And Now - Gig Review

Bob Geldof At The Palais Royale
Toronto, September 20, 2002

Written and kindly Submitted by Christine Bode
Photo submitted by Mike Tutton, processed by Chris Graham.

Art in its many mediums: music, literature, theatre, poetry, photography, painting, film, and dance - all forms of creative expression - is the very essence of the beauty and possibility of life. It's the thing I live for and which sustains me through the darkness and I believe the same is true for Bob Geldof.

For nine long years I have been waiting for the opportunity to see Bob in concert for the second time and last night was the night! The anticipation was agonizing! I spent the last couple of months trying everything in my power to make a connection with Bob's "people" so that I might arrange to meet him in person either before or after the show. I wrote Mick Owen, Barbara Skydell and Tina McBain, Webmaster of bobgeldof.info, who was particularly helpful to me and for which I will be forever grateful. Through six degrees of separation, my friend Dave gave me the number of a guy at Edge 102 Radio in Toronto and he gave me the number of Eric Alper of KOCH Entertainment.

Eric actually called me yesterday and said he liked my story about the poem I wrote inspired by Bob and the fact that Bob had written me back and all these years later I would relish the opportunity to meet my hero and write about it for his official website. Eric and I agreed that Bob was a hero to both of us and that everyone should have one. He would be happy to introduce me to Bob after the concert when he would be doing a little "meet and greet". Eric described himself to me, gave me his cell phone number and told me where to meet him after the concert was over. He said that Bob would have to talk to some record people first but that he wouldn't want to talk to them for long and would rather talk to someone like me! Was I peaking!!

Naturally, when I got off the phone I freaked out with joy!! I called several family members and close friends and left hysterically happy voicemail messages for them. "I'm going to meet Bob Geldof!! I did it! Aaahhhh!!!" I took the day off work to prepare myself, both physically (went to the beauty salon to get my hair coiffed and eyebrows waxed) and mentally (to write out some questions for Bob if I had the chance to ask them). I listened to Bob's records and I watched Bono on Oprah. It was a GREAT day!

Jennifer, my best friend of 26 years, is the only person who truly understands what Bob Geldof has meant to me over the past 20 years and it was only fitting that she should be the one to accompany me to Bob's concert. My manic enthusiasm for this event managed to infect her too. As the concert venue is close to Jen's house, I arranged to meet her at her home at 6:00 p.m. and together we took a cab to The Palais Royale, at 1601 Lakeshore Blvd. West, to find a healthy sized queue of people ready to go inside. The Palais Royale is an old ballroom overlooking Lake Ontario and last night, the air was languid and humid with the imminent threat of rain. There's an open-air deck you can walk onto from inside and I went outside to watch a bit of lightening that was blazing in off the lake. Spectacular view! It was a beautiful and intimate setting for a concert. However, the venue isn't air conditioned, so although fans were blowing, it was pretty warm inside.

Jen and I found aisle seats at the stage right end of the second row of seating. There were plastic and metal fold-up chairs for everyone to sit in and it felt like you were at a private party. I couldn't fathom why Bob hadn't sold more tickets and wasn't playing a major venue. He's so incredibly talented! It felt like our small audience of a couple hundred people was all in on this great secret that no one else knew about. The Palais Royale, where the Rolling Stones recently played, is quite small and hosts a bar at the opposite end of the room from the stage. Fortunately, the beer was cold.

I looked around for Michael Tutton, another Toronto contributor to theboomtownrats.co.uk website whom I have corresponded with by email on occasion and found him sitting in the far stage left aisle of the front row with his friend. I hadn't met him before but I introduced myself and he was very nice for a man who had been sick for the past several days. He still seemed a little under the weather.

I met a lovely couple that I sat beside named Tracy & Jørgen. Tracy had an amazing poster of Bob from a 1981 Seneca College concert that she took with a 200 mm lens and she wanted him to sign it as she'd had it hanging in her living room for the past 21 years! (He did, after the show!) Jørgen is from Norway and he told me he has every Boomtown Rats album on vinyl, but unfortunately they didn't have a turntable. A woman in the front row named Louise, another long time Geldof/Rats fan, turned around and asked, "Are you the Celtic Poet?" I was shocked! She told me she visits Geldof's and the Rats' websites and found the link to my website and recognized me from my picture! I couldn't believe it! I was so pleased. She even told me that she likes my poetry and that I inspired her to write. That was one of the finest compliments I have ever received! Naturally, we swapped email addresses. I think that almost everyone in the audience were long time, loyal fans, and everyone seemed to be talking about their own Geldof/Rats experiences.

PJ Olsson, who I know nothing about, opened for Bob and he was wonderful! Another new music discovery! He has a CD coming out in January here in Canada and I will definitely buy it. The guy has a terrific voice and played intelligent, heartfelt songs. He strummed his acoustic guitar and played keyboards through an I. Mac…a sign of the times or what?

The acoustics at The Palais Royale are exceptional and the sound was fantastic. Bob took the stage with his band by 10:00 p.m. and his voice was in top form all evening. He sounded awesome and looked fairly well rested, although I wanted to feed him a hamburger or something because he's awfully thin. He struck Jen and I as being quite vulnerable actually, although obviously in love with his job as a musician. I forgot what a great guitar player Bob is and he also plays a mean harmonica. Jamie Moses (who has played with Brian May and Queen, Tracy's favourite band - she was excited by him!) and Pete Briquette on guitars, Vince Lovepump (in a black mesh S&M shirt) playing fiddle and tin whistle, Allan Dunn on keyboards/accordion and Niall Power on drums were an extremely tight unit who looked like they were truly enjoying themselves up there on stage with Bob.

The set list consisted of, in order:

The Great Song of Indifference - one of my favourites - and it really is a great one to open the show with as it just rocks the house! They followed up with: "Too Late God", "The Chains of Pain", "A Gospel Song", "A Sex Thing", and "Walking Back to Happiness". Every song sounded perfect to my ears, but perhaps I'm a little biased.

Bob explained that he was going to play three songs in a row from his newest effort, "Sex, Age and Death" and that he was going to go inside himself for a while because the songs are intensely personal and almost embarrassing to perform. I yelled out, "It's an EXCELLENT RECORD!" and he heard me and smiled. Everyone around me cheered and nodded their heads. With that gorgeously resonant voice and sexy Dublin accent, I could listen to this man read the phone book! (Books on tape, books on tape!) I loved when he talked to the audience and told us stories about the songs, or the Rats when they were on tour in Eastern Europe before the Wall came down in Berlin.

From "Sex, Age & Death" he played the scathing "One For Me", a particularly brilliant version of "Mudslide" (I thought it was incredibly passionate), and the poignant "My Birthday Suit". He actually did look a bit tortured when he finished that mini-set and paced back and forth across the stage like a caged tiger, wringing his hands out and shaking the sweat off his face.

Next up, "I Don't Like Mondays" and the crowd went wild with the memory of that famous tune. He then told us the story behind "Room 19", after which he slid into "Inside Your Head" (I think he tore a vocal cord screaming that one!). He told us his inspiration for "The Soft Soil", a song dedicated to some of his heroes; young people who laid down their lives for the end of Communism in Russia back in 1990.

Bob asked the audience to make requests for songs they'd like to hear and if he could remember them, the band would try to play them. Everyone was screaming out his or her favourites. The band played an old Rats' tune, "House on Fire", and "The Beat of the Night" and when Bob couldn't remember the words, he just smiled and sang sha la la's and do de do da's. He sang an acoustic version of "$6,000,000 Loser", a wildly rockin' "Mary of the Fourth Form" (after reiterating the amusingly sexy story of Mary), which started people dancing up front and then "The End of the World", before wrapping up with "Rat Trap", at which point the dance floor in front of the stage was flooded with people and the entire audience was on its feet.

We stamped our feet, howled, clapped, and screamed for Bob and the band to do an encore and they rewarded us with three! The first encore song was the beautiful "Pale White Girls", followed by the grand "A Hole To Fill". They left the stage. We hollered and pounded some more and they came back out to do "The Great Song of Indifference" again. Pandemonium…no one wanted them to leave…they came back for one last song, "Diamond Smiles", and waved their final goodbyes.

Many people hung around after the lights came on. Eric had told Jen and I to wait at the back near the bar for him to call us for the "meet and greet". Michael Tutton was waiting nearby as well with his camera. We noticed that a crowd had formed around Bob when he came out from backstage wearing a green scarf around his neck (he said his throat was "fucked") and he signed many autographs and took pictures with quite a few adoring fans. He looked knackered. What we didn't know is that that's all there was for the "meet and greet" and security people told us it was time to leave before we had a chance to meet Bob.

My heart sank. I walked towards the backstage curtains to look for Eric and find out what the hell was going on and just then Bob walked back out with a few people. I walked right up to him and said, "Hi Bob. My name's Christine and I have a gift for you. I wrote a poem inspired by you years ago and you wrote me back and I've written a book of poetry and would like you to have it along with an original photograph."

I pulled the bag out of my knapsack. He said, "Oh, that's you! From the website. Hello." He knew of me! OHMYGOD!!! "Thank you." He kissed me European style on both cheeks and I kissed him back and left purple lipstick stains on his cheeks. Jen introduced herself and he kissed her too. I fumbled in my knapsack for my camera and asked if I could get a picture. He said of course. I said, "Just a minute, you've got some lipstick on your face. And I wiped it off for him." He has very soft skin.

Jen took a photo of Bob with his arm around me (sigh…if we could only bottle such moments for times when we really need them!) and a security guard took one of the three of us. I don't know why it slipped out, but I told Geldof that I'd named my dog after him and he said "You named your DOG, after me!?!" Jen piped up, "Do you know how many times we've said the name Geldof over the past 11 years? A LOT!" I touched Bob's arm and said "But he's a really cool dog!" He just shook his head and laughed.

He was very gracious and kind to us and even though the moment I had been anticipating for SO long was over in the blink of an eye, I will never forget it and it was worth all of my efforts tenfold. Bob truly is the beautiful human being I have always thought he was. I hope he finds a little bit of beauty in my gift to him. He makes me want to be a better person. He makes me want to give more. He makes me want to do something important with my life for the rest of the world. I just want him to know that if I can ever be of any kind of assistance to him in any way, I'm there for him! Loyal to the end.

Written and kindly Submitted by Christine Bode.