AFP / Christophe ARCHAMBAULTAt 68, Bob Geldof is back with The Boomtown Rats' first album in 36 years
Bob Geldof ruffles his white hair in front of the mirror to get it just dishevelled enough for the camera.
He may be 68, a grandfather, an honorary knight of the British Empire, regarded as something of a secular saint after Live Aid, but Geldof remains a rock star at heart.
And an outspoken one at that, dismissing London's other most famous owner of an unkempt mop, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, as a "simpleton" for Brexit.
Geldof is a man, in his own words, who cannot keep his "gob shut".
And particularly not now when he sees the world in "chaos", caught between what he describes as the over-arching power of tech robber barons and autocrats like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping and "that vulgar fool (US President Donald) Trump".
Geldof is back "making noise" -- as he puts it -- with The Boomtown Rats, the Irish punk band that first brought him to fame in the late 1970s, with their first album in 36 years.
With the world sinking into panic over the coronavirus, he said it seemed as good a time as any to unleash the rock wild man inside him that Geldof calls "Bobby Boomtown".
"Citizens Of Boomtown" comes with a book of lyrics and essays by Geldof and a documentary of the same name where Sting and Sinead O'Connor bend the knee to "the best rock 'n' roll band to have come out of Dublin" -- although Bono, who is also in the film, may beg to differ on that one.
Even without keyboards ace Johnnie Fingers, the Rats have lost none of their edge nor their rage.
"I said that I wasn't going to go mad when I got back on stage -- I can't do it anymore," Geldof told AFP. "But Bobby Boomtown wanted to hop out of his coffin, and he went nuts..."
- Break up big tech -
And there is plenty to be mad about, with the Rats greatest hits like "I Don't Like Mondays" more relevant now than ever, Geldof argued, with gun massacres almost weekly.
"I wasn't thinking of Big Brother when I wrote 'Someone's Looking At You', but when I sing it now I am," Geldof added, as he railed at the masters of tech.
AFP / Christophe ARCHAMBAULTGeldof says tech was meant to be the "ultimate democratising tool" but has turned out to be "perfect for authoritarianism"
"Your phone is recording you even if it's off... for people like (Facebook's Mark) Zuckerberg and (Jeff) Bezos (of Amazon) and Larry (Page) and Sergey (Brin of Google). They're monopolists and they need to be broken up," the Irishman declared.
"Alexa, your smart television, your device is constantly monitoring your every utterance and every action and they're packaging you.
"Your consumer choice, your political choice, your opinion, and they're selling that on to third parties who can influence those choices but also exploit you.
"The problem is that the product is you. And the worst is that we're complicit because we're doing it for convenience," he despaired.
- 'Political infantilism' -
The tech revolution came at the worst possible time, Geldof believes, just as "we're going to a period of political infantilism.
"In this moment of chaos -- not just because of the virus -- we are reverting back to what we believe are certainties... the nation states, the strongmen who seem to know where to go," he said.
"But Putin isn't a strong man. He's a mafia gangster. Xi Jinping is a ruthless, oppressive autocrat, (Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan is a simple dictator and Trump a vulgar fool."
Geldof wrote "Banana Republic" released in 1980 about the corrupt, repressive, priest-ridden Ireland in which he grew up.
"But when I sing it now, I think of the White House and the demise of the American republic."
It is tech, however, which gives him nightmares.
AFP / Christophe ARCHAMBAULT"You have to fight every day for democracy," Geldof says in an interview with AFP
"What was meant to be the ultimate democratising tool" has turned out to be "perfect for authoritarianism. So we have to be alert.
"You have to fight every day for democracy," said the man, who rallied the world to respond to the Ethiopian famine in 1984 with Band Aid.
"We had to struggle for centuries. And we are prepared to give it up for the convenience" he said, brandishing his smartphone.
"Fuck off!"
- Britain will bounce back -
But people "still buy into the ridiculous and ultimately fascist trope that only the guilty need be afraid. No, no, that's not it at all," Geldof cautioned.
"Only the innocent need be afraid in this new world. And that's what you must fight against."
Nor has Geldof stopped battling against Brexit, having taken to the River Thames in a barge against Nigel Farage's Brexit flotilla in one of the most surreal moments of the 2016 referendum campaign.
The vote to quit the EU "was an historic mistake", said Geldof who believes that despite the self-inflicted damage, Britain will bounce back. "Because that's what the Brits do. It's an intensely creative society," he said.
"But the argument is not over."
Geldof knows something of resilience, having lost his mother at the age of seven and his former wife Paula Yates and their daughter Peaches, both to drug overdoses.
He also puts that, and his rebel spirit, down to being left to his own devices at home in Dun Laoghaire, south of Dublin, while his father travelled the villages of Ireland trying to sell towels.
"Children learn what's permissible behaviour from their parents. That wasn't there for me. So when I encountered authority, I really didn't understand it."
"So make your own universe in which you can function," he said.
"You have no choice."
1979) The Boomtown Rats were an Irish rock band that scored a series of British hits between 1977 and 1980, and were led by singer Bob Geldof, who organized the Ethiopian relief efforts Band Aid and Live Aid. The Rats were formed in Dun Laoghaire, near Dublin, Ireland, in 1975 by Geldof (born Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof, October 5, 1954, Dun Laoghaire, Ireland), a former journalist; Johnnie Fingers (keyboards); Gerry Cott (guitar); Garry Roberts (guitar); Pete Briquette (bass); and Simon Crowe (drums). They took their name from Woody Guthrie's novel Bound for Glory. The group moved to London in October 1976, and became associated with the punk rock movement. Signing to Ensign Records, they released their debut single, "Lookin' After No. 1," in August 1977. It was the first of nine straight singles to make the U.K. Top 40. Their debut album, The Boomtown Rats, was released in September 1977, on Ensign in the U.K. and on Mercury in the U.S. Their second album, Tonic for the Troops, appeared in June 1978 in the U.K., along with their first U.K. Top Ten hit, "Like Clockwork." In the fall, "Rat Trap" from the album hit number one. A Tonic for the Troops was released in the U.S. on Columbia Records in February 1979 with two tracks from The Boomtown Rats substituted for tracks on the U.K. version. The Boomtown Rats' second straight U.K. number one came in the summer of 1979 with "I Don't Like Mondays," a song inspired by a California teenager who had gone on a killing spree and glibly justified her action with the title line. It was contained on the Rats' third album, The Fine Art of Surfacing, released in October 1979, and subsequently became the band's only U.S. singles-chart entry. The album also contained their next U.K. Top Ten hit, "Someone's Looking at You." The Boomtown Rats released their final U.K. Top Ten hit, "Banana Republic," in November 1980, followed by their fourth album, Mondo Bongo, in January 1981. At this point, guitarist Gerry Cott left the group, and they continued as a quintet. Their fifth album, V Deep, was released in the U.K. in February 1982. In the U.S., Columbia initially released only a four-song EP drawn from the album The Boomtown Rats, finally releasing the full LP in September, when it failed to chart. Also in 1982, Geldof starred in the movie Pink Floyd: The Wall. Columbia released the six-song compilation Ratrospective in March 1983, but rejected the band's newly recorded sixth album, In the Long Grass, which was released by Ensign in England. In 1984, Geldof and Midge Ure wrote "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and organized the star-studded Band Aid group to record it for Ethiopian relief, resulting in the biggest selling single in U.K. history. Geldof then went on to organize the two Live Aid concerts, held on July 13, 1985, in London and Philadelphia. Geldof's increased visibility led to the belated U.S. release of In the Long Grass, but when it failed to chart, the Boomtown Rats were left without a record label. The group folded in 1986, and Geldof launched a solo career. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
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