I FEEL bad about the bad things, I feel good about the good things, I wouldn’t change a thing, says Dave Grohl at the end of Back and Forth.

Throughout the 16 years that the Foo Fighters have been around there have been plenty of both.

Spawned from the death of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, Foo Fighters marked the beginning of the healing process for Grohl, who had been the pioneering grunge band’s drummer.

After some time away from music, Grohl returns to the recording studio, lays down an album in a matter of days, and emerges with a cassette, but no band.

After documenting Grohl’s relationship with Kobain and the effect his death had on him – a necessary, but brief, signpost along the way – Back and Forth, shown simultaneously for one night only at Showcase cinemas across Britain, goes on to chronicle the highs and lows of the US rock band.

If Metallica’s fascinating documentary, Some Kind of Monster placed the viewer as a fly on the wall, the band imploding before your very eyes, this film, directed by Oscar and Emmy winner James Moll, deals with the highs and lows by way of a series of anecdotes told by band members past and present, and there have been more than a few who fall into the former category.

For all his nice guy image, Grohl comes across as a hard taskmaster and, to some degree, a control freak – at one point, redoing all the drum tracks on The Colour and the Shape album without the knowledge of the band’s stickman, William Goldsmith, who, quite understandably, quit soon after.

Grohl and bassist Nate Mendel are the only everpresents in the band, though even Mendel quit, albeit for just 24 hours, an example of just how fragile an industry the music business can be.

Guitarists Franz Stahl, sacked over the phone, and Pat Smear, who walked away, hung around the fringes, guested and then ultimately returned to the fray, all have important parts to play in the film.

Drummer Taylor Hawkins’ overdose is also documented.

According to interviews, this was much to his reluctance, but it’s a necessary inclusion, if only to explain the closeness he and Grohl share both professionally and personally.

As a piece of work, Back and Forth is interesting, if not groundbreaking, and whether it will appeal to non-fans is open to question.

By way of a thank you to those who have supported the band through the thick and the thin, the documentary ends with a live runthrough of the new album, Wasting Light, recorded in a Los Angeles basement only two days before the airing. It was a fitting way to sign off and will have ensured those there will be dashing out tomorrow to buy it, though it’s probably the only “concert” I have been to where the audience has sat stock-still in their seats and there’s barely a whoop to be heard.

• Foo Fighters: A New Light – in which band members discuss their album Wasting Light – is on C4 at 12.10am tomorrow.