No Rock And Roll Fun

BOOMTOWN AND BRADFIELD IN HAY-ON-WYE: Bob Geldof's done a turn at the Hay On Wye literary festival, which gave him the opportunity to once again trot out the story about him losing his virginity (He was 13, you know, she was 36, it was dreadful... oh, you've read Is That It and/or any interview he's given in the last twenty years and are sick of hearing about it?) It's curious that however often he rolls out the tale, it never actually seems to occur to him that this is something he should be taking into account when he rails against girl's magazines for offering help, advice and support to teens facing sexual confusions and fears - does he really think he was better served by the lack of an equivalent of Elle Girl for his generation, place and time when he was about to lose it in the front room? He also repeated his claim that "the uncomfortable truth for a lot of people is that Bush has done more than other administration", which is true - we're very uncomfortable with the increase in US commercial sales of arms to African nations rising from USD2.2million to USD30million between the first year of the Bush administration and 2003, and we're sure Bob will be keen to congratulate his new best friend on ensuring that Ethiopia managed to scrape together USD285,000 to buy much needed weapons from US defence contractors in 2003 when they'd not been spending a penny with the likes of Haliburton beforehand. We know Geldof is incredibly well-meaning and passionate, but his inability to think beyond the most basic apparent facts really undermines any value he might have as a commentator, either socially or geopolitically.

Elsewhere, James Dean Bradfield sort of dropped the ball a little by admitting that he didn't "really understand" Manic Street Preachers' lyrics. He also said he probably won't write another song, since with his first, Ocean Spray, it was about someone close to me dying, I don't think I will be in a hurry to do that again." Slightly ominous news, too, in that Nicky Wire is now co-writing with his brother, Patrick Jones, who has been hanging around the Manics for, well, a while now:



We're never convinced by "brothers collaborating", so we're hoping this works out okay. But we're not holding our breath.