aaamusic | On 05, Jan 2011

The name is habitual and ubiquitous. It is woven into three decades of the national narrative and its cultural soap opera. Ask people have they heard of him and all will answer in the affirmative. Ask them what he does and all will have a separate answer. Ask do they have an opinion of him and, for good or ill, most will. Ask how that opinion was formed and they don’t quite know. Whistle one of his tunes and most will remember it but they won’t know who wrote it. Bob Geldof is the most famous secret song writer in Britain.

He on the other hand thinks that’s what he does. He thinks that’s his job. He’s not frustrated or bewildered or upset by this secret life, if anything there’s an appreciative bemusement. “Put a poster on the street that says “Tonight – Bob Geldof” and most people will say “Yeah o.k. But doing what?” It’s a pity they don’t know because, as the records, reviews, awards and critiques from everywhere and over many years will attest, he’s very, very good.

Bob will release his new solo album on 7^th February ‘11 on the Mercury Record label. Entitled “How To Compose Popular Songs That Will Sell” it is his first album since 2001’s “Sex, Age & Death” and is his fifth album as a solo artist (his eleventh if you include his work in his band the Boomtown Rats). The album features 14 new Geldof compositions recorded with his band in his home and in various friends’ studios and produced by his longtime collaborator Pete Briquette.

Lyrically the album is full of love, hope and joy and one senses that Geldof is more comfortable in his own skin than ever before.