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Telegraph
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Oasis, review: Ridiculous, fantastic... and back where they belong
The band was loud. The crowd was louder. Waves of noise crashed off the stage and bounced back as the 74,000-strong audience in Cardiff's Principality Stadium sang every word as if they were ready and willing to bust their lungs. Song after song engulfed us all in an incredible blizzard of noise, distorted guitars, bombarding drums, rumbling bass and tens of thousands of voices raised in song. 'Yes, beautiful people, it's been too long,' said Liam Gallagher. And so, 16 years since they broke up, Oasis returned as if no time has passed at all. The hi-def screens were bigger, wider and more dynamic than anything Oasis would have dragged out on tour back in the glory days. But otherwise nothing had really changed. A band of men stood spread across the front of a stage, playing hard and loud. Their frontman stood in the centre, roaring at the top of his sharply cutting voice. And the audience was right there with them all the way, a mass extension of the band, punching their arms and singing until we were all swallowed in a big, rocky vortex of sound and community. It was ridiculous and it was fantastic. These things are not mutually exclusive. The first half setlist was 100 per cent proof Britpop bangers, one piledriving rocker after another, including Hello, Acquiesce, Morning Glory, Some Might Say, Cigarettes and Alcohol, Supersonic and Fade Away. Liam sported an unseasonable green parka and sharp buzz cut, greying at the temples. There was no nuance to his singing, because there was no room at this concert for subtlety. He just cut through with raw power and vocal energy. Noel Gallagher stood to his left in a denim blue shirt, peeling off lead guitar lines, unshaven and grimly focused. The rest of band (Gem Archer and Paul 'Bonehead' Arthurs on guitar, Andy Bell on bass and session players on drums and keyboards) were as anonymous as they have always been. Sporting bald pates, spectacles and studious expressions, they could have been a band of geography teachers playing a university reunion. But Liam has enough charisma for all of them, and Noel's songs took care of the rest. When Noel took the lead for an interlude of melodious, semi-acoustic B-sides the crowd kept singing as if they were all classic smash hits. 'Thank you very much,' said Noel, then made a joke about the controversial dynamic ticket pricing. 'I hope it was worth £175 of anybody's money. Sorry, £210. Sorry, £250.' I don't think anyone who managed to get their hands on a ticket for this reunion could feel short changed. Because really it was a reunion between an audience and their favourite band, a reunion between Britain and rock and roll. Liam swaggered back for an absolutely storming second half of monster anthems, including a psychedelic stomp through D'You Know What I Mean?, an unapologetically cheesy romp through Whatever, an utterly immense Slide Away and furiously supercharged Rock 'n' Roll Star, with the whole stadium bellowing 'it's just rock and roll'. But it's not, it is something bigger, more universal, more all encompassing. There were walls of guitars, walls crashing down, and the crowd singing like they were meeting noise with noise. Flares went off. Live Forever echoed around the stadium to a projected image of tragically deceased Liverpool footballer Diogo Jota. Noel led Don't Look Back in Anger as if it might lift the roof off the stadium. Liam led Wonderwall like he was leading the loudest, lairiest choir in the world. Champagne Supernova blasted out into the cosmos on a rocketing lead solo. It was very loud, it was simplistic to the point of banality and it was magically, exhaustingly uplifting.
The Sun
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
It all started when Bill and I went round to Ozzy's house looking for a singer, says Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi
FOR 57 years, Tony Iommi has been Black Sabbath's keeper of the flame. He is 'Master Of The Riffs' — some say he invented heavy metal — and he is the only band member to stay the course. 5 'Everybody else has come and gone and come back,' the guitarist tells me in his soft Brummie tones. 'I've been the constant one.' Talking to the affable Iommi, 77, it's hard to imagine that he's responsible for some of rock's darkest, dirtiest, most bone-crunching riffs. Tomorrow, he and the rest of the original line-up face their final curtain. It's our last chance to hear Paranoid, War Pigs and Iron Man performed live by the four musicians who created them. No doubt all eyes will be on the singer, the 'Prince Of Darkness' himself. Despite complaining to me recently that he has enough health issues 'to fill a medical dictionary', Ozzy Osbourne is set to give his hometown of Birmingham a hellraising last hurrah. But let's not forget that the Back To The Beginning extravaganza at Villa Park also marks the end of a journey for bassist Geezer Butler, drummer Bill Ward — and Iommi. Sabbath are held in highest esteem by the bands that followed in their wake, hence an incredible supporting cast. With Rage Against The Machine's Tom Morello serving as musical director, there's a blizzard of metal titans paying their dues. Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Alice In Chains, Sammy, Hagar, Steven Tyler (Aerosmith), Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins), Duff McKagan and Slash (Guns N' Roses), Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit) — the list goes on. Ozzy Osbourne announces final Black Sabbath gig as band reunite for 'greatest heavy metal show ever' with HUGE line up 'It's a great honour,' says Iommi. 'I'm so proud of everyone who has come forward to support Sabbath. 'They've come from everywhere to be a part of something. This is a real one-off.' Iommi is particularly chuffed that his old mucker Ward, who he first met at Birchfield Road School, is back in the Sabbath fold for the first time since 2005. 'Bill and I were in a couple of bands before Sabbath,' he says, 'and that's when we went round to Ozzy's house looking for a singer. It was how it all started.' Seeing that the gig is called Back To The Beginning, I ask Iommi to sift through the mists of time to describe how the band came together. He begins by giving me his first impressions of Ozzy before moving on to Geezer. 'At school, I didn't even know that Ozzy could sing,' he says. 'It was a racket at first, I must say, but after we'd been playing for a while, he got really good.' As for the singer's madcap behaviour, Iommi adds: 'He got more loony as we went on. In the early days, we'd be on this little stage at a club or somewhere and we had this thing between us. 'If I broke a string, I'd shout to Ozzy, 'Organise a raffle, organise a raffle!' which meant, 'Talk to the audience'. 'He wasn't very good at that in the early days, he didn't know what to say. 'But he got more and more confident and, eventually, he became like he is — very out front.' Iommi moves on to Geezer and says: 'Before Sabbath, Bill and I used to play these all-nighters at a place in Birmingham. 'I always remember seeing Geezer there, crawling up walls because of the drugs they were on in those days. 'I made my fingertips' 'Me and Bill used to think, 'Blimey, he's mad, that guy'. Of course, when we got together with him, we realised he was very, very sensible. 'Geezer had never played bass before — he was a guitar player — but it was amazing how quickly he picked it up.' So what about Iommi himself? 'Originally, I wanted to play drums,' he replies, 'but because of where we lived with my parents, you couldn't get a drum kit in the house. It was so small. 'My mother bought me a guitar, one of these cheap £20 ones from a catalogue, and I sat in my room learning to play. I really enjoyed it.' Then he adds with a self-deprecating chuckle: 'And I'm still trying to learn to play the guitar!' This was the early Sixties when one band in particular caught Iommi's ear — The Shadows led by his guitar hero Hank Marvin. 5 'I used to listen to the Top 20 on my little radio,' he says. 'The Shadows really inspired me because I loved their sound and style. 'They were an instrumental band and it was great because I had something to learn and to relate to. Then I could go off and do my own thing.' I thought that I'd become involved in the scene in some way and I didn't expect to become a musician Iommi Iommi was also shaped by his tough upbringing in Aston. Of the neighbourhood where he lived, he says: 'It was rough and gang infested. You had to be careful walking round the streets because you'd get beaten up if you were in the wrong area. 'I started doing martial arts — judo and karate — purely to protect myself,' he continues. 'I went training three or four times a week. 'I thought that I'd become involved in the scene in some way and I didn't expect to become a musician.' Iommi recalls having 'a dream of being on a stage, look-ing out, I always thought it was to do with martial arts but, of course, it wasn't. I later realised it was about being on stage playing guitar'. At 17, he had a horrific industrial accident which would have a profound effect on Black Sabbath's signature heavy guitar sound. While operating a guillotine press in a sheet-metal factory, Iommi lost the tips of the middle and ring fingers on his right hand. He says: 'I went to the hospital and they said, 'You might as well forget playing the guitar'. 'I just couldn't accept that attitude so I made my own fingertips with thimbles. I had to come up with a totally different way of playing. 'I also worked on the guitar all the time. I had it in bits and put it back together, trying to make it more comfortable to play. 'Eventually, that extended to experimenting with amplifiers, making a sound that would be more full.' By the time Sabbath, originally known as Earth, got together in 1968, Iommi was on a mission to make a success of it despite financial hardships. 5 'Oh God, I drove the bloody van!' he exclaims. 'Unloaded the gear, played, drove back. 'We were hard up. We might make 15 quid and, on our way home, stop off and spend it all at a fish and chip shop. 'But it was great because we started from nothing and we went through the whole thing together. 'We became glued to each other, we lived in each other's pockets, and it really made us a band.' Iommi continues: 'The name was Geezer's idea after he watched a Boris Karloff film called Black Sabbath. It was appropriate for our music and it stuck. 'When we were Earth, we got misbooked because they thought we were a pop band. We absolutely died a death!' An all-important step for Sabbath, like any up-and- coming act, was getting a record deal. Iommi remembers how it happened: 'We used to play at a club in Birmingham where Jim Simpson, who became our first manager, would get people to come down and see us. 'Of course 99 per cent of them said 'no' and one per cent said 'yes'. We were playing something different. In those days, it was all soul, not our kind of music.' The self-titled debut album contains the song Black Sabbath which bears Iommi's first great riff. He regards it as their breakthrough moment. 'That track hit home,' he says. 'It was so different and we knew straight away, 'That's it, that's what we want to do, that's the benchmark'.' 'Screaming girls' Iommi took on a lot of the responsibility at the time, getting the others out of bed and into the studio by 9am. 'Everybody needs somebody to direct them,' he affirms. 'Otherwise it turns into chaos.' That first album, now regarded as a trailblazing triumph, landed to lukewarm reviews but it didn't deter Iommi and his bandmates. I always remember somebody — I won't mention his name — came to review us. He left unknown to us and we DIDN'T play, but he still reviewed the show. What does that tell you? Iommi 'Of course, you never want a bad review but you have to believe in what you do,' he says. 'If we did get a reasonably good review, we'd bloody faint, but we never lost that belief and that's what made us stronger. 'I always remember somebody — I won't mention his name — came to review us. He left unknown to us and we DIDN'T play, but he still reviewed the show. What does that tell you?' Next came the album which propelled Sabbath to the stratosphere, Paranoid, with its iconic three-minute adrenaline rush of a title track. Iommi says: 'We never went to the States with the first album but Paranoid opened up America for us.' And yet the song itself was almost an afterthought, as he explains. 'When we were finishing the album, we went out to get something to eat. 'The producer came out and said to me, 'We need another track. We haven't got enough tracks'. So I had to come up with Paranoid. I waited for the others to come back and played it to them. 'Geezer wrote some lyrics, the guys learnt the song and we recorded it there and then. 'It was supposed to be filler but it was the one that took off — and we ended up on Top Of The Pops.' Appearing on the UK's premier pop showcase went against everything Sabbath stood for in their quest 'to be an album band taken seriously for our music'. Iommi says: 'It was funny. You've got people like Cilla Black and then us. Bloody odd combination, it was! 'And the last thing we wanted to do was attract screaming girls.' After Paranoid, Sabbath were on a roll, producing a string of high-octane, high-quality albums — Master Of Reality (1971), Vol.4 (1972), Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973) and Sabotage (1975). 'For each album, we tried different things,' says Iommi. 'On Master Of Reality, I started tuning down a bit to get an even heavier sound. 5 'The whole vibe on Vol. 4 was great. We went to Los Angeles where John du Pont was unfortunate enough to rent us his house. 'It was a fantastic place with a ballroom, swimming pools and, God, did we have some fun.' It was only after ten years in the business that the wheels started to fall off for Sabbath, resulting in Ozzy's exit. 'Obviously, drugs were involved,' says Iommi. 'It got to a stage where Ozzy had lost interest. He'd go missing for a couple of days in Los Angeles — things like that. 'I was nominated to go to the record company and make all the excuses. We were coming up with riffs but it just wasn't going anywhere. 'It got to a point where I had to say, 'Look, we'll have to replace Ozzy or break up'. At the time, it was best for both of us and Ozzy went off and did his own thing.' Sabbath regrouped with Ronnie James Dio taking over on lead vocals, the first of a succession of singers. Then, in the late Nineties, the original Sabbath reformed and toured until 2005. Minus drummer Ward, they got back together for the Rick Rubin-produced 13 (released in 2013) and played live again until 2017. Now, eight years on, Sabbath are making their last stand. They've all had well-documented health issues but Iommi and Ozzy see the funny side. Ozzy even called himself 'Iron Man' after surgeons inserted bolts in his neck following a fall at his home in the outskirts of Los Angeles 'He should be called the Six Million Dollar Man,' laughs Iommi. 'I hear from him every few days and we complain to each other. 'We've all had problems so it's quite an achievement for us to get on stage again after so many years. 'We'll do the gig – then we'll probably keel over!'
BBC News
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Kings of Leon cancel UK dates after 'freak' accident
Kings of Leon have cancelled their upcoming UK and European shows after lead singer Caleb Followill broke a bone in his heel in a "freak" American rockers had been due to play a series of dates including at Cardiff's Blackweir Fields and a headline slot at the Lytham Festival in Lancashire this Followill confirmed he had undergone emergency surgery after "shattering" his heel while playing with his children and is now unable to travel or perform for at least eight weeks."The band regrets to report that they will need to cancel all upcoming UK and European festival headline shows in June and July of this year," a statement read. The Grammy Award winners, who have had UK chart success with tracks including Sex On Fire, Use Somebody and Radioactive, were also due to play dates in Germany and Followill issued his own statement on social media from his home in Nashville, USA, to explain the "freak" accident."I've broken my foot bad playing with my kids. I'll spare you the details but it was pretty gnarly," he said, showing his leg in plaster."It's a big bummer because we were so excited and had been preparing for this tour for a long time. We've been in the studio recording a bunch of new music that we were going to debut."But now we have to pivot and do whatever work we can while I have these limitations."It's not the message I want to be sending but hopefully we'll see you all soon." Cardiff concert organisers Blackweir said fans will receive a full refund for tickets purchased for the 29 June show.
New York Times
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
He Spent $12,495 to Be Gene Simmons's Roadie (and Got More Than Expected)
A few years ago, The Financial Times named Kiss 'rock's greatest capitalists.' By the newspaper's count, the band founded in 1973 had licensed its name to some 5,000 products, including Kiss Kondoms and Kiss Kaskets. The 'Kiss thing,' Gene Simmons, the band's brash founding singer-bassist, once said, 'has become this huge monster, despite the fact that critics say that doing games and slot machines and golf courses is not credible. Critics still live in their mother's basement. We own the world.' Kiss wrapped up its End of the Road (supposed) farewell tour at Madison Square Garden in December 2023, but not before introducing digital avatars designed to perform shows and, in theory, make money in perpetuity. (Actual members of Kiss will play together in November as part of the Kiss Army fan club's 50th-anniversary celebration in Las Vegas.) Early this month, Simmons started a solo tour with his Gene Simmons Band. And, at the age of 75, he's still upsetting critics. For each stop, Simmons is offering a 'Personal Assistant and Band Roadie for the Day' experience to one fan. The rocker's website promises that the roadie and one guest will get to help set up for the gig, attend the soundcheck, have a meal with Simmons, get an onstage introduction during the show and receive a signed bass. V.I.P. experiences have become standard in pop, but it was the package's price tag — $12,495 (show tickets not included) — that set the internet off. ''Greedy' Kiss rocker worth $400M is slammed for charging fans insane money to be his assistant,' blared a Daily Mail headline. It's not insane to everyone. 'This is what I choose to spend my money on,' said Dwayne Rosado, a tattooed 52-year-old retired corrections sergeant from Middletown, N.Y. He and his soft-spoken son, Zach, a 5-foot-11 seventh grader into mixed martial arts, video games and electric guitar, were the roadies for the day at Simmons's recent concert at the Count Basie Center for the Arts' 1,500-capacity theater in Red Bank, N.J. On the afternoon of the show, father and son — both wearing the official Gene Simmons Band road crew shirts that had been provided for them — waited at the theater's loading area for the rock star to arrive. The elder Rosado purchased the experience as a birthday gift for Zach, who recently turned 13 and shares his father's love of Kiss, but it was also a present to himself. Dwayne revealed that a year and a half ago he had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. 'You only live once, and I want to experience life,' he said. 'I'm not going to die with a lot of money. I'm going to die happy.' A short while later, Simmons rolled up in a black S.U.V., wearing sunglasses and a black leather ensemble: pants, vest, fingerless gloves. There were introductory fist bumps, some small talk. 'Just don't touch my ass,' Simmons said as he pulled the Rosados in close for photos. 'You hungry?' Simmons asked. 'We waited all day to eat,' Dwayne replied. 'We're going to eat $12,500 worth of food, brother.' Inside the venue, soundcheck was in progress. (Simmons's current band consists of three relatively young hard rock vets.) Zach strapped on a guitar to play an original composition titled 'Dad's a Dork,' with accompaniment from the drummer Brian Tichy. Then Dwayne got behind the kit, launching into the opening of Kiss's 'I Love It Loud.' 'You know, that wasn't bad,' Simmons said. 'It wasn't good, but …' Everybody laughed. Simmons and his new assistants made their way to a low-ceilinged basement lounge for takeout dinner from a local Italian place. Dwayne brought up that he and his son had watched an interview in which Simmons — an infamous Lothario — recounted losing his virginity, at age 13 or 14, to a married woman on his newspaper delivery route. 'She asked me to sit down on the couch,' Simmons offered. 'And the next thing I knew, I was —' He paused, then asked Zach to cover his ears (he obliged) before finishing the story. The conversation turned to the hefty cost of the roadie for a day experience. Simmons dismissed the haters. 'There's free market, supply and demand,' he explained. 'People want to do it, you do it. You buy a Rolls because you want a Rolls, but a Volkswagen will get you there, too.' For the next two hours, the Rosados had Simmons's undivided attention, though he didn't always have Zach's. (The teen didn't seem particularly interested in the rocker's explanation of a limited liability corporation.) Simmons gamely answered all their questions about life and music, occasionally calling up a visual aid — including a photo of himself with the Dalai Lama and a portrait of his late mother, a Holocaust survivor — on his phone (protected by a Kiss-branded case, naturally). When the subject of retirement came up, Simmons turned philosophical. 'Life is a race or a journey,' he said. 'I don't care who you are, when you see the finish line up ahead, what do you do? Slow down and get in your rocking chair, or do you speed up and go as fast as you can before that finish line?' He added, 'I'm closer to the finish line now than I was in the past. Why would you slow down, especially if everything's working?' He indicated he was talking about his 'schmeckle,' a Yiddishism young Zach wasn't familiar with. 'Do I have money — by some standards, a lot of money?' Simmons continued. 'Sure. And what, do you roll around in it? Yeah, you could do that once or twice.' He added, 'We are social animals, and having a party is one of the best times you can spend on earth. But if you're the only one at the party, how sad is that? So we have a lot of fun on that stage.' Next up: a security briefing from AJ Fratto, Simmons's bald, burly 'MacGyver' and 'good will ambassador,' who went over scenarios both serious (what to do in an active shooter situation) and mundane (watch out for those cables). His parting lesson: 'The big thing is etiquette, etiquette, etiquette, etiquette, etiquette.' Then on to the gig, a mix of Kiss songs and covers (Van Halen, Motörhead, Thin Lizzy, Led Zeppelin, the Beatles) frequently punctuated by Simmon's borscht belt-inflected stage banter. The closest the roadies for the day got to actually working was when Zach brought Simmons a red Solo cup full of cream, a prop in an extremely off-color bit. Later, Simmons summoned father and son to the stage. 'Zach, what do you think of Dad?' Simmons asked. 'The best dad ever!' he shouted, leaning into the mic. The crowd clapped and cheered. Dwayne, a big smile on his face, pumped his arms skyward and embraced his son. Simmons countered with an imitation of his own son ('Dad, I love you. Can I have 20 bucks?') before turning thoughtful: 'My father wasn't there when I was growing up, so I'll tell you, it means the world to me to see a good father who stays with his family and makes sure his kids are raised right.' The show closed with a rousing rendition of Kiss's 'Rock and Roll All Nite.' Afterward, Simmons debriefed with the Rosados in a tiny dressing room. 'The most memorable thing for me tonight is to have a son publicly express his love for his father,' Simmons said. 'That doesn't come in a can in a supermarket.' 'It felt awkward, because I have a whole crowd in front of me, and all I wanted to do is hug him,' Dwayne recalled. 'I didn't care about anything else that was going on.' In the end, was it worth the $12,000? 'Absolutely,' Dwayne said. 'You forgot the $500,' Simmons chimed in. '$12,495 to be exact,' said Dwayne, who was, as Simmons put it, verklempt. 'Nothing can beat tonight. It's cemented in Kisstory now, because it's going to be on YouTube and everything else. So I'll get to look back and see that moment forever.'
Daily Mail
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
The Who share a HUGE update on their retirement plans after making a shock U-turn on drummer Zak Starkey's sacking
The Who have shared the shock news that they will be retiring from touring after 60 years, following a final run of shows in the US later this year. The legendary rock band shared the news at a London press conference as they announced their farewell tour, which will kick off in July. The news comes just weeks after Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend made a shock U-turn to welcome drummer Zak Starkey back into the band, after he was sacked following a bitter fallout. While announcing the band's retirement, Pete, 79, made the shock confession: 'Everyone needs to know the truth…. I can't lie…. I am not crazy about touring.' Meanwhile Roger, 81, who appeared via video link, said: 'It will have to come to an end one day.' The Who are set to play 16 shows in the US, and insiders have told The Mirror they hope the tour will be extended to include dates in Europe and the UK. Roger went onto add: 'Pete (Townshend) is still playing great guitar, the music's still got the vitality that suits it, because it's something about the way Pete's music is written, the way it's shaped, the sentiment behind it, it doesn't seem to age like a lot of rock music does.' 'Us out there performing for the last time is a thank you for fans.' He went onto cast doubt over whether the tour could be extended to the UK, saying: 'Let's see if we survive this one. 'Touring America is a damn sight easier than touring the UK, because, for some reason or the other, the UK has decided to make it as difficult as possible to go from A to B.' 'In America, you seem to want to make it as easy as possible. I don't want to say that there won't be, but equally I'm not confident in saying there will be.' The hitmaker added that he has a scheduled day off between each of the shows on the advice of his throat specialist, having previously had growths removed from his vocal cords back in 2009. Roger added: 'I can't do consecutive shows. At the end of the tour I might be able to do two back to back. 'I've been ordered by my throat specialist, (who would) say ''You have to have a day off after every gig, and then after every three gigs you have to have two days off, because otherwise you will wreck your voice and you will not be able to sing''.' 'Every musician's dream in the early 60's was to make it big in the US charts. For the Who, that dream came true in 1967 and our lives were changed forever. 'The warmth of the American audiences over the years have been inspirational to me, and reflect the feeling I remember getting after hearing the first rock records coming across the radio. Musical freedom! 'Rock gave us a feeling of generational rebellion. To me, America has always been great. The cultural differences had a huge impact on me, this was the land of the possible.' Reflecting on their decision to bid farewell to touring, Roger added: 'It's not easy to end the big part of my life that touring with The Who has been. Thanks for being there for us and look forward to seeing you one last time.' Pete commented: 'Well, all good things must come to an end. It is a poignant time. 'For me, playing to American audiences and those in Canada has always been incredible. The warmth and engagement of those audiences began back in 1967 with hippies smoking dope, sitting on their blankets and listening deeply and intensely. 'Music was everywhere. We all felt equal. Today, Roger and I still carry the banner for the late Keith Moon and John Entwistle and of course, all of our longtime Who fans. 'I must say that although the road has not always been enjoyable for me, it is usually easy: the best job I could ever have had. I keep coming back. 'Every time I do, I meet new fans and feel new energy. Roger and I are in a good place, despite our age, eager to throw our weight behind this fond farewell to all our faithful fans, and hopefully to new ones who might jump in to see what they have been missing for the last 57 years. 'This tour will be about fond memories, love and laughter. Make sure you join in.' Last month, Zak was welcomed back into the band after Roger and Pete made the shock move to sack him. The pair had reportedly sacked the drummer after a 'huge fall out' happened after the band's two recent gigs at the Royal Albert Hall last month. However, the musicians have now confirmed Zak is firmly still in the band and hasn't been asked to leave. Taking to X, formerly Twitter, with an official statement they penned: 'He's not being asked to step down from The Who. 'There have been some communication issues, personal and private on all sides, that needed to be dealt with, and these have been aired happily.' Sources allegedly claimed that there were question marks over Zak's drumming at the shows last month. Addressing this, the statement continued: 'Roger and I would like Zak to tighten up his latest evolved drumming style to accommodate our non-orchestral line up and he has readily agreed. I take responsibility for some of the confusion. 'Our TCT [Teenage Cancer Trust] shows at the Royal Albert Hall were a little tricky for me. I thought that four and a half weeks would be enough time to recover completely from having a complete knee replacement. (Why did I ever think I could land on my knees?) Wrong! 'Maybe we didn't put enough time into sound checks, giving us problems on stage. The sound in the centre of the stage is always the most difficult to work with. 'Roger did nothing wrong but fiddle with his in-ear monitors. Zak made a few mistakes and he has apologised. Albeit with a rubber duck drummer. 'We are a family, this blew up very quickly and got too much oxygen. It's over. We move forward now with optimism and fire in our bellies.' Addressing another rumour, Pete added: 'As for Roger, fans can enjoy his forthcoming solo shows with his fabulous drummer, Scott Devours, who it was rumoured might replace Zak in The Who and has always been supportive of the band. 'I owe Scott an apology for not crushing that rumour before it spread. He has been hurt by this. I promise to buy him a very long drink and give him a hug.' Zak also responded to the post as he penned: 'V grateful to be a part of The Who family Thanks Roger and Pete xx.' A spokesperson had previously announced the news of Zak's exit from the band by saying: 'The band made a collective decision to part ways with Zak after this round of shows at the Royal Albert Hall. 'They have nothing but admiration for him and wish him the very best for his future.' However a spokesperson for Zak then hinted that when things settle down there would be 'light at the end of the tunnel' and described the row as a 'typical rock'n' roll fall out'. They said: 'Healing can take time! Zak is without doubt one of the UK's greatest drummers and to questions his drumming ability and performance, is in my mind a musical insult. 'He has exceptional timing, rhythmic drive, and had created a solid foundation for The Who and I feel his godfather Keith Moon would only be too proud of Zak taking his seat. 'I'm sure there will be some light at the end of the tunnel when things settle down. Hey, it's only rock'n'roll but we love it!' Zak, who was planning to take 'much needed time off with his family', was said to be 'saddened and surprised' over the decision to sack him after his long career in the band. According to The Mirror, Zak said in a statement: 'In January, I suffered a serious medical emergency with blood clots in my right bass drum calf. This is now completely healed and does not affect my drumming or running. 'After playing those songs with the band for so many decades, I'm surprised and saddened anyone would have an issue with my performance that night, but what can you do? The legendary rock band shared the news at a London press conference as they announced their farewell tour, which will kick off in July 'I plan to take some much needed time off with my family, and focus on the release of Domino Bones by Mantra Of The Cosmos with Noel Gallagher in May and finishing my autobiography written solely by me. Twenty-nine years at any job is a good old run, and I wish them the best.' The insider went on to add: 'It's a little acrimonious to say the least.' While fans were loving the shows, which were in honour of Roger's Teenage Cancer Trust charity, a source claimed there were a 'few issues with the the standard wasn't as high as everyone wanted'. However, a different source noted that 'extremely talented' Zak's departure was sure to rock the band, with his axing not making 'any sense'. Zak is the son of Beatles legend Ringo Starr and Maureen Starkey Tigrett. Back in January, Zak said he feared he would die as he spoke for the first time since he cancelled gigs after he was diagnosed with a blood clot. Zak had been set to take the stage with his supergroup Mantra of the Cosmos - including Happy Mondays vocalist Shaun Ryder, 62, Oasis guitarist Andy Bell, 54, percussionist Mark ' Bez ' Berry, 60, and Noel Gallagher, 57, - when he received the alarming health alert. It lead to him to withdraw from a London gig, hours ahead of showtime. He has since revealed that the blood clot in his right leg has forced him to rest for two weeks on doctors orders, and he has been prescribed blood thinners for the hazardous health condition. Zak told MailOnline: 'At first I thought maybe I just pulled a hamstring or something because that's where the pain started on the knee and then the MRI scan showed nothing and then an ultrasound showed it the next day. 'So we had to pull the gig and I was told to go home straight away. I'm on blood thinners and that should move it you know but it wasn't ideal news. 'I am a little bit worried but they said a couple of weeks should be alright. It should be able to dissipate but there is a worry if you move it too much and it hits something major.
