165,000 tickets sold, more than four hours of music, and one encore with half of Led Zeppelin later, Foo Fighters have wrapped their biggest ever headline shows: two sold out nights at Wembley Stadium.
The Wembley concerts, which took place last Friday and Saturday June 6th and 7th, sold out within 24 hours, making them the biggest headline performances of the band's illustrious career--as well as the biggest rock shows staged at the new Wembley to date.
Both nights featured career-spanning 2-hour-plus sets drawing on all six of Foo Fighters' studio albums, as well as an intimate mid-set acoustic section featuring the expanded semi-acoustic Foo configuration playing on a rotating stage. The highlight of the second night's encore was a historic appearance from Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, who joined Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins for renditions of "Rock and Roll" (with Hawkins on vocals and Grohl on drums) and "Ramble On" (with Grohl on vocals and Hawkins on drums). The Wembley weekend closed with a final encore of "Best Of You" with a closing chorus of 85,000 fans leaving Grohl visibly moved.
Early on in the evening's festivities, Grohl asked the crowd "How did this band get so f***ing big?" By the close of the weekend, 165,000 people knew the answer.
Having received confirmed press reports that John McCain has been using Foo Fighters' "My Hero" as the latest in a number of unauthorized theme songs at his campaign rallies without seeking permission from the band, its management, record label or publisher, Foo Fighters have issued the following statement: This isn't the first time the McCain campaign has used a song without making any attempt to get approval or permission from the artist. It's frustrating and infuriating that someone who claims to speak for the American people would repeatedly show such little respect for creativity and intellectual property. The saddest thing about this is that 'My Hero' was written as a celebration of the common man and his extraordinary potential. To have it appropriated without our knowledge and used in a manner that perverts the original sentiment of the lyric just tarnishes the song. We hope that the McCain campaign will do the right thing and stop using our song--and start asking artists' permission in general!
165,000 tickets sold, more than four hours of music, and one encore with half of Led Zeppelin later, Foo Fighters have wrapped their biggest ever headline shows: two sold out nights at Wembley Stadium.
