projects, The Longshot.

Courtney Love made a surprise appearance at The Garage in London last night with Billie Joe Armstrong’s side-project The Coverups, performing songs by Cheap Trick and Tom Petty. https://t.co/1YqfbcBCz4 pic.twitter.com/fEi1svdooq

— Kerrang! (@KerrangMagazine) February 28, 2024

The Coverups will be playing again at the 100 club on Friday night, and who knows, fans might just be in for another treat.

The setlist in full:

1. A Million Miles Away (The Plimsouls)
   2. I Wanna Be Sedated (Ramones)
   3. Ready Steady Go (Generation X)
   4. I Think We’re Alone Now (Tommy James & the Shondells)
   5. Message of Love (Pretenders)
   6. Summer of ’69 (Bryan Adams)
   7. Walking Out On Love (Paul Collins Beat)
   8. I Fought The Law (The Crickets)
   9. Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve) (Buzzcocks)
   10. I’m So Bored With the U.S.A. (The Clash)
   11. Ziggy Stardust (David Bowie)
   12. Dancing With Myself (Generation X)
   13. He’s A Whore (Cheap Trick) – with Courtney Love
   14. Even The Losers (Tom Petty) – with Courtney Love
   15. Neat Neat Neat (The Damned)
   16. Drain You (Nirvana)
   17. Last Nite (The Strokes)
   18. American Girl (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers)
   19. Love Is For Losers (The Longshot)
   20. Fox On The Run (Sweet)
   21. Rockaway Beach (Ramones)
   22. Should I Stay Or Should I Go (The Clash)
   23. Surrender (Cheap Trick) – with Courtney Love

Encore:

24. Where Eagles Dare (Misfits)

Green Day themselves will be back in the UK this summer as part of the ‘Saviors’ tour, where they will be playing ‘American Idiot’ and ‘Dookie’ in full.

Tickets can be found here.

The teaser for the UK and Europe tour came via the group’s webstore, with a banner telling fans to, “Pre-order ‘Saviors’ here for presale access to UK and European 2024 tour dates“. There is currently no further information on when tickets will be available or when exactly the dates will be, only the need to pre-order their new album for first dibs on tickets.

New album ‘Saviors’ out January 19th, 2024

Pre-order: https://t.co/cFN02gBSNZ
Limited exclusive vinyl: https://t.co/qTWVEJQhKB

The first single “The American Dream Is Killing Me” is out now

Watch the epic video: https://t.co/sXEUgrXw7X
Stream the song:… pic.twitter.com/SnnzfD1bCT

— Green Day (@GreenDay) October 24, 2023

The album in question is the band’s forthcoming 14th studio LP, Saviors. Co-produced by Rob Cavallo, who worked with the band on classic Green Day LPs like Dookie and American Idiot, Saviors is the band’s latest release since 2020’s Father Of All Motherfuckers. A single taken from the new album, “The American Dream Is Killing Me“, was also released on Wednesday and offers a glimpse into the band’s latest venture.

Watch the music video for “The American Dream Is Killing Me” below:

The upcoming tour of the UK and Europe will see Green Day visit the UK for the first time since their Hella Mega tour, a tour they shared with fellow American bands Weezer and Fall Out Boy, with Australian punk outfit Amyl & The Sniffers tagging along too. The Hella Mega UK and European tour failed to yield a show that was not sold out so if seeing Green Day next year is a priority, be quick or risk missing out.

Formed in California in 1987, Green Day, a punk trio consisting of Billie Joe Armstrong on vocals and guitar, Mike Dirnt on bass and Tré Cool on drums, shot to fame following the release of their third album Dookie (1994), and have since become one of the world’s leading and best known pop-punk bands. American Idiot (2004) and 21st Century Breakdown (2009) cemented their status as punk elites, cultivating a fan base like no other.

Watch the music video for “Basket Case“, a classic Green Day number from their debut album Dookie, below:

Pre-order Saviors here now.

Roe v. Wade provided women the legal right to terminate a pregnancy in the US and has been in effect for just short of 50 years. On Friday, US justices for the Supreme Court overturned the case, meaning that over half of the states in America will now be able to ban abortion. This will in effect force millions of women into the horrifically compromising decision of having to break the law should they wish to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, and is being seen by many as a shockingly archaic step backwards for a country that considers itself the leader of the free world.

Billie Joe Armstrong responded onstage by saying “Fuck America, I’m fucking renouncing my citizenship. I’m fucking coming here” as quoted by Rolling Stone. He then went on to say “There’s just too much fucking stupid in the world to go back to that miserable fucking excuse for a country. Oh I’m not kidding. You’re going to get a lot of me in the coming days“. Check out the moment below:

#GreenDay #RoeVWade #hellamegatour
billie joe’s statement on roe vs wade at london hella mega tour last night pic.twitter.com/6cJx4oa6I1

— friendly neighborhood clikkie (@armstr0ngtyler) June 25, 2022

In recent days many musicians have taken to the stage protesting the move. With Glastonbury in particular being an obvious hotbed for revolt. In what is already going down as an iconic moment, Olivia Rodrigo invited Lily Allen on stage for a passionately euphoric rendition of Allen’s hit 2009 song “Fuck You”, addressed of course to the 5 justices of the supreme court that overturned Roe v. Wade. With tens of thousands screaming the sentiment back at the tops of their voices, there was overwhelming support in the crowd for what made for a particularly impactful and moving moment at the festival. Others voicing their condemnation of the supreme court included; Phoebe Bridgers, Meghan The Stallion, Kendrick Lamar, Billie Eilish, and IDLES to name a few.

You can catch Green Day at their remaining UK shows at Marlay Park in Dublin on June 27 and Bellahouston Park in Glasgow on June 29, and you can get your tickets here.