Latest news with #ShaftesburyTheatre
Telegraph
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Bob Geldof: ‘White saviour complex? It doesn't exist'
'F--- off!' thunders Bob Geldof. 'All your stories about Queen, all your stories about theories. F--- off!' You need to be in the room to understand just how much energy the man behind Live Aid is putting into the F-bombs that he's presently hurling in my direction. Each one follows a pause for breath to give it the desired explosive force. 'We deal with the reality of the awfulness of this world and what we still allow to happen,' he roars. 'Everything else is redundant. F--- your notions.' We're at the Shaftesbury Theatre in Covent Garden, surrounded by set-builders and carpenters knocking the Edwardian playhouse into shape for the eight-month run of the Live Aid musical Just for One Day. It's a warm, tranquil morning, but despite watching the film Twisters the night before, I've clearly learnt nothing from Daisy Edgar-Jones's ability to read the specific combination of moisture, wind shear and temperature inversion in the lower atmosphere to predict when a tornado is forming. For Geldof, the musical couldn't have landed at a more resonant time, as the world finds itself facing 'a great moment of fright and horror'. We don't have the emotional bandwidth, he says, 'to deal with the terror of Russia in Ukraine and the horror of Gaza, and pay attention to the extreme horror of Sudan'. He gets a minimum of 10 emails a day from 'the horror lands' about the reality of life on the ground, while 'America,' he adds, 'immediately, overnight, dismisses its [international development] aid agency, the biggest in the world. The USAID website goes dark because of a sociopathic fool like Elon Musk saying the great weakness of Western civilisation is empathy... No, Elon, you are utterly wrong.' Five million people will be affected by its shuttering, he says, including 'the 2.5 million children in western Sudan who are being starved as an instrument of war'. Geldof is not the 'Leftie liberal' that people like to think he is, he says, but in the American president and the Tesla boss, 'You've got the strongest man on the planet and the richest person ever on the face of the earth declaring war on the poorest and most vulnerable. F--- off!' This is the Geldof many of us remember from the evening of Saturday July 13 1985, when the scruff-bag singer of The Boomtown Rats berated the British television audience that had tuned in to watch the parade of stars performing both at Wembley and at the John F Kennedy stadium in Philadelphia. 'You've got to get on the phone and take the money out of your pockets. Don't go to the pub tonight. Please. Stay in and give us the money – there are people dying. Now. So give. Me. The money.' That was followed by his angry response to the BBC host attempting to give viewers an address to which they could send money: 'F--- the address! Let's get the numbers.' This is the Geldof who confronted Margaret Thatcher after an event, at which the then prime minister had personally thanked him for his 'leadership', to complain about her failure to lift the VAT on the money raised by Band Aid's Christmas No 1 and to badger her that the government itself could do more to help. (Morrissey once said that the problem with Do They Know It's Christmas? was that the responsibility to save African lives fell on 'some 13-year-old girl in Wigan'.) Both the charity single and the Live Aid concerts were, of course, organised by Geldof and the Ultravox singer Midge Ure to get food and medicines to Ethiopia, where nearly eight million people had been hit by the worst famine in a century, caused by drought and a decade-long civil war. Those notions? I've just asked the 73-year-old about the idea that the Band Aid project had a profound negative effect on how people saw Africa as a whole, taking a long-term toll on tourism and investment in the region – the reason why Ed Sheeran said publicly that, had he been asked, he wouldn't have agreed to his vocals from the 30th anniversary Band Aid single being used in last year's 40th anniversary remix. I've also tentatively invited Geldof to comment on the 'white saviour complex' of which he has been accused. 'It doesn't exist,' he says. 'Why are we even talking about it? It's just a notion.' His view is that notions don't save lives, only action does. Yet this notion – that showing a white person rescuing non-white people perpetuates colonial stereotypes – is the one that prompted Save the Children to end its child-sponsorship programme, I point out. 'You don't theorise with emergency disasters or humanity,' he says. 'You don't. Spare me all your b-----ks about notions and theorising. Save the Children can do what they like, but their job is to save children. The rest is nonsense.' How did we get here? I had, of course, been intending to begin this piece with: 'It's 12 noon in London, 7am in Philadelphia, and around the world it's time for Live Aid!' Admittedly, I've asked Geldof if he recognises himself in any of the pithy epithets supplied by former collaborators at the end of the 2005 documentary Live Aid Remembered: 'Brave' (Bono); 'brash' (Midge Ure); 'cantankerous' (Chrissie Hynde); 'outrageous' (Sting); 'rude' (Gary Kemp); 'a f---ing lunatic' (Elton John); or 'c---' (several people). 'C---,' he shoots back. I've also plugged him for stories about that day. For instance, did he really not want Queen, one of the most widely remembered highlights, on the line-up at all? 'Not that,' he says. 'I just wasn't that pushed whether they showed or not.' He recalls how the promoter Harvey Goldsmith told him to call them, 'And I said, 'Seriously, Queen?' You know, 'Why? We don't need them.' If you want one word why punk existed,' he adds, 'the word is Queen. They were emblematic of what was viewed in 1976 as overblown pantomime rock.' The Boomtown Rats, of course, were blown on course by punk's musical detonation, threatening the Top 10 in the summer of 1977 with a breakneck debut that has gained a retrospective irony – Lookin' After No 1. The chart-toppers Rat Trap and I Don't Like Mondays followed in consecutive years. Geldof did, however, call Roger Taylor, the Queen drummer, 'who was very upfront. They supported it, but it wasn't hugely their thing. And, eventually, Freddie came on the line. I just said, 'But, dude, you're match-fit.'' Queen were coming off the back of a world tour, whereas many bands, such as The Who, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath (with their original singer Ozzy Osbourne), were reuniting just for the concert. Paul McCartney hadn't played for six years, he stresses. 'Fred replied, 'I'm thinking of making a solo album,' which is usually a hint that the band is going to break up or be set aside for a while. So I just finally said, 'OK. But Fred, if ever there was a stage built for you, this is it.' And he said, 'What do you mean by that?' And I said, 'Well, darling, the world.' There was this pause, and then he said, 'I think I know where you're coming from.'' Four decades on, Geldof had his own misgivings about Just for One Day, which premiered at the Old Vic last February. 'Literally from the start, when Jamie Wilson, the producer, came to see me with John O'Farrell and Luke Sheppard, the writer and director, I just thought it was a s--- idea,' Geldof begins. 'I read the script, and I hated it. It was about my life... not about Live Aid at all. That's a separate issue. And I was sort of angry about that, that I was kind of, I thought, being used.' He knew O'Farrell from his writing: Things Can Only Get Better: Eighteen Miserable Years in the Life of a Labour Supporter, 1979-1997 and novels such as The Man Who Forgot His Wife. So they talked, at length. Geldof says he is obliged as chairman of the Band Aid Trust to look at every opportunity to raise money, 'or I'd have dismissed it out of hand and never wanted to see them again'. But from then on, he says, the script got stronger and stronger, although he and the Trust 'were still very much against it, until Jamie said, 'just come to a workshop''. Geldof was absolutely blown away by what he saw. 'Watching the actors work was extraordinary,' he says. 'These people were off at 3 pm and 4 pm to [perform in shows such as] Hamilton and The Devil Wears Prada and all the rest, and they'd be back in there at 8.30am limbering up. They'd have to learn new lines daily, new arrangements, new harmonies, new dance steps. Craige [Els], who plays the character of Bob, was mortified, as he had to impersonate my accent in front of me. But when Craige was nine,' he adds, 'his granny made him stand on the kitchen table in Liverpool and do impressions of me, so it was almost destiny.' Some changes have been made since the original premiere but, Geldof notes, 'I'd make suggestions to O'Farrell, and he'd say, 'Oh, that's quite interesting. I'll give it to Luke.' And Luke would say, 'I'll come back to that, Bob.' But neither O'Farrell thought it was interesting, nor Luke ever came back to me. So my input has been extremely limited.' Geldof the storyteller is very much in evidence here. He's a natural, but the flow is long-form and hard to divert. The answer to a single question can run up to 10 minutes. I've read and listened to a lot of his interviews and the results can be amazing, although you can never be certain which Bob you'll get on a particular day. If you get nostalgic Bob, as the original Live Aid hosts Mark Ellen and David Hepworth did in 2021, the Irishman runs long on marvellous tales of rock 'n' roll past: how his Cliff and the Shadows-loving sister took him as a boy to see the Beatles, the Stones and Bob Dylan in Dublin in the early 1960s; and how he later came to have George Harrison's denim jacket, with the sweet packet the Beatle had signed for him that day in November 1963 tucked proudly into its top pocket. By then, Geldof had already lost his mother, Evelyn, who died of a cerebral haemorrhage when he was seven years old, leaving him to be raised by his father, a travelling salesman. The sense of a life shaped by tragedy reared up when Geldof took a sudden reflective turn on an Australian podcast recently, telling its host how nothing in his life 'seems to happen in the minor key. There's a band, and it goes huge; you have a political idea, and it goes huge; you have a marriage, and it's all over the papers; and then the marriage, you know, falls apart, and the consequences are Shakespearean... It is tragic to the end... the people involved, some didn't make it, and I almost didn't make it through, either.' At the far end of that tragedy, he said, he came to the understanding that 'life without love is completely meaningless'. We know what happened. Geldof's marriage to the television presenter Paula Yates, whom he'd been with since 1976, when she was 17 and he was 25, and with whom he'd had three daughters (Fifi, Peaches and Pixie), ended in 1995 when she embarked on a relationship with the INXS singer Michael Hutchence, who died by suicide in 1997. Yates would die from a heroin overdose three years later, aged 41. Geldof adopted their daughter Tiger Lily and brought up all the girls together. Peaches, 'the wildest, funniest, cleverest, wittiest and the most bonkers of all of us', as he would later describe her, died of a heroin overdose in 2014, aged 25. Geldof doesn't want to talk about his remark, 'I almost didn't make it through'. He does chat about his second wife, the French actress Jeanne Marine's recent birthday party in Paris – 'It was her 60th birthday, our 30th year together, our 10th wedding anniversary, all in one day.' But today I've got Live Aid Bob in the room with me and everything else is dealt with pithily. He once collected an award from Russell Brand with the remark 'What a c---'. Did he know something we didn't? 'I just thought he was a prat, you know, his whole shtick is nonsense.' He's suggested that rock 'n' roll reached the end of its 50-year life cycle with Live 8 in 2005. 'It's '55 to '05,' he says. 'In my view, the last great rock 'n' roll bands were Nirvana, Oasis, Blur and Arctic Monkeys.' People still listen to music, of course, 'but has it got the same impact? Not to my mind.' His own big hits were narrative-driven mini-epics, did he never think of writing a rock opera? No, he insists. 'I thought that The Who took a complete wrong turn with Tommy and Quadrophenia.' The Boomtown Rats put out a decent album in 2020 – check out the single Trash Glam Baby – and are going on tour this year. Did the big idea he had in 1984 swallow everything else, including his musical career? He takes a deep breath. 'Yes,' he says, suddenly wistful. It's what people have associated him with ever since. 'Much like today – 'Tell me about Pink Floyd! Tell me about Queen!'' Yet he'd still have done something after seeing Michael Buerk's news report on the famine – only, if he'd been a plumber, it would have been with his plumber mates. But he'd been in rock long enough to meet some of his heroes, and most of the new pop stars regularly slept on his floor, 'because Paula was the host of the go-to rock 'n' roll show of the 1980s [The Tube], we knew these people as friends'. And, he adds, 'Forty years after I said on Simon Bates [radio show] that every penny you give me will go to the people who need it most, it has. That's all that matters. And if we can get it to those starving children, if we can build the school and the hospital and the dam and the wells, then all of this is worth it.'
Daily Mail
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Bob Geldof and Midge Ure reunite at Wembley Stadium for Live Aid: The Musical casting call as they prepare to celebrate 40 years since iconic concerts raised £150 million for famine relief
Bob Geldof and Midge Ure were back on familiar ground as they reunited to celebrate the forthcoming 40th anniversary of Live Aid. The original two-venue benefit, held on July 13 1985, was organised by Geldof and Ure to raise relief funds for the two year Ethiopian famine that claimed approximately 300,000 to 1.2 million lives. And they were back at Wembley Stadium on Thursday to announce Just for One Day: The Live Aid Musical Original Cast Recording. Almost forty years after 72,000 fans converged on the venue for an epic string of performances from some of the biggest stars of the 1980s, the pair posed for photos on its hallowed turf. Echoing that legendary summer's day in 1985, the sun beat down on Wembley as Geldof, 73, and Ure, 71, recalled fond memories of the fund-raising event. Launched at London's Old Vic in 2024, jukebox musical Just For One Day: The Live Aid Musical details the events leading up to the two concerts, while featuring a series of fictionalised dramatic sub-plots. Following a recent two month run at Toronto's Mirvish Theatre, it will open at London's Shaftesbury Theatre from May 15 for a further eight weeks, in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of Live Aid. Watched by an estimated 1.9billion people across the world, the two concerts raised an astonishing £150 million in total for famine relief. Just seven-months after the release of Band Aid charity single Feed The World (Do They Know It's Christmas?), Geldof and Ure brought together some of the biggest artists of the 1980s for two huge concerts at Wembley Stadium and Philadelphia's John F. Kennedy Stadium. David Bowie, Sir Paul McCartney, Status Quo, Sir Elton John and Queen led a lengthy roster of performers in London, while Black Sabbath, Joan Baez, Run D.M.C and The Beach Boys joined a host of stars in Philadelphia. Ahead of the anniversary, BBC Two and BBC iPlayer have announced plans to broadcast Live Aid at 40, revealing the behind-the-scenes story of the 1985 concert that brought the idea of charity to a new generation. Exclusive interviews include iconic figures such as Bob Geldof, Bono and Sting - along with US President George Bush, President Obasanjo of Nigeria and Birhan Woldu, the woman who as a dying child, became the abiding image of the Wembley concert and the famine. The series weaves the back room stories of two gangs of musicians, from the UK and the US with the political stories that both inspired them and brought them to a worldwide audience. Archive of the performances and back stage of the record and the concert feature Paula Yates, Boy George, Status Quo and George Michael whilst interviews with Nile Rodgers, Lenny Henry, Phil Collins, Lionel Richie, Patti LaBelle, Roger Taylor and Brian May are set against the memories of the Ethiopian politicians at the heart of the relief effort, Dawit Giorgis and Berhane Deressa. Emma Hindley, BBC Commissioning Editor, said: 'The series takes the audience on an irresistible and entertaining ride through the 40 years since the biggest live concert ever was shown on TV. 'Featuring exclusive behind the scenes interviews with an array of stars of rock & pop, Live Aid at 40 revels in the music, unravels the politics and explores the legacy of Live Aid.' Also coming to BBC Two in July is Live Aid the Concert, a look back at the 16-hour concert in full, with performances from the likes of Madonna, Mick Jagger, Patti LaBelle, Phil Collins, Queen, Spandau Ballet, Sade, Sting, Status Quo, Tina Turner and U2. Approximately two billion people watched the broadcast in more than 100 countries. Now, for the first time since 1985, BBC Two gives viewers a chance to relive over 6.5 hours of extended highlights of the London and Philadelphia concerts, in addition to backstage footage. Jonathan Rothery, Head of BBC Popular Music TV said: 'This summer we're delighted to be giving viewers a chance to relive one of the biggest concerts in history for the first time on TV since it was originally broadcast on the BBC. 'By providing over 6.5 hours of footage that was captured on the day Live Aid took place, we want viewers to feel transported back to 1985, and to enjoy all those classic songs that we all still know and love to this day, as they were performed on that stage.' The Making of Do They Know It's Christmas, which was broadcast on BBC Four in November 2024, is also available for viewers to enjoy on BBC iPlayer. BBC Radio 2 will be marking the anniversary on Sunday 13th July, exactly 40 years since the concert, as the station broadcasts Live Aid – The Fans Story. Last November, Ed Sheeran claimed he wasn't asked permission from Band Aid 40 organisers to use his vocals on the a new version of their charity single. The musician originally featured on the 2014 version of the track - spearheaded by Geldof and Ure - alongside the likes of Sting and Harry Styles which aimed to raise money for the Ebola relief efforts. However, the regarding 2024 Ultimate Mix of the song to celebrate its 40th anniversary, Sheeran has told how he would have denied permission to add his voice to the song had he'd been asked. Taking to his Instagram stories, the Shape Of You hitmaker re-shared a message from Ghanaian-British musician Fuse ODG, who has been vocal in his criticism of the charity single claiming it 'dehumanises Africans and destroys our pride and identity in the name of 'charity'.' He wrote: 'My approval wasn't sought on this new Band Aid 40 release and had I had the choice I would have respectfully declined the use of my vocals. 'A decade on and my understanding of the narrative associated with this has changed, eloquently explained by @fuseodg. This is just my personal stance, I'm hoping it's a forward-looking one. Love to all x.'
Telegraph
14-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
5 best comedy theatre shows in London 2025
You're spoiled for choice when it comes to the best comedy shows in London, thanks to the wide range of fantastic productions – from long-running favourites to topical new entries. Whether you're on the hunt for side-splitting slapstick, razor-sharp satire or family fun, there's something to suit all tastes in the West End. You can find all the latest London comedy plays in our round-up of the best London shows, plus productions that are particularly good for young audiences in our best family shows piece, as well as top picks below that include reviews by the Telegraph's expert critics. These brilliant rib-ticklers are guaranteed to give you a big laugh, and a great night out. So, follow our guide and get booking now for the best London comedy plays and musicals in 2025. Mrs Doubtfire, Shaftesbury Theatre In a nutshell: Fans of the classic film comedy starring Robin Williams can't miss this hysterical, but also kind-hearted, musical adaptation, which turns everyone's favourite Scottish nanny into a West End sensation. When Daniel, a well-meaning but perennially out-of-work actor, loses his children in a divorce, he becomes Mrs Doubtfire – but keeping the secret is his toughest job yet. This lovely child-friendly production adds creative musical numbers to a witty script, including all the best movie scenes, while also reassuring kids that all families look different. 'Fear not, dearies – this exuberant show is still one of the biggest treats in the West End... Gabriel Vick is on fire in his utterly astonishing tour-de-force performance.' Read the full review of Mrs Doubtfire Booking until: April 26 2025 The Play That Goes Wrong, Duchess Theatre In a nutshell: If you want to end up crying with laughter, you need to make a bee-line for Mischief's world-conquering smash-hit comedy. The show is celebrating its 10th glorious year in the West End, and it's not hard to see why: this irresistible farce is precision-tooled entertainment. Join the hapless members of an unfortunate amateur dramatics society who are trying to stage a country-house murder mystery – even as everything goes hilariously wrong, from forgotten dialogue and missed cues to prop mishaps, crazy accidents, and the whole set collapsing around them. 'Seldom has disaster delivered so many belly laughs... This spoof am-dram staging of an Agatha Christie whodunit is the perfect recipe for absurd slapstick.' Booking until: February 1 2026 Book tickets via Telegraph tickets Fawlty Towers – The Play, Apollo Theatre In a nutshell: Just when you thought it was safe to book into the hotel, Basil Fawlty and gang are back! Yes, John Cleese has adapted one of the best sitcoms of all time (which he co-created with Connie Booth) into a deliriously funny new stage comedy. It serves up three brilliant TV episodes – Hotel Inspectors, Communication Problems, and The Germans – as one amazing show, and all your favourite characters are checking in too: of course, there's Basil's wife Sybil, waiter Manuel, chambermaid Polly, and guests like the Major. Don't mention the war... 'An indisputably funny evening of mistaken identity, furtive horse-betting and flagrant Teuton-baiting... Wall-to-wall nostalgia and copper-bottomed mirth.' Booking resumes: June 24 until September 13 2025 The Book of Mormon, Prince of Wales Theatre In a nutshell: You couldn't write it now! This totally outrageous, and totally hysterical, musical satire is from the genius minds of South Park's Trey Parker and Matt Stone, teaming up with Oscar-winning composer Robert Lopez (Avenue Q, Frozen) to make fun of the Mormon church, and plenty else besides. It's equal-opportunities fun, with a cartoon energy, lightning-fast jokes, unbelievable songs, and a sweet core celebrating unlikely friendship as two mismatched missionaries try to convert a village in Uganda. Take this leap of faith – you won't regret it. 'This wild, thrilling, go-for-broke, genuinely hilarious musical comedy remains one of the funniest shows in the West End... I'm a believer!' Read the full review of The Book of Mormon Booking until: July 12 2025 Frequently asked questions What are the newest West End shows? One of the best things about London's buzzy West End is that there is always a new show to discover – whether you're catching up with a recent hit, or want to discover the very latest phenomenon. The first thing you should do is check out our constantly updated round-up of the best London shows, which features useful information and reviews for all the latest theatre openings. We've also got a handy list of the best family shows in London.
