Two Welsh bands, CHROMA and Himalayas, who have been selected by the Foo Fighters to open their UK shows next year, have spoken about their excitement and the 'insane' response to the brilliant news they had landed support slots for quite possibly one of the world's biggest bands. Last week, the American rock band announced that they would be bringing their Everything or Nothing at All tour to the UK in the summer of 2024.
The band will be touring various UK locations such as London, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Cardiff - the latter of which will see them return to Wales for the first time in almost two decades. Amid the presale ticket on Wednesday, June 27, the band also announced who would be opening their gigs during the tour, which included two Welsh bands.
At the Emirates Old Trafford in Manchester, CHROMA will be performing on June 15, 2024. Meanwhile, the Himalayas band will be performing on home turf here in Wales ahead of the Foo Fighters highly anticipated gig at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff on June 25.
Read more: Foo Fighters announce UK tour with dates in Cardiff, London, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow
Speaking to WalesOnline, members of the bands shared their excitement over the fact that they would be opening for the Foo Fighters next summer. They also noted that the reaction from their new and existing fans following the announcement of the news had been overwhelmingly positive.
Cardiff-born Joe Williams is the frontman for Himalayas. The rock band was formed in 2015, and their hit single, Thank God I'm Not You, has impressively reached over 38 million streams on Spotify so far. According to Joe, supporting the Foo Fighters had always been a "pipe dream" for the band.
"We found out a week before it was announced through our agent," Joe explained. "Our agent looks after the Foo Fighters as well. Our agent saw our set show in London and wanted to sign us from there. We’ve always talked about the idea of supporting the Foo Fighters as if it was a pipe dream.
"We got a phone call after talking to our management about potentially doing the shows. And then, it all came through. We are all super chuffed and it doesn’t feel quite real, to be honest. Maybe it will feel real over time. All of us are just super super excited."
Meanwhile, the lead singer of CHROMA, Katie Hall, initially thought the news was a "scam". The bilingual band, which consists of Katie, Liam Bevan and Zac Mather, has often hit the radio waves of BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music, Kerrang! radio, Radio Wales and BBC Radio Cymru. But never did they imagine that they would be sharing the same stage as one of America's biggest rock bands.
When asked about how they found out about how they got the gig, Katie said: "This is hilarious, it was really funny. I work for the National Eisteddfod of Wales, and we had the proclamation ceremony in my hometown of Aberdare.
"I was there during the week getting the rugby club and the local community to put up Welsh bunting as we had an event on. I was looking at my phone at one point and an email popped up. I saw this email and thought: 'Oh my gosh, this can't be real!' and initially thought it was a scam.
"I screenshotted the email and sent it to the band's group chat. Zac said he had rung the number and said that it was legit. My manager was actually in Glastonbury at the time, so I phoned her fiancé as her phone was on aeroplane mode - she was at a festival, which was fair enough. But it all got confirmed from there. Turns out, it wasn’t a scam after all."
For both bands, performing on such a huge stage will be a momentous occasion. Since the announcement, both band members have said that they have been inundated with positive responses from fans.
Katie said: "It's been so lovely seeing people being so chuffed for us. We've been around for about six years now, so we've been around for quite a while and we've kind of grafted to get where we are, this doesn't really happen overnight." She added: "When we started, we were lucky enough to support Idles at SWN Festival. That was a crazy thing, that was when they had released their first album - I was totally obsessed and star-struck. But we've done nothing on this scale before, it’s going to be mad."
Joe said: "The response has been amazing. I think it’s because it’s such a big jump for us, I guess, we’ve supported bands at arenas but Millennium [Principality] Stadium is a pretty big jump. I guess a Foo Fighters show doesn’t get bigger than this! The response has been insane, perhaps people that have been sleeping on us are finally picking up on us."
With a year until both bands will be performing at the Foo Fighters gigs next summer, as always, the two acts hope to use these opportunities to show the very best of Welsh rock. Joe said: "This will undoubtedly be one of the best shows we’ll do in Cardiff.
"We’ve been at this venue so many times, watching other gigs happening, always dreaming of being on that stage. We are reminded day in, day out that we live in the same city as that venue. It’s going to be insane." He added: "We’ve always tried to fly the flag for Wales and this performance will be no different. We’ve done fairly big shows where we actually bring the Welsh flag with us - we represent Wales always."
"You want to kind of go up and smash the gig," Katie said. "It's going to be a massive honour to perform those Welsh language songs outside of Wales. I think especially because the Welsh songs are a big part of our set and our identity as a band. I’m kind of buzzing about that. When you get offered opportunities like this, you’ve got to make the most of it."
