Geldof marks turning 70 in raw, spirited style
The Boomtown Rats London Palladium, W1
Bob Geldof was in his element at the London Palladium. Not raging about Africa, or grouching about Brexit, just ripping up and down a stage with the slouchily aggressive energy of an overgrown juvenile delinquent, bashing a tambourine and belting through a set of punky, trashy, witty rockers with the revived outfit he self-mockingly (but not incorrectly) introduced as “the greatest rock and roll band in the world… from Dún Laoghaire”. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s the Boomtown Rats.
Thursday night’s concert in the salubrious theatre was billed as a belated 70th birthday celebration for Geldof, and a couple of thousand devoted fans were in the mood to party. He looked good up there, tall and skinny, with buckskin jacket and a wild shaggy mop of grey hair, strutting about like a slopeshouldered Irish Mick Jagger. The Boomtown Rats rose up as part of punk but their roots always dug into the R’N’B swagger of the Rolling Stones, and that loose, bluesy thrill has become even more pronounced with age. After a full-blooded opening salvo that included a raucous version of (I Never Loved) Eva Braun, Geldof proclaimed “enough of the old s***!” And I’m betting that is the first time the Palladium has resonated to an audience chanting “Old s***! Old s***!” Of course, Geldof is far too consummate a showman not to give them what they wanted.
The Rats have quietly expunged the creepy schoolgirl lechery of Mary of the Fourth Form, but they had plenty of other hits to fill the gap. Their number ones I Don’t Like Mondays and Rat Trap were orchestrated by Geldof into lusty singalongs. And the crowd’s fervour made the Palladium seem like a dingy basement club in 1977. This was a gig that felt spirited and real. Some feelings never get old.