Foo Fighters Jam with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones

What in the ever loving hell?

Is Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins the luckiest guy on earth this year? First he jams with Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson on YYZ, and now he kicks out the jams with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones at Wembley Stadium over the weekend.

Apparently set up by rock photographer Ross Halfin (read his June 7 diary entry), Hawkins and Dave Grohl are joined by Page and Jones to do Rock and Roll and Ramble On.

The Telegraph ran a story that said:

Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl told the 86,000-strong audience on Saturday that he had something special planned, saying: "Tonight this will be the show we are talking about for the next 20 years."

An emotional Grohl told the crowd after the impromptu appearance: "Welcome to the greatest day of my whole entire life."

This kick ass photo was taken by Ross Halfin.

Are the Foos the luckiest bastards alive or what? What's next? Hawkins joins The Who on Young Man Blues and The Real Me at Save The Planet Fest 2009?

6/9 addendum - as Judakris pointed out in the comments section, Grohl and Hawkins have jammed with Queen as well (I saw them on VH1 Rock Honors last year and it was pretty good). Lucky FREAKS!

Still trying to find a video that isn't all choppy and bogus but I'm out of time. You'll get the idea!

Ross Halfin Is Funny

I posted about famed hard rock photographer Ross Halfin last October. I told you all to check his daily diary entries, dating all the way back to 2002.

The guy is tremendously witty and does not pull any punches about the characters he has to deal with as he shoots a who's who of the rock world. One of his BFFs is Jimmy Page - need I say more?

Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin, KISS, Mars Volta, Areosmith, Velvet Revolver, etc. The list goes on. He has shot them all and partied with most. And he hate hate hates Metallica. His anti-Metallica rants are gut busting. His first hand account of the Zeppelin reunion is also great, as are his photos from that event.

Anyway, I have a lot of new readers so I wanted to re-post about Ross.

For example, check out an entry this week about going to Dubai to shoot a festival:

March 7
At 2am Dave Clarke and his posse of British press and photographers arrive. 'Order us a drink,' says Dave. I stagger to the bar. 'Twenty two pints of lager please and two double rums and coke.' The women behind the bar and everyone along it look at me as if I'm mad. I repeat the order. They all arrive - Dave says 'Same again please.' No wonder foreigners hate the British. I go to bed at 3am and leave them to it.

The Dubai Desert Rock festival is next to a huge mall, bigger and better and faker than anything you would find in America. I like it a great deal and would happily stay there shopping, instead I go and see Machine Head starring Rob Flynn. Rob says 'Raise your fists in the air and headbang, motherfuckers,' followed by a guttural 'Uuuuurghhhhhhh!' at least fifteen times in the space of ten minutes. Rob's communication skills, bringing the west to the Arab world, are enlightening.

In the middle of the crowd is a platform hanging from a crane holding a disco with a DJ and cocktail bar. I go up with Dave Clarke and Scott Rowley, who is dancing in the disco, completely open at 300 feet above the crowd. You can see through the floor straight down into the flat concrete. I am terrified, pretending to shoot Machine Head from up there while re-discovering God, thinking 'please don't fall, I'll never blaspheme again' as Robb screams 'UUUUUURGGGGHHHH MOTHERFUCKERS' another twenty times. As the crane descends I find religion, at least until I've got off. Thank you God...

His site is here. Click on the diary page to get to the posts.

New Link Posted - Ross Halfin Diary

Ross Halfin is a world-renown photographer. From Wikipedia:

Ross Halfin (b. 1958) is one of the world's top English music and travel photographers. Having shot bands such as Led Zeppelin, Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Aerosmith, Guns N' Roses, KISS, Metallica, The Who, Rob Zombie, ZZ Top and many others, Halfin's images are widely published in magazines, newspapers and books.

Halfin began his career as a freelance photographer for Sounds Magazine in the 1970s, where he befriended upcoming Heavy Metal acts like Def Leppard and Iron Maiden, who he would go on to photograph extensively. Halfin continued his career shooting for many years for UK rock magazine Kerrang! and other high-profile UK magazines such as Q, Classic Rock and many others around the world.

He is also funny as all hell, and thankfully keeps a Web diary of all of his photo shoots and happenings month to month and day to day. It's a great read and I am still poring over previous months and years of posts in all my free time (ha). Check it out for yourselves but here are some nuggets:

October 20 post - Speaking of bass players, spoke to Andy Curran, ex-bassist of Coney Hatch and AR type person for Rush's management. I may go to Italy next week to taste the honeydew and drink the milk of paradise.

October 2 post - Spent nearly the whole of today shooting Jimmy Page for various things - magazines and beauty products. Felt quite exhausted at the end. But what I find more exhausting are the wankers who keep emailing me wanting Led Zeppelin information. Prime example is the arsehole who goes by the name Hurtin Kind. It will be a pleasure if I ever meet him to hurt him and I wouldn't be kind...

August 21 post - Went to see The Rolling Stones with my mates Wilf Wright and Barry Drinkwater at the O2 Arena. I wasn't really in the mood for rock and roll, which was a good thing as they were as far removed from rock and roll as possible. They were dire - words fail me... Mick Jagger tried hard and worked the stage but the sound was terrible, the lights production were a cross between an MTV video and a Las Vegas revue. There was no camaraderie on stage, it was lifeless. A bit like an old folks fashion show - there seemed to be more costume changes than in a Madonna concert... The best song was James Brown's I'll Go Crazy, they butchered their own songs. It reminded me of a pub singalong on New Years Eve, dreadful. And the crowd was like being stuck with 22,000 bank managers on a night out. It was fucking awful.

October 10 post - During the intermission [Rush show] I hear what sounds like chanting. I look round to find Paul "Gooner" Elliott falling drown drunk singing to himself standing next to an embarrassed Dave Everley (Q Magazine features editor) with a "help me" look on on his face. As I try to talk to Dave, Paul interrupts slurring the words to The Trees. All around there is a smell of Guinness and whiskey pervading the air. 'Top of the morning,' slurs a voice - it's Paul Brannigan. 'I'm having a night off.' Off what, I wonder. 'Me and Paul have come to see Machine Head.' By now both his eyeballs are going in different directions, a bit like a slot machine. Paul's face is also bright red. 'Do you like Rush?' I ask. Paul looks baffled. 'Who...?' I go and shoot the second half of the show. Lots of pyro and the highlight for me is looking up at the stands during Spirit Of The Radio seeing Paul Elliott playing air guitar with Paul Brannigan passed out next to him, and a forlorn Dave Everley telling Paul to sit down. The one thing people seem to miss about Rush is that they are a good rock band. They are always good. Not some form of art rock. I came home at midnight and played 2112...

There are YEARS of posts. I placed the link in my 'links' section on this blog. Bookmark and enjoy...