By Gareth Dobson
Wembley is a even a vast place for one of the world’s foremost hairy rockers to ply his trade. Especially when you suspect that he and his band initially thought that sticky theater floors were the limits of what they would achieve. This definitely holds true when you think back to the first Foo Fighters album – a collection of demos built for personal aural consumption above all else; initially a side project, an outlet beyond the day job for hitting things behind the most famous rock singer of his time. But Wembley is where rock dreams come true, even if those dreams were never really considered in the first place.
This is the second morass of 80,000 people that Dave Grohl will play to over a 28 hour period. The first lot went away drenched in their own beer and sweat, suitably happy. The next shipment will go away even happier after they see the Ohio native slip behind his drum kit again to play songs with Jimmy Page and JPJ of Led Zeppelin. That part was never even dreamed about.
Alongside him as his band thrash their way through what amounts to 20 bona fide hit singles is Pat Smear, former touring guitarist and a man who links him intrinsically with his past; a warm and constant reminder of how it began, how it all ended and how it began again. You suspect that he’s there to never let Dave Grohl forget that after dreams end, there are more, undreamt realities to come alive.
Of course, it helps to stay busy. And in the intervening 14 years since he last played drums with the band that made him the world’s most reluctant rock star drummer, he’s guested on more projects than is decent to keep track of. Live the dream? Most people don’t dream of things like this, but then again, that’s the strange and frightening world of Dave Grohl; leader of the biggest rock band in the world.
1. Nirvana Nevermind 1991
It wasn’t his first album (there were a pair with former hardcore band Scream) and he wasn’t even Nirvana’s first drummer (that accolade goes to Chad Channing), but the combination of Grohl, Novoselic and Cobain was the one that clicked as a performing band, and as an artistic unit. Nevermind is forever doomed to have its impact diluted by eternal inclusion in greatest ever album lists. Take a step back however and you can still hear mighty record that howls with despair, shudders with ennui and speaks with a melodic heart. All of this is underlined by the power, ballast and, where required, bombast offered by Grohl’s drumming. Primal, focused rage.
2. Nirvana In Utero 1994
It would be hard to see Grohl being involved with a better album. With the sheen worn down and the songs in free fall into Cobain’s heart of darkness, the listener is barely able to listen in. Deliberately raw, it splays itself musically and thematically in cold light across the operating table, guts spilling out for all to see. Of course, the unrefined nature of it all suited Grohl to a tee: all the better to hit things harder with.
3. Nirvana Unplugged 1994
The story goes that rehearsals for this show were atrocious and even up to the day, it looked like it would be a disaster with Grohl continually being told by Cobain to play quieter. Then, as legend has it, a pair of Pro-Mark Hot Rod drumsticks, made from bundled pieces of wood were handed to Dave and saved the day, creating the pattering percussion that became the hallmark of the set. What ensued was an hour-long set high on emotion and, eventually, a landmark posthumous note on the band’s career.
4. Foo Fighters Foo Fighters 1995
Essentially a set of demos recorded by Grohl post-Nirvana in 1994, the eponymously-titled album was recorded fully by Dave himself, barring a single guitar solo laid down by Afghan Whigs man Greg Dulli. Released a year later in July 1995 with nothing more than a professional mix to buff things up, it’s a raw but coherent record full of prim melodies and unreconstructed rage. Essentially and aptly it sounds like a hybrid of Nirvana and what the Foos would shape up to be. Tracks like ’Big Me’ and ’This Is A Call’ still feature in sets today and quickly found a grateful post-grunge audience. The bands first UK show, in one of the smaller tents at the Reading Festival in 1995 is one of legend, with seemingly half the festival attempting to cram themselves into the small space in order to catch a glimpse of a new rock icon in the making.
5. Foo Fighters The Colour And The Shape 1997
The best Foos album made, and unlikely to be bettered. Although largely recorded as a band effort, it’s clearly Dave’s album, based around the ensuing break-up of his marriage with photographer Jennifer Youngblood. Seething with accusation and rage, the ragged themes and lyrics were precision-melded by Pixies producer Gil Norton to massive rock chords and once again, Grohl’s thumping drums. Set amongst the likes of ’Monkey Wrench’ and ’Hey Johnny Park!’ though were prettified laments such as the eerie ’Walking After You’ and ’Everlong’, perhaps the bands finest moment. Arguably one of rocks greatest break-up records, and a road sign to impending hugeness.
6. Foo Fighters There is Nothing Left To Lose 1999
The record that propelled the Foo Fighters to their current position as the worlds AOR hard rock band of choice; recorded in ’Grohl’s’ basement, with drummer Taylor Hawkins on board for the first time, the likes of ’Breakout’, ’Generator’ and particularly, ’Learn to Fly’ sat as comfortably on the modern rock radio formats of America as they did being thrust from the speakers of the bigger venues of the world. It was also the point where Grohl became known as the front man of the Foo Fighters, rather than the ex-drummer in Nirvana. No small achievement.
7. Probot Probot 2004
This is seen by some as the vanity project of a man with a bigger black book of rock contacts than anyone else and regarded by others as as back-to-his roots reaffirmation of Grohl’s desire to rock. Probot’s 12 tracks (including the hidden Jack Black track at the end) each feature a different lead singer including Lemmy, Max Cavalera and King Diamond. Probably most noted for the video for the lead track ’Shake Your Blood’, sung by Lemmy and featured 66 models from the Suicide Girls website. The sound and vision of Grohl kicking back and having fun away from the day job.
8. Queens of the Stone Age Songs for the Deaf 2002
This album is up there with ’In Utero’ and ’The Colour And The Shape’ as one of the best rock albums that Grohl has been involved with. Josh Homme’s merry band of gnarled rock fuck-ups this time included Grohl on drums and he enjoyed it so much, the Foos were placed on hiatus so that he could subsequently tour the album with them for a number of months. For those who never saw Nirvana, being able to watch Grohl drum in the then pre-eminent rock darlings of the day would be the closest thing.
9. Cat Power You Are Free 2003
Chan Marshall’s sixth album featured two grunge luminaries in Grohl on drum duty and Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam contributing backing vocals. To be blunt this is about as far away from what you could expect from Dave featuring, as it does ethereal pianos and violins. But perhaps it was this experience that inspired his further excursions into the realms of the semi-acoustic In Your Honour and Skin And Bones.
10. Killing Joke Killing Joke 2003
Killing Joke’s first studio album in seven years featured long-time fan Grohl on drums again, and it stands up as some of the best stick work he’s ever done. The joke being that it was payback for Nirvana stealing the riff for ’Come As You Are’ from KJ’s ’Eighties’. The fact that the Foo Fighters covered ‘Requiem’ by said band for an age at live shows indicates it was much more of a labour of love. Grohl’s contributions are utterly fierce, pushing Killing Joke to create what was arguably their most furious work so far.
Live shot by Shot 2 Bits.
