Music departures: The Who, the Foo and Jim Morrison

The Who go on farewell tour, the Foo Fighters say goodbye to a key member and a missing piece of Doors history returns to its final resting place. IA music columnist David Kowalski knows what is valuable this week.

The Who are starting to resemble Spinal Tap

As Open Season on drummers continues, Who drummer Zak Starkey, son of Richard (aka “Ringo”), is back in the news. I last wrote about how Starkey had been unceremoniously sacked by singer Roger Daltrey, only to be reinstated within hours by guitarist Pete Townshend. I then surmised that, with the aforementioned principal players of the band and their advancing ages, the band may not last much longer and that his days with the band would be numbered as a result.

I hate to be right in my predictions. Last week, The Who announced a 16-date farewell tour, which will only play in North America and not in the band’s birthplace of England in the UK. Daltrey claims it is too difficult to navigate a tour around the UK and it is much easier to travel around the USA.

Sounds like a cop-out to me.

If that wasn’t enough, news has just come to hand that Starkey will NOT be returning as the drummer for this tour after all. Instead, Scott Devours will be the replacement drummer. He has been playing in Daltrey’s solo band for years. I have no idea what is behind this decision, however, I suspect that the gripes that caused Starkey to be fired the first time a few weeks ago, have not been sufficiently resolved.

Either way, it will be a bittersweet end to one of the world’s great rock bands.

Josh Freese is sacked from Foo Fighters

Yet another drummer debacle this week has seen Josh Freese released from his tenure with the Foo Fighters. No reason has been publicly stated by the band, however Freese has been winkingly vocal on social media about it.

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A post shared by Josh Freese (@joshfreese)

In his own statement, he said:

"In my 40 years of drumming professionally, I have never been let go from a band.”

The plot thickens as to why he was let go. There have been rumours of bandleader Dave Grohl’s high expectations of his musicians, however this is a curious event, considering that this came out of the blue, and the band aren’t doing any shows at the moment, save for a one-off gig at the Singapore Grand Prix in October 2025, and three other gigs around the same time in South East Asia.

Freese has been a drummer for hire for decades, having played on records or on stage as a member of Nine Inch Nails, A Perfect Circle, Devo and The Offspring, among countless others. He’s never been short of work, and will continue to be so in the future. He has even been jovial about it, posting his list of the top ten possible reasons he was fired on his Instagram. The number one reason being his devotion to his pet poodles may have been the reason (however, I doubt it).

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A post shared by Josh Freese (@joshfreese)

Stolen part of Jim Morrison’s gravesite found

News from France is that a sculpture adorning the final resting place of Jim Morrison, singer of The Doors, has been found, 37 years after it went missing.

Jim Morrison was found dead in the bath in his hotel room in 1971 and is buried in the Père-Lachaise Cemetery. His gravesite has been a site of pilgrimage for Doors fans who regard it as a shrine to the fallen musician. They have covered everything in graffiti and have even put graffiti instructions on other gravestones to tell others how to get to Morrison’s grave.

As reported by Rolling Stone in the US, the bust of Morrison was designed by Croatian artist Mladen Mikulin and unveiled in 1981. Again, like the rest of the gravesite, it was also covered in graffiti, and bits of the sculpture were chipped off as souvenirs by visitors. The disappearance of the bust in 1988 was mysterious. Two anonymous fans claimed they stole it a few weeks after the disappearance was reported, while other theories include one that the caretakers of the cemetery took it in order to preserve it.

The sculpture was found by French police in an unrelated raid, investigating a fraud case. The object has not been returned as of yet, however, I would question whether it should be returned to the gravesite at all.

The photos show a sculpture that has been badly damaged and is missing its nose. It was damaged by people wanting no more than a memento. It is beyond me why fans do this to famous artworks and memorials in the first place. For this very reason, nobody can get within 50 metres of Stonehenge anymore, because of the ongoing and sustained damage to the triptychs by tourists who only think of themselves.

Clearly people have the wrong idea of what is valuable.

New music - ”Moon Made” by effie isobel

You’ve gotta love media releases, and the way they often describe music and attempt to ascribe a genre to it. The headline of this one describes the new single by Adelaide-based singer-songwriter effie isobel (stylised all lower case) as “dream pop” (which is ok), but “bubble grunge”? Huh?

It later qualifies the term as having sweet melodies with a gritty undertone to it. Fair enough, too. In this case, it's pretty accurate. This is a song with many layers to unpack within this richly detailed track.

Describing the piece and reflecting on her own music, effie says:

When I daydream about the way people listen to my music, I imagine it soundtracking big feelings, bad moods, headphones on dance parties or driving with friends. 'Moon Made' is the song you listen to on the way to a pasta and wine date with a cutie, manifesting a lover who worships you.

It’s the song you listen to while getting ready with your best friend for a night out at the dive bar to see a local band (you have a crush on the drummer). It’s a song you listen to while lighting a candle before spending the night dancing in your room.

This is definitely headphone music - music to wash over your psyche. Get amongst it.

Until next time…

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David Kowalski is a writer, musician, educator, sound engineer and podcaster. His podcasts 'The Sound and the Fury Podcast' and 'Audio Cumulus' can be heard exclusively here. You can follow David on Twitter @sound_fury_pod.