Dave Grohl creates the greatest show on earth

I am just back from the Taylor Hawkins Tribute gig at Wembley Stadium.  I have now done peak gig.  Nothing will surpass it.  This was the twenty-first century version of Live Aid, but turned up to 11, rock 'n roll style. Dave Grohl, the founder and frontman for Foo Fighters, is an extraordinary human being, musician, communicator, and genuine rock-music legend. For some 6 hours yesterday, he curated, played and hosted the most extraordinary tribute gig for his bandmate Taylor Hawkins, who died earlier this year while on tour in Argentina. The performers were numerous (over 40 musicians name-checked), many legendary in status, and amazingly well-rehearsed. The show made sense, built momentum as the evening grew, and was coherent and at times moving, delivering so much more than seemed possible from what initially appeared a random potpourri of the musical heroes who had inspired Hawkins.  It was also the surprise formats and combinations that provided the magic. Liam Gallagher, who opened, is not everyone’s cup of tea, but with The Foo Fighters as his backing band, he was literally a rock n roll star revitalised, trying hard to be all sour puss and snarly, he nearly smiled amidst the ovation, throwing his maracas away into the crowd. American indie-rocker Josh Holme (new to me and amazing) boldly sang both Bowie and Elton John classics in their own back-yard. Stuart Copeland played The Police with the Foos, Brian Johnson of ACDC then fronted the band to play Back in Black, and relative newcomer Sam Ryder fronted Queen like it was the role we had been prepared for all his life.

This gig was nirvana (forgive me) for a fan of great rock drummers. Stuart Copeland, Lars Ulrich, Roger Taylor, (his son) Rufus Taylor, Travis Baker, and (12 year-old prodigy) Nandi Bushell, all swapping places on the drum riser. Hawkin’s own 16 year-old son Shane, smashed his way through My Hero, which set the waterworks off amongst many of the 75,000 punters packing the stadium.  Omar Hakim [who famously played for Bowie on Let’s Dance in 1983, and Kate Bush’s live band in 2014] played with both Nile Rogers and Paul McCartney, and then most astonishingly of all, followed Dave Grohl (who had thundered his way through two early career classics) to form a triumvirate with Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee of Rush.

Yes, Rush. It is nearly three years since Rush’s Neil Peart died (and Lee mentioned the loss of his own “brother’), but over seven years since Lifeson and Lee had played together in a three-piece. The sound, musicianship and virtuoso skills are still there for Lifeson and Lee, and with such an extraordinary performance, then surely they must ponder if there is a way they can record and play live again?  The whole sense of the show was about a celebration of Hawkins, and musicians from across generations (aged 12 to 80) covering different bases, collaborating, jamming, noodling, and rocking hard, in time, together. And making that happen, always at the back (be it Grohl, Hakim, Copeland, Ulrich, etc.) someone seated, literally watching everyone’s back, staring out at the crowd and using their feet and hands with precision, deploying a physical conviction and commitment that a world-class boxer or athlete would be humbled by.

There are many clips I could share, and the Rush segment with Grohl and Hakim will live long in the memory, but for the sheer wonder and life-affirming joy of being a drummer in a rock n roll band, please see below this clip of Nandi Bushell. She is so small, she had to clamber on to the rises, but then bosses it like the best. Drummers, huh?