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

He added: "No commitment to the poorest people in the world is optional.

"It just isn’t. Life isn’t optional."

Bob: I wanted to howl - May 16 2007
Bob Geldof has admitted he wanted to retreat into a "remote corner" and "howl into the void" when Paula Yates left him.

The musician told Hello! magazine he was devastated when his ex-wife, who died in 2000, walked out in 1995.

"The truth is, when it all happened, when she left... I just wanted to go to some dark, grey remote corner of the world and howl into the void," he said.

The former Boomtown Rat also struggled to be without his daughters, Fifi, Peaches and Pixie.

"If I hadn’t had kids, it would have been a lot easier," he said. "One person you love leaving is bad. Four leaving is 100% worse.

"I missed everything. I missed the sound of them turning in their sleep. I missed the smell of my children around. I missed the noise overhead when they ran around. I missed their presence."

Bob was further devastated when he was told he could see the girls three days a week.

"I was presented with a fait accompli - you will see them three days a week. And everyone said, ’That’s very generous’. Excuse me? How dare you tell me when I can see my children? How dare you tell me that you are being generous?

"And I’m not talking about my missus. I’m talking about the state or lawyers."

Geldof and BBC to create A to Z of mankind - April 18 2007
The BBC and Bob Geldof announced plans to record the 900 groups of people anthropologists believe exist at the beginning of the 21st century.

The Live 8 campaigner is sending out his TV crews to record the different groups of people on the planet for an "A to Z of mankind" website.

The Human Planet, a landmark TV series on the same theme, will be produced by the BBC’s Natural History Unit and other BBC departments.

The website will launch and the series will be broadcast in 2010.

Bob was "determined" to record the "sounds, voices and jokes so they never disappear again" after sitting on a tree stump in northern Niger 20 years ago.

He’d discovered that 300 languages had disappeared in just two years during the famine.

He wrote: "Even though I never heard those languages, I already miss them. In these ways the lights of human genius wink out."

Announcing the plans today, he said: "This will be an A to Z of mankind which will catalogue the world we live in now, the people who share this planet, the way we live and the way we adapt to face common and different challenges."

The digital catalogue will allow individuals across the globe to track and trace their clan, tribe or family.

Director of BBC Vision Jana Bennett said it promises to be "spectacular television".

The BBC hopes the eight-part high-definition series will have the same success as Blue Planet and Planet Earth.

Geldof honoured for tackling poverty - Jan 5 2007
Bob Geldof is to be honoured for his work in tackling world poverty, it was announced today.

The star is among five people receiving honorary degrees from Newcastle University to mark the work of the Make Poverty History campaign.

Chancellor Gordon Brown will also be honoured. He and Live8 organiser Bob will each receive an honorary doctor of civil law degree from the university’s chancellor, Lord Patten, on January 8.

They will be honoured alongside political economist Susan George, former president of Tanzania Benjamin William Mkapa and David Golding, of Make Poverty History North East, in a ceremony at the Sage Gateshead music centre.

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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

September 2007