Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong loves attending random football matches in London

27 January 2024, 08:00

Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong with Leyton Orient F.C. inset — Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong has watch the likes of Leyton Orient F.C. inset. Picture: Press Association/Alamy

By Jenny Mensah

The Green Day frontman has revealed he's been to watch everyone from Leyton Orient to Arsenal.

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Billie Joe Armstrong has shared his love of London and of attending football matches.

Green Day - who are completed by Mike Dirnt and Tres Cool - are planning to bring their Saviors tour to this side of the pond with dates in the UK & Ireland, which will see them play their Dookie and American Idiot albums in full.

Asked if he's looking forward to getting back to the UK, the frotnman told The Chris Moyles Show: "Yeah, I've been spending a lot of time there this past year and a half. I've really grown to love London and hanging out in Islington..."

"I've been going to a lot of soccer games also," the Dilemma singer revealed. "I saw Millwall, I saw Arsenal, I saw Leyton [Orient]. I love seeing the fans lose their s***".

He added: "But yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to coming out and playing. We always have great gigs (in the UK). I mean... We've been having great gigs since 1991 there."

Last year saw Green Day play a surprise gig at The Marquis in Covent Garden, much to the delight of their London fans who were able to get down to the pub to watch the rockers play the tiny venue.

Green Day perform in London pub

As it turns out, the pub wasn't picked by random, as Billie Joe became acquainted The Marquis through social media.

"They've always got good music coming out of [there]," the rocker added. "Like, people playing acoustic and good DJs.

"I've been kind of following them for a while on Instagram for about a year or something and I'd seen this one cool band called The Molotovs that play there... a bunch of young kids and they sound great."

Green Day on their surprise London pub gig

Meanwhile, Green Day's 14th studio album, Saviors, has now scored a UK number one.

Reacting to the news, the frontman said: "Thank you so much for our fifth Official Number 1 record in the UK. We’re so excited about our future, about our album Saviors and just want to thank all the fans everywhere; the most important people to us!

"Fans, friends, family, whatever you want to call it. It’s been an amazing run for us so far, for decades, and we love you all. We’re really, truly grateful for this."

The achievement now sees the band with five UK number ones overall, following their chart-topping albums American Idiot (2004), 21st Century Breakdown (2009), Revolution Radio (2016) and Father of All… (2020).

Listen to Saviors in full below: