The Foo Fighters

By Luca Abraham!

Beginning!Dave Grohl was the drummer in the 1990’s rock band

‘Nirvana’ but after Kurt Cobain was found dead in 1994 Nirvana disbanded and Grohl decided to start writing his own music and create his own band instead of becoming a drummer in another band. He called his new band ‘Foo Fighters’ which is a term from World War 2 meaning unidentified flying object. He signed drummer William Goldsmith and bass guitarist Nate Mendel from the band ‘Sunny Day Real Estate’ and also signed Pat Smear who was a guitarist is some of the tours for Nirvana. The band played their first live show on February 23rd 1995 in Arcata, California. They released their first single ‘This is a call’ in June 1995 and their first album was released the next month called ‘Foo Fighters’.

The Colour and Shape!In 1996 after a summer tour the band started

recording their second album ‘The colour and shape’. The Lead singer Dave Grohl wasn’t pleased with the drumming on some of the tracks and decided to re-record some of the tracks using his drumming instead of William Goldsmith’s. Goldsmith was angry about this so subsequently left the band, Grohl quickly found a replacement in Taylor Hawkins. After the album was released in May 1997 featuring tracks such as ‘Everlong’ and ‘My Hero’. Guitarist Pat Smear told Grohl he wanted to leave the band because of exhaustion and four months later was replaced by former ‘Scream’ band mate Franz Stahl.

There is Nothing left to lose!In 1998 the band travelled to Grohls home state

of Virginia to record their third album, ‘There is Nothing left to lose’. Grohl and Stahl had some disagreements about the song writing and subsequently Grohl reluctantly fired Stahl from the band. The band became a trio with Grohl, Hawkins and Mendel, Mendel did decide to leave the group but then reversed his decision the next day. They held auditions for a guitarist and landed on Chris Shiflett who became a full member just before the recording of their fourth album. Grohl and Hawkins performed Queen’s classic ‘Tie your mother down’ with the band after they inducted them into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

2001 - OnwardsSince 2001 they have released 4 albums, ‘One

by One’, ‘In your honour’, ‘Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace’ and ‘Wasting Light’. In 2002 Grohl toured with ‘Queens of the Stone Age’ and helped record their album ‘Songs of Deaf’ which angered the rest of the band but the band stayed together. In 2007 Pat Smear announced he had rejoined the band at the European MTV Awards but didn’t become a full member until 2010. In 2009 they released a Greatest Hits album which featured two new songs, ‘Wheels’ and ‘Word Forward’. In 2012 Grohl they would be starting on an eighth album after their tour.

Musical Style!As Dave Grohl is a former member of the

rock band ‘Nirvana’ he took some of the band’s music style and used it in the song writing in the ‘Foo Fighters’. He said he took inspiration from Kurt Cobain in the way he wrote his songs and used the band’s style of having quiet versus’ and a loud chorus.

They have been a very successful band using this music style winning 11 Grammys and 4 ‘Best Rock Albums’.