“Good to be playing music” - Berlin, 7.12.2007
In December 2007, Bob Geldof is back in Germany. Because of his commitment for Africa, Germany has seen a lot of Geldof in 2007. In the months and weeks leading up the G8 summit in Heiligendamm, he was all order viagra order cialis order cialis professional order viagra professional over the media, constantly on duty for Africa, trying to put the continent on the agenda. Now Bob has come back to play some music.
He has come without a new album or any other release, but despite his involvement for Africa Bob has always been recognized as a musician in Germany, and even without a lot of publicity, there’s a nice little mini tour. These three fan-friendly shows have conveniently been booked for Friday, Saturday and Sunday - there’s no debate that the remaining two of The Hamburg Four (plus friends) plot out the easiest way to make it to all three!
Berlin is the first of the three nights. The concert takes place in a small club but fills quickly. The stage seems tiny in comparison to the usual festival stages. It’s a mainly male audience, the usual forty-somethings who eagerly wait for Rat Trap revisited, but I also notice some younger people. Journalists with laptop computers are sitting on the stairs in the lobby, beginning their articles even before the show has started. There’s anticipation in the air. It’s not every day that a Sir comes to play some rock music. It’s eight o’clock, there’s no support band, so everybody’s getting another drink. At 8.30 pm. Bob Geldof and band finally get on stage.
It’s clear from the first note of Indifference that Bob is in a brilliant mood, the band are in great form. We sense early on that this is going to be a great show. Indeed, Bob is full of stories and jokes. The audience loves it from the beginning, it’s easy for Bob to win them over. There’s no need to win us over – we’re thrilled by this powerful show. Faster, louder. They simply rock!
“It’s good to be playing music,” Bob says after the first three songs, “and it’s good to be back, as good things happened here, with people in this room”. We’re later to learn what he means. First, we get to hear the following songs: Indifference, Love or something, A sex thing, When the night comes, Walking back to Happiness, Scream in Vain, One for me, Mudslide, Birthday Suit, Mondays, My Hippie Angel, Harvest Moon, Banana Republic, Someone’s looking, Mary of the Fourth Form and Rat Trap. He doesn’t have any new songs, Bob explains. “There’s something happening at the moment”, he says. He’s written some songs but “most of them are shit”. But it’s not easy: “You have to write hundreds to have one good song. We’re at the shit phase now”, he jokes. Oh well. Good things come to those who wait.
There are four songs that really stick out. Once again, Scream in Vain is very impressive and it sends shivers down my spine. Bob explains how the song came about and that there are “weird noises” in it, which some of us might like but that they have to be there… “The thing is, I can tell you the story but you won’t feel it until we play it. That’s the great thing about pop music, this great little art form.” And yes, I think everybody in the room can feel it when they start playing. The weird noises have to be where they are, just like Johnny’s eerie backing vocals, as well as the atmospheric lights.
We’re delighted to hear My Hippie Angel is on the set list. When have they last played that? It’s a lovely tune and now that I hear it I know I’ve missed it! Chill out, be cool, stay free… “The hippie song”, Bob calls it afterwards. There’s even a bit of history in this song from the 1992 album The Happy Club. “I know you couldn’t hear the song before the wall came down” - I suppose Bob refers to the line “love - it goes so far, travelling out across the USSR”. The USSR is history – just as censorship in Eastern Europe that prevented people from buying records by western bands.
Right after that, they play Harvest Moon – “the small little song”, Bob says, which they never put on record. It somehow reappeared when they were doing the compilation - Pete found it and liked it, as Bob tells us, and I’m glad he found it, as it is such a fragile, soothing song… “This guitar is shit”, Bob jokes when he begins playing, “or maybe it isn’t the guitar..?”
But the real highlight of the night is Banana Republic. As usual, Bob tells his German audience that the song went to number one in the charts because the Germans thought it was about them, but that it also went to the top of the charts in Ireland because the Irish knew it was about them… Back then, the situation was different in Ireland, Bob explains, it was a different Ireland than the country we know now… It was a poor country, with little boys selling the paper in the streets in no shoes or socks… It was great a lot has changed now, with the tribunals … Just like Scream in vain, the song gets under your skin, especially the brilliant ending with Bob’s harmonica and John’s wonderful guitar play. There seems to be an invisible bond between this man and his guitar! They’re deeply in dialogue, like an animal the guitar seems to be alive and communicates both with John and the audience. Grandiose!
After Rat Trap and a short break, they come back for an encore. Bob has swapped the polka dot shirt for a lurid green t-shirt with Mother Theresa printed on it. Roaring laughter from the audience. Nice shirt, Bob!
Suddenly a seventh person appears on stage – Campino, the singer with the German band Die Toten Hosen. Die Toten Hosen (which means “The Dead Trousers”), who started as a punk band in the early eighties, are one of the most successful German bands. I must have been one of the few people who liked both the Toten Hosen AND their arch rivals, Die Ärzte… Campino has come out as a devoted Rats fan and appears to be a good friend of Bob’s. I’d already seen Bob play with the Toten Hosen in Rostock at the G8 concert. Like in Rostock, Bob and Campino now do (What’s so funny ‘bout) peace love and understanding. It’s a great song and it’s a very special moment to see Bob and Campino play it again, this time with Bob’s band.
But it’s time for even more rock’n’roll – and for more friends on stage. Bob now welcomes Bernd Pfaffenbach, state secretary at the ministry of economics and personal representative of Angela Merkel for the G8 summits. In the mist of times, Pfaffenbach must have been a guitarist in his own band – and quite a good one it seems! Together, they now play Route 66, a song that works like a universal language, and all of a sudden, „Africa Bob“ and „Music Bob“ melt into one. It all makes sense and sounds right and complete.
Two more songs – A Hole to Fill and Diamond Smiles are still to follow. After more than two hours, they close the set with the reprise of Indifference. What an amazing show. Definitely a new entry into the Top Five Geldof shows. Can we have some more?