Supergrass' Gaz Coombes says Taylor Hawkins would've been 'blown away' by tribute concert

Virgin Radio

6 Sep 2022, 11:26

Supergrass frontman Gaz Coombes has reflected on the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert and says the late drummer would have been “blown away” by the whole thing.

On Saturday (3rd September) a star-studded line up of music icons came together to celebrate the life and career of the late Foo Fighters drummer, Taylor Hawkins, at London’s Wembley Arena.

The likes of Liam Gallagher, Queen’s Brian May and Paul McCartney took to the stage to pay their respects to the musician, who sadly passed away earlier this year, aged 50.

Supergrass also took to the stage to perform a set in honour of Hawkins, and frontman Gaz Coombes has reflected on how special the whole thing was.

Speaking exclusively to virginradio.co.uk at the premiere of Moonage Daydream, the musician said: “It was an incredible day. It was a beautiful celebration of Taylor's life, I think. I saw some of the work that went into it, and I was part of some of the rehearsals through the week, and it's an insane amount of work to bring everything together. But I've never been to an event like it. I've never seen anything like it. It was quite stunning.”

He added: “The love in Wembley Stadium was just, I mean, we were lucky enough to play with the Foo Fighters at Wembley Stadium in 2007 and we supported them and it was great, but it was, you know, this was something completely... this was wild. You know, it was really spectacular.

“Taylor would have been utterly blown away to see the fans and it was just a beautiful, beautiful night of love.”

It was certainly an emotional gig that ended up lasting six hours with Liam Gallagher kicking things off and wrapping with Foo Fighters performing a moving rendition of Everlong.

If you missed the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert, check out our article on some of must-see moments from the event.

As previously mentioned, Coombes was attending the premiere of David Bowie documentary film Moonage Daydream, which will use previously unreleased footage from the musician’s personal archives to take a deep dive into the life and career of the music icon.

For the Supergrass frontman, Bowie had a huge influence on the industry and his own approach to music.

When asked if the Starman singer had inspired any of his tracks, Coombes said: “I think it's more his imaginative approach to music that is such a big inspiration and being free to take any turn you want, you know, you don't have to be restrained. You don't have to be held back by your previous work. You can keep moving forward, you can keep evolving.”

He added: “I think if there's anything I've learned from Bowie, that's not necessarily directly musical, but it's to keep evolving, keep changing, keep finding new sounds, keep finding new ways of articulating what you love.”

Moonage Daydream hits cinemas on 16th September.