In the new edition of Music Week, we welcome Foo Fighters to the cover for a very special look at their new album campaign. For this week’s Big Interview, Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, super-producer Greg Kurstin and top Sony execs tell us how their new album, Concrete And Gold - released September 15 via Columbia - stands to make rock’s biggest band even bigger. In the interview, both Grohl and Kurstin open up about how they worked together to push Foo Fighters’ sound forward.
Yet the studio is just one area in which the Foo Fighters excel. Another part of our cover feature looks at how the Foos have conquered the live arena. With their stunning Glastonbury set recently reminding everyone about what an amazing live band they are, Music Week spoke to their UK touring team about how the band got to the top, and stayed there.
One of the people offering an insight is Chris York, director of SJM concerts and UK promoter for the band, who told Music Week about the band’s early days on the stage, and how superstardom wasn’t always on the agenda.
“I don’t think that, initially, even Dave probably thought that was going to be the case,” said York. “But they clearly had the potential musically and Dave’s got that star quality. He’s got that ability to talk to the audience that you just can’t teach. So it was pretty clear from the offset that they were going to go on and be successful, but I don’t think anybody could have predicted the longevity of it…”
York went on to explain the evolving scale of the Foos’ live operations now they stand as one of the biggest rock bands on the planet.
“In the great scheme of things, yes!” laughed York when asked if working on the live side of the Foos’ business is one of the easier gigs in the biz. “But the music industry has changed in the last 25 years. There are pressures on how shows are sold these days. Artists want to ensure that their fans get tickets, so it’s not all on secondary and so on. We have challenges, aside from selling tickets. But ultimately, our client tells us how they want to approach it, and we deliver that for them. Over the last 24 years we’ve managed to do that and build a strong relationship with the band and management.”
To read the full Foo Fighters cover feature, see this week’s edition of Music Week, or subscribers can click here. To subscribe and never miss a big music biz story, click here.
You can watch Foo Fighters' storm through their comeback single Run at Glastonbury below.
