A SECRET one-off gig from one of the biggest rock bands in the world delighted Brighton fans earlier this month.

The Foo Fighters sent out a cryptic tweet featuring a stick of Brighton Rock and lyrics from the 1974 Queen hit Brighton Rock which steered followers as to where their next performance would be.

Tickets for the September 10 gig at Concorde 2 sold out in minutes.

The surprise show involved the crowd singing along with former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl in the Madeira Drive venue.

There were a number of theories why the band picked Brighton during a handful of clandestine gigs ahead of being the headline set at the closing ceremony of the first Invictus Games in London.

But Grohl and his bandmates were clear – they loved Brighton and said it was one of the most chilled-out places they had ever played.

The concert added to a long list of memorable gigs which have gone down in history as some of the most legendary to hit Brighton throughout the ages.

The city has a long association with music and the arts. In the early 1900s, the Palace Pier opened a concert hall. The introduction of more entertainment continued, including a bandstand as a stage for free concerts in the summer, which can still be found today in the Palm Court Fish and Chip Restaurant.

Summer shows with stars such as Dick Emery, Tommy Trinder and Doris and Elsie Waters were held in the theatre until the 1970s.

The Winter Gardens, which is now The Palace of Fun, saw regular appearances of bands including the Band of the Grenadier Guards.

Most famously, Brighton is home to a music venue where one of the most famous rock bands of all time first debuted one of the world’s bestselling albums.

In January 1972, photographer Jill Furmanovsky was working as a student photographer for London’s Rainbow Theatre.

In that year, Pink Floyd first performed Dark Side Of The Moon at the Brighton Dome in a series of gigs and Ms Furmanovsky managed to get backstage to capture them relaxing, before later touring with the band.

Years later, the Brighton Dome applied to the Heritage Lottery Fund to help it tell the story of the venue's musical past, of which the Pink Floyd gigs are among the most famous example.

Meanwhile, it has been 51 years since extra police were drafted in as the Beatles played at Brighton Hippodrome in June 1963.

Gig-goers said it was one of the most memorable shows the Fab Four played because the band played some of its greatest hits. However, most were drowned out by screaming fans.

The band returned to Brighton to perform twice more in 1964.

Nearly 40 years later, Brighton saw unprecedented crowds of music fans gather on the beach for a free concert.

A man died of a heart attack and a woman left critically ill in hospital after a quarter of a million people crammed on to the seafront for the Fatboy Slim concert in July 2002.

Emergency services were forced to use lifeboats to rescue casualties and the city was in chaos when transport services failed to accommodate the number of people, leaving thousands trapped in the city overnight.

Norman Cook spent £100,000 of his own money supporting the event after a major sponsor pulled out.