Foo Fighters

With the demise of Nirvana in 1994, Dave Grohl begrudgingly left the drums behind and sought to turn the rough demos that he was always too intimidated to show Kurt Cobain into something more substantial. Soon the reluctant front man was playing small clubs with his newly-formed band, creating a buzz that would turn early singles This Is A Call and Big Me into small hits. Debut album Foo Fighters (1995) suitably impressed loyal Nirvana fans, but it was the beefy rock majesty of Monkey Wrench and Everlong from second album The Colour and the Shape (1997) that really established the band in their own right. As hits like Times Like These, Best Of You and Pretender became live anthems, they headlined the Reading/Leeds festivals in 2000, topped the UK album charts with One By One in 2002 and sold out the O2 Arena in 2007. After six studio albums and a Greatest Hits collection they took a break in 2009.