August 27, 2011 18:23

Foster The People's Mark Foster chats U2 and 'Spider-Man' at Leeds Festival

Plus band hail Reading and Leeds Festivals crowds as 'Pumped Up Kicks' takes off

Photo: Richard Johnson/NME

Foster The People frontman Mark Foster has spoken to NME about how he had a hand in writing the Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark musical.

The singer, chatting after his band's Leeds Festival show today (August 27), said he penned a number of tracks with producer Alex Da Kid for the Broadway show including lead-off single 'Rise Above 1', which features lead actor Reeve Carney plus U2's Bono and The Edge.

He said:

Alex contacted me when I was in LA and we wrote a handful of songs together and that track was one of the songs we worked on. To me U2 are legends so to even have my hands in something Bono has touched is crazy.

Foster said he hasn't caught the troubled musical yet, which suffered a series of setbacks including injuries to cast members, financial problems and scathing reviews, because of the band's busy tour schedule.

He added:

I haven't had chance to see it yet which is a shame because I really want to see it. I've been friends with Reeve Carney for a long time so I'd like to see him do well. They had a bunch of troubles with it at first which is a nightmare but now it seems to be shaping up.

Meanwhile, Foster The People attracted a huge crowd to the Festival Republic tent this afternoon (August 27) as they made their debut at the event. They were greeted with similar scenes at Reading yesterday, which Foster described as one of the best shows he'd ever played.

He said:

The Reading crowd was incredible because they were engaged for the whole time. It was one of the most fun times I've had onstage. Right from the get go it was just going off. And here the crowd knew 'Helena Beat' and 'Pumped Up Kicks' which was great because we've never played a show up here before. So to get the crowd going like that was just a good feeling.

Foster The People played:

'Houdini'
'Call It What You Want'
'Life On The Nickel'
'Miss You'
'Helena Beat'
'Don't Stop'
'Pumped Up Kicks'

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