LIVE: BOB GELDOF – Perth, 5 April 2025

Shane | 7 April 2025 | Reply

LIVE: BOB GELDOF – Perth, 5 April 2025
Riverside Theatre, Perth, Western Australia
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar

Delivering his ‘LIFE – WTF’ show Bob Geldof – troubled child, rock star, activist, humanitarian, orator, fragile human, iconoclast – kept the sold-out Riverside crowd enthralled for around four hours as he trawled his storied life, starting with his defining moment, the Live Aid concert of 13th July 1985.

For those of us who stayed up all night here in Australia (especially those of us for whom it was the eve of our 19th birthday), this was an important moment in our lives and hearing Geldof talking about this pivotal event was truly inspiring.

Recollections are interspersed with songs performed acoustically with only a little light percussion courtesy of AV man Mark. Last in town (that I’m aware of) doing a corporate gig back in 2017 when he made a surprise appearance at Alice Cooper’s Arena show guesting on School’s Out/Another Brick In The Wall Pt II, Geldof’s new show is more autobiographical than motivational, delving into his troubled childhood, his rock n’ roll success with The Boomtown Rats, Live Aid, and his long relationship with Paula Yates.

Geldof prowls the stage like a scruffily unkempt big cat in a concrete enclosure, pacing back and forth, sometimes poetic, sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking, always showing his wry humour, sharp intellect and empathy.

I won’t spoil most of his stories or gags, just to say that he can see the lighter side of most things and be insightful about the more serious stuff like his mother’s premature passing, famine in Africa, and his wife leaving him. Some of the serious stuff feels almost like a confessional or a therapy session, it’s so raw.

He’s still an activist, fans will be happy to know: he rails vitriol (rightly) against the sociopaths in the current American and Russian regimes (“c*nts – one’s a bully, one’s a moron”), and the carnage caused by the cancellation of USAID programs and the like, and the lies those in power use to justify their unconscionable actions, and doesn’t pull his punches at all, to the point that some well-heeled, high-profile members of the crowd look uncomfortable when he implores “Australia must not allow itself to become America’s bitch” at the upcoming election.

Songs played in the first half include Substitute by The Who, Boomtown Rats’ Rat Trap and the classic I Don’t Like Mondays – one of the first singles this writer bought, in 1979, so that was an amazing experience, and it’s hilarious when he notes “380 songs and you know one of ‘em.”

It’s simply remarkable to be in the presence of someone so influential on our times – on our lives – and find him so magnetic for an epic four-hour show. A man as influential and world changing as Nelson Mandela, who even became a family friend after Geldof’s efforts to feed the world.

A second act was supposed to go for an hour (the first was 2 ¼) but stretched past 1 1/2 (“you should have brought your fucking sleeping bags”), and we heard about Do They Know It’s Christmas – a song Geldof and Midge Ure (who is also touring here soon) thought might make £100,000 for their band Aid charity, but ended up making millions; his battles with Margaret Thatcher to waive sales tax on their charity efforts; and the Live Aid concert itself, which he insightfully notes was so important and remembered so pivotally because it may have been the first time the entire world was united around their TV screens for a charity event.

A standing ovation is waved away – “sit down, you can’t leave yet” – and the most heartbreaking part of the show commences. Yates’ abandoning him after nineteen years, for Michael Hutchence (not that the INXS singer is ever referred to directly, let alone by name). He connects the overwhelming heartbreak of losing his wife and daughters with the loss of his mother when he was seven and it’s unlikely there was a dry eye in the house.

His beautiful song Dazzled By You punctuates his wonderful story of meeting second wife Jeanne Marine, and his thoroughly enjoyable, riveting and profound show finishes with his great – and very funny – solo track The Great Song Of Indifference, lyrics adapted for these troubling times.