Foo Fighters

No one can accuse lead singer of the Foo Fighters Dave Grohl as lacking in experience.  Before his contribution to the most influential grunge band of all time, Nirvana in the early 90’s, Grohl was the drummer of the Washington D.C band Scream.  It is here that Grohl began his independent song writing which eventually found an outlet in 1995 with the formation of The Foo Fighters.  You couldn’t be blamed for thinking that the early stages of the bands music development, a mixture of pop, punk and rock, was very Grohl centred, as the first album that was released with the line up standing as Grohl (vocals), William Goldsmith (drums), Pat Smear (guitar) and Nate Mendel (bass), was written and recorded exclusively by Grohl.  100 copies were made and Grohl distributed them between his friends and work mates, then signed to Capitol Records.  However Grohl decided against a solo career and formed the band.

After their first album three more have followed “The Colour And The Shape” in 1997, “There Is Nothing Left To Lose” in 99 and their latest “One By One” in 2002.  The Foo Fighers have also had credits on a number of soundtracks, the most recent being The Orange County.
 
Named after the World War 11 term foo fighter, which was the monitoring of UFO’s or mysterious aerial phenomenon, the band has shifted around some what to arrive at their current line up which the band says will stay until they break up.  Drummer William Goldsmith left in 97 after musical differences, this was rumoured to have been centred around Grohl’s reluctance to give up the drummer’s stool in the recording of “The Colour And The Shape,“ he was replaced by Taylor Hawkins.  Pat Smear left after the tour of the same album and was replaced briefly by Franz Stahl, however he didn’t stay long leaving in July 1999.  The album “There Is Nothing Left To Loose” was recorded as a three piece, but the band soon returned to four when Chris Shiflett joined later in 99.

There are rumours The Foo Fighters are planning a new double album that will be half acoustic, half rock.  No release dates have been given.