Today 4 July, 25 years ago Foo Fighters self-titled album was released.
I still remember going to get it in HMV like it was yesterday. I was really excited to hear what Dave Grohl was planning to unleash nearly 16 months since the death of Kurt Cobain and the end of Nirvana. I knew they were not going to continue so it was a naturally progression for me to go from Nirvana to Foo Fighters.
I was fortunate enough to have seen Dave play drums when he was in Nirvana and it was going to be interesting to see how he would do playing guitar. In fact he had been writing music during the tours. The debut album was played by Dave Grohl on all vocals and instruments apart from X-Static which featured Greg Dulli from Afghan Whigs on guitar.
The demo tape was circulated and hoping to keep some anonymity he choose the title “Foo Fighters” for the band name. It created a lot of interest from record labels. He then decided to form a band to support the album. Naturally he would have looked at former Nirvana bandmate Krist Novoselic but both of them would decide against it. Krist would eventually turn up on a Foo Fighters record later, Wasting Light.
So the band initially featured Dave Grohl on guitar/vocals, Nate Mandel (Sunny Day Real Estate) on bass, drummer William Goldsmith with Pat Smear as second guitarist.
They made their first appearance at Reading Festival that summer playing in the smaller Radio 1 tent and it created a huge buzz as everybody there wanted to cram into a tiny tent to see the band make their UK debut.
The album produced four singles, This Is A Call, I’ll Stick Around, For All The Cows and Big Me, which I also bought.
With the success of the album and the European tour that autumn/winter I finally got a chance to see Foo Fighters making their Irish debut at the SFX Centre in Dublin that November which was also the closing night of the European tour. It was a brilliant experience and I loved every minutes of it. So good that at the end I bought a t-shirt from the show and 25 years later I still fits and I wear it at every Foo Fighters gig I go to.
In celebration of the release of this album and I am going to do my own Foo Fighters Gigography as well as my favourite albums below:
I have seen the band in total 11 times. Below are some of my ticket stubs.
November 1995 SFX Centre, Dublin
August 2000 Reading Festival
December 2000 Olympia Theatre, Dublin
July 2002 Witnness Festival, Co. Kildare
August 2002 Reading Festival
December 2002 Point Theatre, Dublin
July 2005 Oxegen Festival, Co. Kildare
December 2005 Point Theatre, Dublin
August 2012 Vital Festival, Boucher Road Playing Fields, Belfast
May 2015 Slane Castle, Co. Meath
August 2019 Vital Festival, Boucher Road Playing Fields, Belfast
The gigs I missed:
Trip to Tip, Thurles, Co. Tipperary August 1997
Ambassador Theatre, Dublin July 2002 (Witnness warm up show)
Slane May 2003
Marlay Park, Dublin August 2007
Foo Fighters Discography in order of favourite albums (not by release year)
The Colour and the Shape (1997)
Foo Fighters (1995)
There Is Nothing Left to Lose (1999)
Wasting Light (2011)
One by One (2002)
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (2007)
In Your Honor (2005)
Sonic Highways (2014)
Concrete and Gold (2017)
The band were due to do a van tour this year to celebrated 25 years on the road. Sadly with the pandemic all gigs have been cancelled so here’s hoping it won’t be too long before they are back on the road again.
Paul’s Gigography 