Product Description

The Foo Fighters emerged from the morass of suicide and potent musical legacy that was Nirvana to establish themselves - against all odds - as one of the most popular rock bands in the world. Deflecting early critical disdain, Dave Grohl has single-handedly reinvented himself and cemented his place in the rock pantheon. This is his story, from his pre-Nirvana days in hardcore band Scream to his current festival-conquering status as a Grammy-winning, platinum-selling grunge legend reborn. Across the seven Foo Fighters albums, the whole sordid yet legendary Nirvana tale, the pre-history in the nascent Seattle scene and right up to date via Grohl's flirtations with bands such as Queens of the Stone Age, this is an utterly comprehensive and insightful chronicle of Dave Grohl's remarkable life.Drawing on new interviews with key figures in the Grohl story, this definitive biography of one of modern rock's most influential figures is now updated to include the world conquering double album "In Your Honour", the mellow acoustic brilliance of their "Skin and Bones" film and album, and their recent multi-platinum opus "Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6330 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From the Publisher
Foo Fighters are one of the biggest acts on the planet. In August of 2003 they will play to 80,000 fans at Slane Castle and are regualr festival headliners across the globe. In addition, MTV recently ran a Foo Fighters weekend and the band are favourites across the music media, capturing markets such as rock (NME, Q, Mojo), metal (Kerrang, Metal Hammer) and pop (Smash Hits, TOTP magazine). This book will appeal to both the serious music-lover as well as the new generation of younger teen fans.

About the Author
Martin James once found himself watching The Prodigy backstage with Grohl, both clambering up a lighting rig to share a better view. James is a music and popular culture journalist who has enjoyed editorial positions at Muzik, Melody Maker, as well as contributing to The Independent, The Guardian, Mixmag and Urb magazine. Martin has also written books on Fatboy Slim, The Prodigy and Moby.

Customer Reviews

Disappointing and at times infuriating
I am a great fan of Dave Grohl's. I regard the records he's been involved with as some of my favourites of all time. Knowing this, my girlfriend bought 'Dave Grohl: Foo Fighters, Nirvana & Other Misadventures' for me this Christmas. Author Martin James has a clear knowledge of his subject. But it doesn't feel like he's dedicated much more time to it than a weekend spent typing 'Dave Grohl' into Google. The book offers very little insight to who Dave Grohl is, what inspires him, how he came to be what and where he is today but quite simply tallies up all the bands he's been in and their discographies. It does briefly cover his relationships with band mates such as the Stahl brothers, Taylor Hawkins, Pat Smear and, inevitably, Kurt and Krist of Nirvana. To a fan of Foo Fighters and Nirvana, there is plenty of information about his lesser known works, collaborators, contempories and inspirations, giving you dozens of records to add to your 'to buy' list. But to somebody who has followed Grohl's career there is very little in here that will surprise or enlighten you. Which is really disappointing given the book's promise to be "comprehensive" and "insightful" in it's telling of the Dave Grohl story. As if to rub salt in the wound, the book is quite poorly put together; the glaring errors both factual and grammatical littering many of the pages suggest that the book was rushed from a collection of research to the 'completed' piece you just spent thirteen quid on quite quickly (the book, released in October 2003, includes, in one of it's early chapters quotes from a magazine interview conducted the previous August). Many sentences are repetitive or confusing and some are just plain irrelevant. The book appears to have not been edited or even proof read, it is a very scrappy collection of facts put together in a way vaguely resembling a finished biography. Ultimately, it is readable and it does succeed at chronicling the working life of Dave Grohl, however it's flaws are too great to really forgive or ignore. Tragically, 'Dave Grohl: Foo Fighters, Nirvana & Other Misadventures' makes for a disappointing and at times infuriating read. The colour picture of the lovely new Mrs. Jordan Grohl is a genuine treat, though. 1 out of 5.

Ever heard of a proof reader?
A promising start leads to the realisation that this is a glorified list of bands, tour dates and singles, with lifted quotes and the author's own comments filling the gaps. A biography of Dave Grohl should be about Dave Grohl. This is a critic trying to showcase his own work. I don't care what he thinks of the music. If I did, I would read a review, NOT a biography.

Never have I read a published piece of work that has made me cringe so often. The grammatical errors are worryingly common - incorrect spellings and lack of punctuation littering every chapter. As a trained journalist I quickly spot unnecessary repetition and clumsy structuring, and this book, supposedly written by a fellow member of the press, is shockingly bad. If I see the word "aforementioned" one more time...

A dissapointing and irritating read
I have been a fan of Dave Grohl since Nirvana, and am, if anything an even bigger fan of Foo Fighters and side projects such as his work with QOTSA. So I was really looking forward to reading Martin James "biography" to find out a bit more of Dave Grohl's history, what drives him etc. I use the word Biography very loosely, as it's basically a discography with bits from interviews thrown in. There is nothing contained in this book that you couldn't find out from existing websites or interviews.

Compounding this is James' extremely irritating style, and what seems to be a complete lack of copyediting. I lost count of the number of typo's about two chapters in, and James frequently spells band names or peoples surnames wrong - I noted a couple of times where he had the correct spelling and a wrong one in the same paragraph! For me this made it almost unreadable.

On top of this, you get lengthy descriptions of the every song Grohl was ever involved in. nothing more than you would get from listening to his albums, (which i would presume the average reader probably would have done a couple of times!), and absolutely NO information on grohls upbringing, his family or his life. I don't want a gossip-laden book, but to simply state in one sentence that Dave had got married, when pages are devoted to describing each song really irritated me. As a girly fan, I wanted pictures of what Dave looked like as a kid, details about what he was like growing up, that kind of thing!

As other reviewers have already stated, the book seemed very hastily put together. The author is fond of pointing out how much Dave Grohl wasn't cashing in on Nirvanas fame (I actually agree with him on this point!), I feel that he is cashing in on Dave's fame without really adding any value to the information that is readily avaliable to anyone who can read a magazine or look up a website.