Wanna Be Paparazzi & Make Easy Money? Email us your Celebrity Digital Photos and Videos... There could be a fortune sitting in your mobile handset. If you snapped it then send it to us at: Very. Important. Pictures.

20-12-01 news
Bob Geldof to Tour Ireland...

Pop star, poet, open-plan politician, living saint, devil's advocate, freelance genius, natural irritant, ubiquitous celebrity and media mogul.

But, still Bob Geldof has announced he is to tour the smallest town of Ireland next Febuary.

"In my headmusic is what I do. I know people are surprised when I say that. In fact, certain generations will probably be shocked that I make music at all. But music is central to who I think I am. I physically need to do it and I think I'm OK at it. I'm good at Bob Geldof type songs".

Sex, Age & Death is Geldof's first album for five long years and with so much of Bob Geldof's life a matter of public record it has all come out this time.

Dublin, punk rock, The Boomtown Rats, Paula, I Don't Like Mondays, Africa, Do They Know It's Christmas?, Live Aid, the profanity, the pride, squaring up to Thatcher, schmoozing Mother Teresa, the knighthood, the sainthood, Is That It?, the curious facial hair, the mad Paddy solo albums, the dot.com millionaire, the loyal friend, the curiously compulsive radio presenter, the heartbroken husband we can all measure our lives in terms of Geldof's extraordinary experiences.

As Geldof readily acknowledges, if his life story had been written as a Jacobean tragedy or an Italian opera it would have been rejected by the commissioning editors on the grounds that it was too unbelievable.

Even the plot development department at Eastenders would have a problem with some of the more unimaginable twists. "My life seems so episodic and so extreme. Plenty of guys join bands but they don't have Number One records. Plenty of guys do charity gigs but the whole world doesn't watch it and they don't get knighted and put up for Nobel Prizes for f@#ks sake. Plenty of guys always have a bit of wedge in their pocket but I've always been either hopelessly broke or stupidly rich. Plenty of guys get divorced but not at some Shakespearean level of tragedy. What the fuck is going on?"

While life has undoubtedly been kind to Geldof, it has also been unfathomably cruel. The last five, heavily documented years have seen him confront more than most mortals could honestly cope with.

Throughout this time, he wrote Sex, Age & Death, as a confession, as a release and simply, as the man says, because this is what he does.

"I can only ever write about that which happens to me or my response to situations," says Geldof. "So for who's ever interested, besides myself, this is the latest instalment of the diary."

Although he remains notoriously reluctant to discuss the tragic three-way relationship between himself, his wife Paula Yates and her boyfriend Michael Hutchence, the ordeal now long over - casts a sad shadow over Sex, Age & Death. "I don't discuss these things because I literally can't," he continues uncomfortably. "I can't show you my soul. Some things are unsayable. But maybe you try to articulate the unspeakable in music."

He's joking, of course. Sex, Age & Death is a brooding voodoo stew of sound. Rhythms rumble and skitter, melodies shimmer like heat above tarmac, voices arrive unannounced inside your head, sly curlicues of slide guitar slip from the speakers, the darkness hums, drunk choirs chorus, crickets call, smoke signals rise and at one point, you'll swear, a kettle boils.

And how would Geldof recommend the album is best enjoyed? "With a certain amount of sympathy," he deadpans. "Its not meant to be a Saturday-night-going-out album. Stick it on at two in the morning and revel in my fabulous world of unrelenting misery."

Welcome to Geldof's Sex, Age & Death, a lifetime and five years in the making. Ten songs about the stuff we prefer to leave unsaid. It will take you to places you've never been and if you're not careful it will leave you there.

Sex, Age & Death: its not Westlife but, come on, this is Bob Geldof, did you really think it was going to be? Bob Geldof plays his Irish tour around Ireland from February 22nd to Feb 27.

Tickets are available from HMV, Soundcellar and Other Ticketmaster outlets nationwide.

Get your Irish Trad Ringtones here