Dave Grohl invites fan onstage to play drums for his birthday

If Dave Grohl is on a one-man mission to charm the world, then he's showing no signs of stopping.

Just weeks after breaking his leg onstage and playing on, he came up with another slice of big-hearted rock gold by inviting a fan up on stage to play with Foo Fighters at a show in Toronto last week.

Anthony Bifolchi had brought along a sign which read "It's my birthday, can I play drums?" - and, sure enough, Grohl indulged him from his throne of guitars. However, before he played, he warned him “If you suck on the drums, I will personally tar and feather your ass, now get on those drums right now … I sure as hell hope this motherfucker doesn’t suck. Do you know Foo Fighters songs?”

Luckily, for both of them, he did, blasting out a very respectable version of Big Me before returning to the crowd.

Getting the audience involved seems to be the in thing at the moment. Green Day have famously invited fans up to play for many years, while Grohl had previously invited an 8-year-old on stage in Manchester to sing Times Like These after spotting him singing along to all their songs in the crowd.

Meanwhile, last week U2 - again in Toronto - invited one of their own tribute bands, Acrobat, to play a song with them; they performed 1988 hit Desire to excellent effect. As the band left the stage, the real Bono gave his alter-ego some sound advice: "Bono, when they talk shit about you, remember - half of it's true".