Bob Geldof - THE HAPPY CLUB - 1992 

Track Listing
1. Room 19 (Sha La La La Lee)
2. Attitude Chicken
3. The Soft Soil
4. A Hole To Fill
5. The Song Of The Emergent Nationalist
6. My Hippy Angel
7. The Happy Club
8. Like Down On Me
9. Too Late God
10. The Roads Or Germany (After B.D)
11. A Sex Thing
12. The House At The Top Of The World


All songs written by Bob Geldof except:
"The Song Of The Emergent Nationalist": Bob Geldof / Jami Moses
" The Happy Club": Bob Geldof / Karl Wallinger
" Too Late God": Bob Geldof / Karl Hyde
" The House At The Top Of The World": Bob Geldof / Rick Smith


The Happy Clubsters are

Bob Geldof: lead vocals, accoustic and electric guitars, harmonica
Pete Briquette: basses, keyboards, programming
Bob Loveday: violin, penny whistle, bass, recorder
Geoff Richardson: viola, mandolin, accoustic and electric guitars, saxophone, ukelele, penny whistle
Jamie Moses: acoustic and electric guitars
Niail Power: drums
Alun Dunn: accordion, piano, tin whistle, organ, one-row melodian, keyboards
Spike Edney: organ, piano, guitar, keyboards

Backing vocals by The Happy Clubsters

Special thank to trainee clubster:
Karl Wallinger: Guitar, Drums, vocals, keyboards

Produced by Rupert Hine, Bob Geldof and Pete Briquette
Recorded at the Point Studios, London
Engineered by Johnny Milton and Stephen W.Tayler

Also recorded at Joe's Garage Studios, London by Stephen W.Tayler
Assisted by Chris London
And at Studios Acousti, Paris by Stephen W.Tayler
Assisted by Emmanuel Payet and Stephane Herve
Further recording at Seaview Studios by Karl Wallinger
Mixed at Joe's Garage Studios, London by Stephen W.Tayler

Mastered at the Master Room, London by Arun Chakraverty

Design and Art Direction: Mike Ross, Normal Service, London
Photography: Gavin Evans

'I know it sounds trite and banal' explains Bob at the time the Happy Club was released, 'But the truth is that pop music is what I do, its what I do best and its the only thing I get satisfaction from.' Couldn't agree more,  

Bob had again adopted the spontaneous musical approach, as he had done 2 years earlier with the much acclaimed Vegetarians of Love Album.  A 13 song collection of freewheeling musical energy, Geldof's songs as ever, blending humorous lyrics, human tragedy and still managing to take a rather large grin at human idiocy. 

I remember hearing an interview with Bob, he said that 'They had recorded a lot more songs than the 13 that had ended up on the album, in a very short space of time' never doing more than 3 takes for any song, the idea being to create a situation that inspired spontaneity.  This impulsive approach almost seems perfectly suited to the new songs. 

The album starts with the absolutely brilliant -'Room 19'- a song inspired by the Moscow institute of the brain, where the brain of the likes of Stalin, Lenin and Tchaikovsky are studied and catalogued in great detail for posterity.  The song starts with the boys talking and clapping in thebackground and then building into the very catchy tune of the song. 

Next -'Attitude Chicken'- a ruthlessly observed dig at the politically correct attitudes of the leisure classes.  Great song, great lyricsShe wears designer jewels, she's got designer clothes, which go with her designer mouth, eyes, ass, tits and nose -- Fantastic!!!!! 

'The Soft Soil' - starts slow, builds and builds and builds, I love this song, derived from a phrase by Boris Yeltsin, made at the graveside of 3 Russian boys who died when they rushed to defend Moscow's Parliament during the attempted coup of 1991.  This song has a very similar strategy to that of 'Voyager 2', of the Vegetarians album. 

Next -'Hole to Fill'- Not 100% what this songs about, I assume it's about being gay, nevertheless another fantastic song, and very sing along. 

Very eerie and mystical is the next one -' The Song of the Emergent Nationalist'- very Van Morrison influenced possibly.  Very moody song, is this one, with a lot of fantastic little musical interludes. 

Then -'My Hippy Angel'- This was released as a single along with 'Room 19' - The lyrics to this are again excellent - All the birdies swimming in the sea, all the fishes hanging in the trees -Very hippy, sing out - Na! Na! Na!----Na! Na! Na! - Come on! Come on now! 

'The Happy Club' - title song to the album, what a jolly song, another one to sing along - Na! Na! Na!----Na-Na-Na-Na-Na-Na     

'Down on me' - says Bob - Yep 'Like down on me' - Great song, very angry sounding, Very stamp your feet.  Great drum sound.  A lot of lyrics, almost spoken very quickly to great effect.     

'Too Late God' - A song about middle age men trying hard to rediscover their lost youth.  The song starts very country and western almost, with the sliding guitar.  This song stays in your head forever.  The sort of song that you hear first thing on a morning, and you're still singing it last thing at night. 

'The Roads of Germany' - very poetic and very Bob Dylan - almost a folk song this one.     

Next - 'A Sex Thing' - Another very moody song, and again very folkish.  Bob's voice covers a range of very different attitudes from start to finish.  A very well put together song.        

The final track on the album - 'House at the top of the World' - presents a bittersweet spoken word of Bob's youthful innocence years ago in Ireland.  A very eerie musical background creating a very euphoric atmosphere. 

Overall this album is excellent, very different from the early Rats, but it can definitely be seen that Bob has matured in his musical and song writing ability.  It's also worth mentioning that Bob has assembled a very good and talented set of musicians, that gel together perfectly on this album.