suss wrote:

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Not sure if this has been mentioned on forum in the past (couldn't find anything with a cursory search) but for anyone who didn't already know there's a track entitled "A Pop Fan's Dream" by a band called "I Ludicrous" which tells the tale of a guy winning Sunday lunch with Bob and Paula. 

I picked up the album around '88 as they were a local band for me and Palace fans to boot, and my interest was first aroused by their football references in songs. The Geldof song came as a complete surprise on first hearing but (perhaps due to Rats bias?) I love the track.

Know the band got good exposure through Peel but can't recall ever hearing the track in question on air. Available on YouTube at 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDOjYIDa0Y4

Out of interest, do Bob, Paula or Rats get mentioned by other artists in any other songs? 

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 I actually heard this track by I Ludicrous when it was released. I think its means as a shot at what I ludicrous see as the incongruity of a wealthy pop star and his wife (Geldof and Yates) living in apparent luxury while preaching about the Third World and the need for famine aid. The line about Geldof's being good at carving meat at his table I'm sure is meant to be telling. The last line of the  song gives the game away. As Oscar Wilde famously said the only thing worse than people talking about you is when they don't talk about you.

Roni Size, the drum and bass guy has  some line in one of his songs which references Rat Trap but I can't remember the exact lines- but its definately a nod to Rat Trap or as they say a cultural reference.

A very touching reference to Geldof and Yates love affair at the height of the Rats fame comes from Geldof himself in the song Thinking Voyager 11 type things from the album Vegetarians Of Love. Its one of his best songs and the lines are worth quoting

"Now were in Paris in the ball gowns/ In the high heels in the snow/

And were spinning 'round Versailles/in the Volkswagen beetle that we hired for the day/ at the cheap rate

"The room without the shower was cold again/ "are we already middle-aged?" she said/ and I said "I feel nothing/ I feel like a jellyfish/

"maybe its the Portuguese menopause she joked/ and she laughed her brittle head/ and we went back to bed......

This story is told in Geldof's autobiography and it details a trip to Paris in the late seventies when  Bob and Paula had a certain notoriety. The music of that particular song does it more justice than the words alone can. I'M always slightly moved when I hear it thinking about subsequent events.

Havent heard it but some band has a song called **** Bob Geldof which seems to always come up when I google something about Geldof- those bloody logarithms.

Possibly Supergrass should have called their album A Diamond Smiles Hoo Ha!