Live Performance Review
OR BURNS NIGHT WITH BOB GELDOF AND THE RENT-O-KILLERS -
25 January 2004
By Katherine Frier-Obad
We’ve
been warned about Glenrothes – “there’s nothing to do in
Glenrothes”, local friends have told us. “One of the worst
hotels in the world is in Glenrothes”, they have insisted,
and: “Glenrothes is much like Milton Keynes: Hundreds of
round-abouts and nothing in-between them!” Our curiosity keeps
growing the nearer we get to the place. But it takes a while
before we actually reach Glenrothes, as we are travelling from
Glasgow by train. Of course we’ve missed a connecting train
and are picked up by the said local friends, who take us on the
scenic route, showing us the old Tay Bridge over the Firth of
Tay. The first construction of this famous bridge collapsed in a
storm in 1879, killing 75 people crossing the bridge on a train.
Incidentally, the bridge’s architect, Thomas Bouch, was
knighted for his architectural work. I wonder if he was
disallowed his knighthood after the Bridge disaster… but
let’s concentrate on our famous knight of today! We decide to go back to the shopping centre/venue. The doors of the modern multi-purpose venue are already open, there’s a bar and we have a warm-up drink. We meet JJ “Jinky” Gilmour, who was Bob’s support act on some of the UK shows in 2003 and has the recommendable album called “Sunnyside (PAL)” out. Then a loudspeaker voice announces that it is now five minutes to the beginning of the show and would everybody proceed to their seats. We obey and find that our seats are in the very back, almost under the ceiling. I have to admit that I don’t like seated gigs, especially when there’s very little space between the seat stand and the stage. At least not tonight! It’s such an unnatural thing to be seated during a concert like this. At least to me. I like to get up and dance.
The
great song of indifference The first thing Bob does is wish everybody a happy Burns Night. Cheers and clapping from the audience. Bob goes on to joke “so you’re the guys who didn’t get an invitation” – more cheers. I make a mental note to find out what Burns Night is. Burns the poet is widely unknown in Germany, and I don’t have a clue what Burns Night is. There’s not much time to wonder now, as they launch into the first notes of Indifference. For me, the world clicks back to its place where it should be. My private subtitle for this one is “Great song of Happiness”. Towards the end of Indifference, Vince Lovepump loses his penny whistle and fools about, half kicking the whistle around, half trying to catch it. Bob and the band smirk and the audience is delighted. Bob then announces that we may shout out requests, but “only start shouting when I tell you to!” The audience, who is generally very “well-behaved”, obeys. No requests before His Highness Bob Geldof graciously allows us to… Tonight, Bob is very talkative, and seems to be in good spirits. There are some anecdotes and stories we haven’t heard before, such as the precise description of how Bob made a fool of himself at a dance when he desperately wanted to get off with a girl called Mary... It includes a long scarf and the promise “it’ll be over in minutes…” It’s hilarious, and it seems he’s enjoying himself. That makes him such a good performer. The audience is taken with it from the first minute. I soon decide not to stay in my seat but make my way down to the side of the seat stand. Here is certainly enough room to dance, but with everybody else sitting down, it doesn’t feel right to be dancing around. So I just remain standing. During the set, I’m joined by some other people, among them two guys who are so vehemently drunk that lightening a match close to them would be dangerous. One of them keeps shouting “C’mon” during Birthday Suit, which is ever so inappropriate. After I
don’t like Mondays, Bob invites somebody called Derek on stage.
Derek had entered a look-alike and sing-alike competition once as Bob
called “Stars in their eyes”, singing Mondays. Derek doesn’t
seem nervous at all and, while he doesn’t look like BG in the least,
sings it technically well and with a very good voice! Bob in the
meantime sings backing vocals, using Johnny’s microphone. Then there’s one Rats’ song I’ve never heard before – I can make it if you can, from the first Rats album . Obviously I enjoy hearing a “new” song, and once again, hearing it live makes all the difference. Originally, the song was about a relationship that ended in boredom, but the title itself could be seen as something else, almost a kind of motto. I’ve never seen it that way before, it always sounded so cynical. It is
followed by Someone’s looking, another Boomtown Rats single. In the
very end, someone in the audience proves he still knows his lyrics
alright: Bob sings “on a night like this…” and the guy in the
audience goes, perfectly in tune and tempo, “I deserve to get pissed
– at least, once or twice…”. It’s amazing to see how two shows can be so different, when almost exactly the same songs are being played. Yesterday, there was partying everywhere in the venue, loud music, sweaty musicians (well), only short of knickers being thrown onstage. Tonight, there are adult listeners who lean back in their numbered seats and listen to the lyrics and the pure sound. What they have in common is, both crowds absolutely love what they hear! The show closes with 10.15, the wonderful last track of the Sex, Age and Death album, which ends with the word “smiling”. What a perfect song to end a concert. We take the smile out into the cold night, and much later back to our cold hotel. And I
think Bob brought many smiles to Glenrothes.
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