BOB GELDOF BRINGS HIS LATEST TUNES AND WELL-LOVED HITS TO HARROGATE’S ROYAL HALL

Bob Geldof is, arguably, better known for his political activism and attempts to end world poverty than for his tunes. That’s not to say Geldof hasn’t produced some memorable songs; quite the opposite is true, and he’ll be proving as much when he visits Harrogate’s Royal Hall on Friday 25 May as part of his current UK tour.

Not many musicians can accurately claim to have changed the world – Geldof can. Band Aid’s 1984’s poverty anthem (co-written with Midge Ure) DoThey Know It’s Christmas? topped the UK chart for five weeks and brought the plight of Ethiopia to national then global awareness. It remains the second biggest-selling single in UK singles chart history, only relinquishing the top spot in 1997 to Elton John’s Diana tribute, Candle In The Wind.

The single’s success spawned the immense Live Aid, a rock-concert titan of 16 hours broadcast live on UK TV and radio that raised more than £150million for famine relief and earned Geldof an honorary knighthood at 34. Not one to shy away from controversy, Geldof swore twice live on telly and ordered viewers to stay in and watch the concert rather than go to the pub.

Amazing charity work aside, there is of course also his work with The Boomtown Rats, the 1970s/80s rock and punk-led group that had two number ones, including controversial 1979 number one smash IDon’t Like Mondays, penned in response to the California school shooting carried out by Brenda Ann Spencer. Geldof left the group in 1986 to work on his autobiography, Is That It?, and forge a solo career, as well as keeping up hiswell-earned reputation as rock music’s potty-mouthed philanthropist.

Geldof’s latest LP, How To Compose Popular Songs That Will Sell, was released on Mercury Records on February 11, 2011. His first album since 2001’s Sex, Age & Death and his fifth as a solo artist (it’s his eleventh if you include The Boomtown Rats’ back catalogue), the album features 14 new compositions recorded at home with his band and in various friends’ studios and produced by his long-time collaborator Pete Briquette.

TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE NOW AT www.harrogatetheatre.co.uk

By Andy on April 16, 2012