Foo Fighters: If we want the big bands we have to support everyone

Even if Steven Marshall’s mooted Riverbank Arena was built, would the Foo Fighters come to Adelaide? No, argues Nathan Davies, because it starts with you supporting local bands.

If you build it, he will come.

At least that’s what Kevin Costner’s character Ray Kinsella believed in Field Of Dreams, voted the fourth-best baseball movie of all time by the Major League.

Now Kinsella was talking about the ghosts of dead baseballers, but it could just as easily be Steven Marshall’s motto for the mooted Riverbank Arena, and the “he” may well be Dave Grohl, frontman of the Foo Fighters.

The Fooies, as they’re known by the legions of fans, have decided to skip Adelaide on their recently announced Aussie tour, which will take in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.

It’s a shame, as Grohl has long professed a love for Adelaide. Rumour has it that this is where the former Nirvana drummer discovered his love of eating KFC with champagne, and he even immortalised us in the opening line of hit song Times Like These – “I, I’m a one way motorway”.

That’s a joke, by the way, in case anyone’s furiously writing me a letter to tell me how wrong I am.

Proponents of a new stadium on the banks of the Torrens, referred to by Labor as the “$662m basketball stadium”, say a new inner-city venue would help put Adelaide back on the map and stop big artists flying over on the way from Melbourne to Perth.

When US superstar Billie Eilish announced she was leaving Adelaide off her Aussie tour back in October, Premier Marshall said the new arena was essential unless Adelaide “is happy to no longer be part of the contemporary live entertainment touring scene”.

It was a sentiment backed by Ticketek Australian manager Cameron Hoy, who said: “It’s sad. We’re seeing thousands of South Australians buying tickets to interstate gigs because promoters can’t make these acts commercially viable at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, due to its lack of capacity.”

Dave Grohl rocking Hindmarsh Stadium with the Foo Fighters in 2018. Picture: AAP/Emma Brasier

The fact is, though, that we already have an about 12,000-seat stadium in the Adelaide Entertainment Centre that rarely sells out.

We also have venues like Coopers Stadium at Hindmarsh that hosted the last two Foo Fighters shows in 2015 and 2018, esteemed mid-sized venues in the Festival Centre and the esteemed and historic Thebarton Theatre (which rocks on despite not having the access to buckets of government cash like some other venues), and Adelaide Oval for the mega shows like 2019’s U2 concert.

The Oval also hosted The Rolling Stones back in 2014, thanks to a $450,000 donation from taxpayers to secure Sir Mick’s services.

I’m not going to argue the merits of whether or not a riverbank stadium would or wouldn’t be a sound investment – there are plenty of smarter people than me doing that – but I will propose that it’s probably not going to be the silver bullet its proponents say it will be.

I’d argue that bands and artists aren’t flying over because they have nowhere to play. The problem goes deeper than that.

Promoters, from the little guys putting on shows at the pub to the big guns like Michael Chugg and the late Michael Gudinski, have often expressed frustration with Adelaide audiences’ age-old habit of waiting until the last minute to buy tickets.

Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins perform in Geelong on March 4. Picture: Brett Schewitz / Frontier Touring

Perhaps it’s a trait of our laid-back lifestyle, perhaps we’ve been spoiled by too many last-minute discount offers. Who knows, but I do know that it makes promoters – the people who are stumping up the money and have the most to lose – very nervous.

If you have a popular act for a short window of time your accounting team is probably recommending two sold-out shows in Melbourne over one in Melbourne and one in Adelaide.

It’s simple economics, unfortunately, and it’s not likely to get better while other cities grow at a faster rate.

We also have one of the oldest demographics in Australia, but this could actually work for us. Rock and roll is no longer an exclusively young person’s game, and legacy acts like the aforementioned Stones are the biggest acts in the world.

So what can we do? Firstly, we need to buy tickets early and show we really want these acts here. A paid promoter is a happy promoter, and one more likely to book an Adelaide show next time around.

But also, and perhaps most importantly, we need to support all levels of live music, not just the stadium shows.

A rising tide, as the saying goes, floats all boats and if we’re putting boots on the sticky carpets at places like The Gov, the Grace Emily, Jive, the Thebby and The Crown and Anchor then everyone benefits. A healthy live-music scene is vital, and a strong base helps prop up everything.

Nobody’s been hit harder than musos by Covid-19, so as we start to see live music firing up again it’s absolutely imperative that we dust off our credit cards, buy a ticket and support them.

Buy a T-shirt too while you’re at it.

We have a long and storied history of rock and roll in this town, and if we don’t look after it we’ll lose.

We’ll lose the garage band making its debut at the corner pub AND the stadium mega acts.

Let’s get out there and show the people who write the soundtracks to our lives that we value them.

In the meantime, if you want the Fooies here – and there is a gap in the schedule that could be filled by Adelaide – then sign the petition and make some noise.

This is a call.