Foo Fighters hold off challenge from Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds to secure their sixth UK number 1 album

Foo Fighters standing together outside at night

(Image credit: Danny Clinch)

Foo Fighters have scored their sixth UK number 1 album with new release But Here We Are.

Dave Grohl's group have previously topped the chart with 2002's One By One, 2007's Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, 2011's Wasting Light, 2017's Concrete and Gold and 2021's Medicine At Midnight.

Despite unanimous critical praise for their 11th studio album - Metal Hammer's Dave Everley hailed it as "a defiant, emotional roar in the face of loss" while Classic Rock noted "But Here We Are might be the Foos’ most cathartic [album], but it’s also one of their best" - the group's triumph was no foregone conclusion, given that the Los Angeles band were going head-to-head against Noel Gallagher: impressively, every studio album Gallagher has released - seven Oasis albums and three 'solo' records as Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - has reached number 1 in the UK charts.

Ultimately, Gallagher had to settle for second place (for this week, at least) with Council Skies.

Lower down the new chart, compiled, as ever, by the Official Charts Company, Avenged Sevenfold landed a sixth UK Top 40 placing with the much-lauded Life Is But A Dream… debuting at number 21, while Rival Sons scored a fifth Top 40 position, with Darkfighter entering the chart at number 30.

Rumours persist that the Foo Fighters will return to the UK to play a secret show at Glastonbury festival later this month, billed as The Churnups. A note on the band's webstore recently confirmed that Grohl's group will definitely tour the UK in 2024.

Earlier this week Grohl penned an emotional 'thank you' note to fans of his band for getting the group through their first set of shows without late drummer Taylor Hawkins.

"Hey, it's been a while," Grohl's message, posted on the Foo Fighters' social media channels, begins. "Now that we've returned from our first run of shows, I felt compelled to reach out and thank you all for being there for us."

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A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.