This past weekend was a great one for London-based music fans.
Taylor Swift was at Wembley Stadium with her globe-trotting Eras Tour, and even brought out her American football player boyfriend Travis Kelce as a surprise appearance during her performance last night.
The moment sent the crowd of almost 90,000 wild – a crowd that included the Prince of Wales, Sir Paul McCartney, Tom Cruise, Bridgerton's Nicola Coughlan and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.
Here’s the footage going viral right now:
On the other side of town were rock legends Foo Fighters, performing at London Stadium.
Something for everyone then, and they all lived in perfect harmony.
We wish.
You see, Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl has come under fire for some comments about Taylor Swift. And they did not go down well with the Swiftie army.
As they were gearing up to play the band’s song 'Statues', Grohl informed the crowd that Taylor Swift was also playing in London.
Factual. Nothing wrong with that.
The crowd began to boo, and Grohl responded by saying: “I tell you, man, you don’t want to suffer the wrath of Taylor Swift.”
Again, reasonable. Swifties are known to take offence when any negativity is directed at their high priestess of pop. And you can't hold Grohl responsible for crowds getting rowdy. So far, so good.
Grohl continued: “So we like to call our tour the ‘Errors Tour.’ We’ve had more than a few eras, and more than a few fucking errors as well. Just a couple. That’s because we actually play live... What? Just saying. You guys like raw, live rock ‘n’ roll music, right? You came to the right fucking place.”
Ah. There it was.
Swift fans (aka: Swifties) interpreted this comment as an insinuation that Swift doesn’t perform live. And the backlash was... swift.
Take a look at some of the reactions:
That last – and frankly horrific comment – refers to the fact that Grohl’s daughter, Violet, was cyber-bullied by droves of Swift’s fans earlier this year, after the 17-year-old posted about the singer flying her private jet everywhere. She was allegedly sent death threats and Swift has not spoken out against the actions of her fans.
Not all social media users were team Swift, however, and didn’t see Grohl’s comment as a jab.
As fans of both Foo Fighters and Taylor Swift here at Euronews Culture, we encourage these passionate fans to just get along, stop taking everything so seriously, and to NOT insult family members.
In our review of the Eras Tour earlier this month, we wrote:
“It’s plain to see that this is a dazzlingly slick parade to witness; it’s hard to fault Swift for trading a sense of spontaneity, and I’m loathed to say it, genuineness, for precision. It all needs to be precise and minutely choreographed; but the well-oiled machine doesn’t mean that every affected turn, wink, laugh, look to the camera and phrase uttered doesn’t feel over-rehearsed and practiced to within an inch of its life. While I personally love a more authentic gig with room for improv or off-the-cuff moments, there’s still no arguing with the results – this show goes to show why Swift transcends even the highest echelons of pop fame.”
