Always loved Bob Geldof and the Boomtown Rats. We loved them in high school. His stuff, in a way, was a precursor to what took over the world in 1991 with the release of Nirvana’s “Nevermind”. Or with early Pearl Jam stuff, like “Jeremy”. Regular radio stations didn’t know what to do with them, really, but the college radio stations (which we listened to obsessively) played their songs all the time. But because this was the mid 1980s, when the airwaves were clogged with Air Supply, Lionel Richie, and Loverboy … there wasn’t really a place for him. It didn’t matter. He got our attention anyway. We also were big big big into “DO THEY KNOW IT’S CHRISTMAS TIME AT AAAALLLLL.” – the song, sure, but also who Bob Geldof was. He was a hero to us. That he could make such a thing happen. Basically, he just ASKED, and all these mega-stars cleared their schedules and showed up to record that song. How many people have ideas like that, but don’t ask … assuming that everyone will say No? Bob Geldof seems to not experience the word “No” in the way many of us do. It is not an ending. “No” does not mean “No” to Bob Geldof, there’s no finality in it. It’s just a reason for him to find another way in, to work harder to get people to say “Yes”. I really admire him for that. Anyway, I’ve always thought he was a cool guy, with his head on straight … who made the kind of music that disenchanted excitable teenage kids adore. I love people like that.
He’s been much in the news lately, obviously … I think it’s awesome what he’s trying to do.
BUT the point of this post is that Bob Geldof recently did a reading of Yeats poems, with Sinead Cusack and Rupert Graves at the British Library. Damn!! What a night! Wish I could have seen it!!
One question: the Yeats readings are part of a poetry series, created by a woman named “Josephine Cox” in the article. Later in the article, Ms. Cox is identified as the author of Damage – a book that absolutely ROCKED MY WORLD when I first read it. (I wonder if it would hold up now?) Anyway, as far as I knew, her name was Josephine Hart. Is this a mistake? Did she get married? But if she did get married, why would she give up the name that made her famous?
Inquiring minds want to know …
But anyway: Go, Bob Geldof!!!
Couldn’t have adored Geldof more than when, during the first Live Aid, he passionately proclaimed on UK TV: “Every pound you give will LITERALLY go into the mouth of a starving African.”
His point was, of course, that huge expenses weren’t going to be creamed off donations. No one carped that this wasn’t quite the perfect use of literally – it just came across as quintessential Geldof.
More Reasons…
…to appreciate Bob Geldof….
http://www.indepundit.com/archive2/2005/06/saving_africa_1.html
I loved Damage too! But I don’t think it would hold up.
I’ve always loved him…even grey he’s babe-o-licious.
Odd. Josephine Cox/Hart is a booker Prize judge this year, and when she was announced as such at the end of January, she was still “Hart” in the press release.