Dave Grohl’s 13-year-old Foo Fighters have avoided the rapid boom and bust of rock today to succeed in the old fashioned way — six quality albums and few surprises, resulting in increasingly bigger gigs. They may actually owe their latest elevation in status to a previous show at Wembley, when they had just five songs in which to impress before Madonna at last summer’s Live Earth concert and noisily stole the show.

Grohl, once shy about leaving his post as Nirvana’s drummer to sing, has become a capable rock god, working a crowd that looked like a pointillist painting with the exaggerated, arm-flailing gestures necessary to register in tier three, row Z. He often meandered down an ego ramp that stretched almost to the far end of the pitch, barked “Sing it!” and replaced all commas with F-words in his speech.

If you earn popularity on this scale, the first thing to go is the sound, which here was loud while still seeming to be very far away, volume without impact. The tunes were always recognisable, though, and in a singles-heavy set there were plenty of good ones. This Is A Call was epic, All My Life incendiary, turning the stadium red as it roared to its climax.

Pacing was nicely handled with an acoustic segment, the world’s first entertaining drum solo and even a triangle solo. With a fireworks finale proving the only real spectacular moment, Grohl reached new heights while keeping both feet firmly on the ground.