Bob Geldof | My Camden

Bob Geldof

Profession: Singer-songwriter, Actor and Political Activist
Place/Date of Birth: Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin, 05 October 2020
Associated with: Paula Yates, Peaches Geldof

"It is a good Band Aid idea, overcoming rivalry - BBC and ITV together, bringing people together. I just didn’t think there’d be enough time for it to be significant," he tells The Sun.

"As long as all the money goes to famine relief, that’s what is important," says Geldof.

Bob loses out on Beeb contract - 18/12/02
The contract for a new ’youth’ political programme has gone in-house at the BBC as opposed to being awarded to local resident Bob Geldof’s independent TV company.

Sir Bob’s reply to this decision is not exactly printable - well after six months of bidding for the show is that surprising? He wrote a ’strongly worded’ letter of complaint to the BBC saying he felt the process was a ’muddled farce’ and that his company, Ten Alps, had been "completely stitched up".

Of course Auntie Beeb says this wasn’t the case, but it is I do wonder what Bob would have down with a youth political programme - might have been very good viewing!

Geldof moves into TV documentaries - 06/11/02
Chelsea rock star and activist Bob Geldof’s company Ten Alps has bought the independent producer behind award-winning documentaries including The Death Of Yugoslavia and Endgame In Ireland in a £4m plus deal.

The deal brings together Brook Lapping Productions’ speciality of highbrow factual programming, with publicy-listed company Ten Alps existing strengths in youth and politics shows for TV and radio.

Ten Alps makes BBC Radio 5 Live’s Sunday Service, the politics show hosted by Fi Glover, and will also produce its replacement, which begins in January. Geldof’s company has also just made Power, a pilot for a new BBC2 politics show aimed at a youth audience.

"As people know I have always been involved in politics, business and the media. With this Brook Lapping deal, the three all come together," Geldof said.

Sir Bob Geldof still greiving for ex-wife 04/03/01
Sir Bob Geldof is blaming himself for the death of his ex-wife Paula Yates. Friends yesterday expressed deep concern for Sir Bob, who they say has been "consumed by guilt and depression".

At a magazine party last week the former Live Aid star spoke with heartbreaking honesty about his ex-wife’s death from a heroin overdose. He told a party guest: "I haven’t forgiven myself for her death. I feel partly responsible because I wasn’t there for her. I’m still not over it. I miss her terribly and it’s very hard for me and for the kids."

This is the first time Sir Bob’s real feelings about the tragedy last September have been revealed. Looking tired and unshaven it was obvious to those observing that he was still full of grief.

He also admitted he finds each day a struggle as he has yet to come to terms with losing Paula, who he married in 1986. He said: "I’m miserable at the moment. I’ve got great kids and a wonderful girlfriend but I find life so depressing. The world is a sad and lonely place sometimes."

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Biography

Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof was born on October 5 1951 in Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin to Catholic nationalists, a stance he has open disapproval of. With early work as a pea canner, a slaughterman and a road navvy Bob eventually got himself a job as a music journalist in Vancouver, Canada, working on Georgia Straight.

In 1975 Bob decided he would rather be on stage than in the crowd and became the singer of The Boomtown Rats upon his return to the UK. The band were soon noticed and in 1978 scored their first number one with Rat Trap. Their most famous single remains I Don’t Like Mondays, a song which sparked controversy as it detailed an attempted massacre at an American elementary school.

Bob began his forays in to charity work in 1981 when he appeared on The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball for Amnesty International alongside Midge Ure of Ultravox. In 1984 the pair again came together to produce Live Aid, probably the most well known charity concert of all time, and the accompanying Band Aid single. Since the concert Bob has become an outspoken activist, being involved with several charities and regularly travelling to Africa to raise awareness. In 2005 he organised Live 8, a repeat of the Live Aid idea to run alongside the G8 summit on global poverty.

In 1986 Bob left The Boomtown Rats and persued a moderately successful solo career, however in 2006 he cancelled concerts after only 29 tickets were sold, perhaps cementing his fate as far as a further musical career is concerned. However, Bob needn’t worry his business interests in Ten Alps Communication and the sale of television company Planet 24 for an estimated £7million have made sure Bob will be comfortably off for the future.

Married to Paula Yates in 1986 the couple had three daughters, Fifi Trixibelle, Peaches Honeyblossom and Little Pixie before splitting in 1994 when Paula fell in love with Michael Hutchence. When first Paula, then Michael, died Bob took sole custody of the three children and Paula’s daughter with Hutchence, Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily.

Often referred to as ’Sir Bob’, Geldof was awarded a knighthood by the Queen, however, as he isn’t a member of the British empire he isn’t actually eligible to be a ’Sir’. The KBE is just one of the nods to Bob’s charity work, he has also been nominated for the Noble Peace Prize.
updated January 2007

November 2007