The album title is “How to write popular songs that will sell“. According to altsounds.com and others, “Popular songs” contains 14 songs. “Lyrically the album is full of love, hope and joy and one senses that Geldof is more comfortable in his own skin than ever before.”

musicweek.com lists “Silly Pretty Thing” on their playlist from July 26: “From Geldof’s new album How To Compose Popular Songs That Will Sell, this is a promising return that, while unlikely to win over a new generation of fans, will connect with his existing fanbase.”

Someone also came up with the tracklisting. According to that, the two other new songs we heard in The Irish village Dubai are not on the album, but I’m really interested in six packs (either way, lol).

Needless to say: all this is really exciting. Honestly, I can’t wait!

• October 13 (Wednesday), Vilvoorde, Cultuurcentrum Het Bolwerk

• October 15 (Friday), Hamont Achel, De Posthoorn

• October 16 (Saturday), Brugge, Stadsschouwburg

And there’s a love date (okay live date), Zacatecas, Mexico on July 18.

© Photo: Roger Richards

The Irish Village Dubai is an Irish pub. Like everything else in Dubai, it’s just a little bigger than your average Irish pub somewhere in Europe! Instead the Irish Village Dubai is like a huge Disneyland Irish village, with a village “street”, pubs and shops and a “village market square”. The stage is set up in the middle of the market square. Show time for Bob and the band is 9.40 pm. The sun has long set but when we get to the venue it is still an estimated 28 degrees…

The space in front of the stage is sandy and the sand is giving out all the heat of the day like a hot baking tray. Later during the show it is to become very dusty too, as the dry sand gets stirred up by a lot of dancing feet. But first… we get a new “first”!

The show actually opens with a new song! It’s called something like “Banker’s Song” and it’s about all the money lost in the credit crunch. So with the exception of Katowice, it must be the first show I see that doesn’t start with “Indifference”! But this is a great way to open the gig too as that one is funny and catchy and full of “Irishness”. The audience love it. By the time the band gets to “Indifference”, a huge cloud of sand has emerged in front of the stage. Everybody gets very dusty but of course it doesn’t keep people from dancing.

Following up are mainly well-known favourites, but however, there are another two new songs. One of them is called something like “Young and Sober”, another Irish one. The verses go through the decades of Bob’s life. As far as I can tell the lyrics are really witty (though the sound is mainly loud – they don’t do things by half-measures in Dubai!) but there’s also a verse about the forth decade of his life, where the words turn from “young and sober” to “drunk and older”. There’s a poor quality version on YouTube.

Then there’s a third new one that is more of a pop song, not so Irish, but in fact with an extremely catchy tune and an even catchier violin line, called “Stupid pretty little thing”. I really look forward to hearing it again soon on the radio! It’s just the right song to reel around in the dust to, so to say. Nice one! The rest of the setlist is in an unfamiliar order, but with some all-time favourites. “Walking back” simply makes me very happy once again.

The band seem to be enjoying themselves and Bob is in great form. So is the audience. Everybody just seems to be having a great night. Bob doesn’t do very much talking in between, today is more about party and dancing. The temperature has dropped a little and after a bit over two hours the concert is already over. I could have danced on forever in the soft desert sand! It is weird to be listening to the music in a fairytale land like this – but it absolutely works.

We have also caught a first short glimpse of the coming album with this gig. Give us more soon, please!

Thanks to Roger for the photo! I forgot to take my camera along to the gig… Oh well. Some more nice live and soundcheck pics are on the Irish Village facebook profile.

Happy Christmas!

Official making of film.

Thank you Debbie for the photos!!

Some good videos on youtube, for example here.

So “20 LAT POLSKIEJ DEMOKRACJI”, 20 years of democracy in Poland, is reason enough to celebrate. It’s the motto and occasion of the festival in Katowice in Silesia in the south-east of Poland. From Berlin, we get there conveniently by train. Also on the bill are five Polish artists, with Bob z zespołem – Bob and band – to headline the festival.

The stage is set up on the corner of a small park. The venue stretches out onto a big crossroad. Between the seating area and the street, there’s a massive piece of presumably communist art, a huge sculpture made of black stone or metal. The place is surrounded by high tower blocks, hotels and office buildings.

After spending the day in friendly Katowice, we get ready for the gig. It starts late and unlike usual, they don’t start with The great Song of Indifference. Instead, accordion wizard and piano and keyboard player Alan comes to the front of the stage and opens the concert with “Sto lat”, a Polish birthday song. The audience loves it and Alan is accompanied by a choir of thousands from the very first word! The perfect opener and it wins the crowd over immediately.

Sto lat
Great song of indifference
A sex thing
When the night comes
Walking back to happiness
Harvest Moon
Scream in vain
One for me
Mudslide
Mondays
Joey
Mary of the 4th form
Rat Trap (with Sgt. Peppers middle piece – “It was 20 years ago today…”)

Diamond Smiles
Indifference Reprise

In the first interval, Bob says: “Playing here is like playing in Ireland. There are so many Irish here, just like there are so many Poles in Ireland - and that’s the way it should be!” This statement also somehow sums up what our trip is about (besides hearing good music): We have the freedom to come here, and just like in Norway last December the gig brings together people from all corners of Europe, West and East. With censorship and travel restrictions of merely 20 years ago this would have been impossible.

Bob remembers one concert in the parliament in Warsaw: “We played here one week after you got rid of communism. I feel privileged to come back to play at Poland’s 20 birthday!”

He also says “I hope the older of you remember the events 20 years ago and I hope you’ll always remember 20 years ago”.

The show is immediately followed by Orffs “Carmina Burana” from the loud speakers and fireworks somewhere close to the festival site. After Carmina Burana, we get to hear the “Ode to Freedom” (Beethoven’s 9th symphony), which puts everything into a European context again. Anyway it’s the weekend of the European elections. The guy in front of us, who’d danced wildly to “Indifference” with his friends, does a sort of expression dance to Orff and Beethoven, leading us to believe that the anniversary and Europe must mean something to him…

All photos taken by Corinna