Bob Geldof

Bob Geldof KBE
Geldof in 2009
Born	Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof (1951-10-05) 5 October 1951 (age 73) Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin, Ireland
Occupations	Singer-songwriter political activist
Years active	1975–present
Spouses	Paula Yates ​ ​ (m. 1986; div. 1996)​ Jeanne Marine ​ (m. 2015)​
Children	4, including Peaches, Pixie, and Tiger Lily
Musical career
Genres	Rock pop
Instruments	Vocals guitar harmonica
Labels	Polydor Atlantic (US)
Member of	The Boomtown Rats
Formerly of	Band Aid
Musical artist

Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof (/ˈɡɛldɒf/;^[1] born 5 October 1951) is an Irish singer-songwriter and political activist. He rose to prominence in the late 1970s as the lead singer of the Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats, who achieved popularity as part of the punk rock movement. The band had UK number one hits with his co-compositions "Rat Trap" and "I Don't Like Mondays".^[2][3][4] Geldof starred as Pink in Pink Floyd's film Pink Floyd – The Wall (1982).

Geldof is widely recognised for his activism, especially his anti-poverty efforts concerning Africa.^[5] In 1984, Geldof and Midge Ure organised the charity supergroup Band Aid for famine relief in Ethiopia, and co-wrote the best-selling single "Do They Know It's Christmas?".^[2][6][7] They organised the charity super-concert Live Aid the following year and the Live 8 concerts in 2005.^[8] Geldof serves as an adviser to the ONE Campaign, co-founded by fellow Irish rock singer and activist Bono,^[9] and is a member of the Africa Progress Panel (APP), a group of ten distinguished individuals who advocate at the highest levels for equitable and sustainable development in Africa.

Geldof was granted an honorary knighthood (KBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 1986 for his charity work in Africa. It was an honorary award as Geldof is an Irish citizen, but he is often referred to as 'Sir Bob'.^[10][11][12] Among numerous other awards and nominations he was a recipient of the Man of Peace title, which recognised individuals who had made "an outstanding contribution to international social justice and peace".^[13][14] In 2005, he received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music.

Geldof was born and brought up in Dún Laoghaire near Dublin in Ireland, a son of Robert (1914–2010)^[15] and Evelyn Geldof.^[6][16] His paternal grandfather, Zenon Geldof, was a Belgian immigrant^[17] and a hotel chef.^[17][18] His paternal grandmother, Amelia Falk, was a British Jew from London of German-Jewish descent.^[17][18] His maternal grandfather was Tommy Nott who worked as night foreman at the Cork Examiner newspaper, and his mother, Evelyn, was head cashier at a cinema in Cork City, where she met her husband, Robert. Bob Geldof has relatives in County Cork.^[19]

Regarding his Jewish ancestry, in an 2011 interview with the Manchester-based Jewish Telegraph, Geldof said "I was a quarter Catholic, a quarter Protestant, a quarter Jewish and a quarter nothing – the nothing won."^[20]

When he was six years old, Geldof's mother Evelyn died at age 45 of a cerebral haemorrhage.^[21][22] He had two sisters, Cleo and Lynn.^[15] Cleo died in 2010 and Lynn is a writer, journalist, and Unicef campaigner.^[23][24]

He attended Blackrock College, Dublin where he was bullied for being a poor rugby player and for his middle name, Zenon.^[25] After working as a slaughterman, a road navvy and pea canner in Wisbech, England, he was hired as a music journalist in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, for The Georgia Straight.^[26] He briefly guest hosted the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation children's program Switchback.

He returned to Ireland in 1975 and became the lead singer of the Boomtown Rats, a rock group closely linked with the punk movement. In 1978, The Boomtown Rats had their first No. 1 single in the UK with "Rat Trap", the first new wave chart-topper in Britain. In 1979, they gained international attention with their second UK No. 1, "I Don't Like Mondays".^[27] This song was both successful and controversial. Geldof had written it in the aftermath of Brenda Ann Spencer's attempted massacre at an elementary school in San Diego, California, in 1979.^[28] In 1980, The Boomtown Rats released the album Mondo Bongo.

Geldof became known as a colourful interview subject. The Boomtown Rats' first appearance on Ireland's The Late Late Show saw Geldof as deliberately brusque to host Gay Byrne and during his interview, he attacked Irish politicians and the Catholic Church, which he described as "a form of social repression"^[29] and blamed for many of the country's problems. He responded to nuns in the audience who tried to shout him down by saying they had "an easy life with no material worries in return for which they gave themselves body and soul to the church". He also criticised Blackrock College, where he had been beaten by the priests.^[30] The interview, which "lit a fire under Ireland's youth",^[31] caused uproar, making it impossible for The Boomtown Rats to play in Ireland again.^[6]

In January 2013, Geldof announced that The Boomtown Rats would be reforming to play together for the first time since 1986 at that year's Isle of Wight Festival in June. They subsequently announced further tour dates and released a new CD Back to Boomtown: Classic Rats Hits.^[32]

Geldof left the Boomtown Rats in 1986 to launch a solo career and publish his autobiography, Is That It?,^[6] which was a UK best-seller.

His first solo records sold reasonably well and spawned the hit singles "This Is The World Calling" (co-written with Dave Stewart of Eurythmics) and "The Great Song of Indifference". He also occasionally performed with other artists, such as David Gilmour and Thin Lizzy. A performance of "Comfortably Numb" with Gilmour is documented in the DVD release David Gilmour in Concert (2002). In 1992, he performed at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert with the surviving members of Queen at the old Wembley Stadium, singing a song he jokingly claimed to have co-written with Mercury, called "Too Late God". (The song was actually co-written by Karl Hyde.)

Geldof has also worked as a DJ for XFM radio. In 1998, he erroneously announced Ian Dury's death from cancer, possibly due to hoax information from a listener who was disgruntled at the station's change of ownership.^[33] The event caused music paper NME, which had been involved in a running feud with Geldof since his Boomtown Rats days, primarily because of his disparagement of The Clash, to call Geldof 'the world's worst DJ'.^[34]

With U2's Bono, he has devoted much time since 2000 to campaigning for debt relief for developing countries. His commitments in this field, including the organisation of the Live 8 concerts, kept Geldof from producing any more musical output since 2001's album Sex, Age & Death.

In 2002, he was listed as one of the 100 Greatest Britons in a poll conducted among the general public,^[35] despite not being British.

After Live 8, Geldof returned to his career as a musician by releasing a box set containing all of his solo albums, entitled Great Songs of Indifference – The Anthology 1986–2001, in late 2005. Following that release, Geldof toured, although with mixed success.

In July 2006, Geldof arrived at Milan's Arena Civica, a venue capable of holding 12,000 people, to play a scheduled concert, and found that the organisers had not put tickets on general sale and that only 45 people had shown up.^[36] Geldof refused to go on stage when he found how small the attendance was. To offer compensation for fans, Geldof signed autographs for those who had shown up. He played a well-attended free Storytellers concert for MTV Italy in Naples in October 2006.

The Boomtown Rats reformed in 2025 for a 12-date, 50th anniversary tour of the UK.^[37] A two-album compilation on vinyl and CD, "The First 50 Years: Songs of Boomtown Glory", was released on 19 September 2025.^[38]

Geldof's first major charity involvement took place in September 1981 when he performed as a solo artist for Amnesty International's benefit show The Secret Policeman's Other Ball, held at Drury Lane theatre in London's West End. At the invitation of Amnesty show producer Martin Lewis, Geldof performed a solo^{[citation needed]} version of "I Don't Like Mondays". Other rock artists had 'planted a seed' and appeared to have affected Geldof in a similar manner.^[39] Monty Python alumnus John Cleese conceived (and directed) the show, and on its impact on Geldof, Sting stated "he took the 'Ball' and ran with it."^[40]

In 1984, Geldof responded to a BBC News report from Michael Buerk about the famine in Ethiopia by mobilising the pop world to do something about the images he had seen.^[41] With Midge Ure of Ultravox he wrote "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in order to raise funds. The song was recorded in a single day at Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill, London on 25 November 1984, by various artists performing under the name of Band Aid.^[42]

In its first week of release, the single became the UK's fastest-seller of all time. It entered the UK Singles Chart at number one and stayed there for five weeks, becoming the Christmas number one of 1984.^[43] It sold over three million copies, making it the biggest-selling single in UK history up to that point, a title it held for almost 13 years.^[44] The single was also a major US hit, peaking at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and selling an estimated 2.5 million copies in the US by January 1985.^[45][46] The single sold 11.7 million copies worldwide.^[47]

New versions of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" were recorded in 1989 and 2004. In November 2014, Geldof announced that he would be forming a further incarnation of Band Aid, to be known as Band Aid 30, to record an updated version of the charity single, with the proceeds going to treat victims of the Ebola virus in West Africa.^[48]

As Geldof began to learn more about the situation, he discovered that one of the main reasons why African nations were in such dire peril was the obligation to make repayments on loans that their countries had taken from Western banks. For every pound donated in aid, ten times as much would have to leave the country in loan repayments. It became obvious that one song was not enough.

Geldof and Ure organised Live Aid, a huge event staged simultaneously on 13 July 1985 at Wembley Stadium in London and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia.^[50][51] Thanks to an unprecedented decision by the BBC to clear its schedules for 16 hours of rock music, the event was also broadcast live in the UK on television and radio.^[52] It was one of the most monumental stage shows in history. Phil Collins flew on Concorde so that he could play at both Wembley and Philadelphia on the same day.^[53] During the broadcast of Live Aid, Geldof shocked viewers into giving cash by twice mouthing profanities, and also by slamming his fist on the table and ordering them not to go out to the pub, but to stay in and watch the show.^[53]

Nearly seven hours into the concert in London, Geldof gave an infamous interview in which he used the word fuck. The BBC presenter David Hepworth, conducting the interview, had attempted to provide a list of addresses to which potential donations should be sent. Geldof interrupted him in mid-flow and shouted: "Fuck the address, let's get the [phone] numbers!" It has passed into folklore^[54] that he yelled at the audience, "Give us your fucking money!" although Geldof has stated that this phrase was never uttered.^[55] Because of his Irish accent, the profanity was stated to be misheard as "fock" and "focking" respectively. After the outburst, donations increased to £300 per second.^[49] A harrowing video of dying skeletal children was introduced by David Bowie after the end of his set that had been made by CBC photo-journalists, who set their films to the tune of "Drive" by The Cars.^[53]

In total, Live Aid raised over £150 million for famine relief. Geldof subsequently received an honorary knighthood, at age 34, for his efforts. His autobiography, written soon after with Paul Vallely, was entitled Is That It?.^[6] The book achieved further fame for being featured on the General Certificate of Secondary Education examination syllabus.

Much of the money raised by Live Aid went to NGOs in Ethiopia, some of which were under the influence or control of the Derg military junta. Some journalists suggested that the Derg had used Live Aid and Oxfam money to fund its enforced resettlement and "villagification" programmes, under which at least 3 million people were said to have been displaced and between 50,000 and 100,000 killed.^[56][57] In November 2010 the BBC formally apologised to Geldof for misleading implications in its stories on the subject of Band Aid, and said it had 'no evidence' that Band Aid money specifically went to buy weapons.^[58]

In January 2004, on a visit to Africa, Geldof came to believe that more people were at risk of starvation there than had died in the famine of 1984/85 which had prompted Live Aid. He telephoned the British Prime Minister Tony Blair from Addis Ababa. According to the Live 8 programme notes by Geldof's biographer and friend, Paul Vallely, the Prime Minister responded: "Calm down Bob. ... And come and see me as soon as you get back."^[59]

The result was the Commission for Africa. Blair invited Geldof and 16 other Commissioners, the majority from Africa and many of them politicians in power, to undertake a year-long study of Africa's problems. They came up with two conclusions: that Africa needed to change, to improve its governance and combat corruption; and that the rich world needed to support that change in new ways. That meant doubling aid, cancelling debts, and reforming trade rules. The Commission drew up a detailed plan of how that could be done and reported in March 2005. To force the issue, Geldof decided to create a new international lobby for Africa with eight simultaneous concerts performing around the world to put pressure on the G8, which he called Live 8. The commission's recommendations later became the blueprint for the G8 Gleneagles African debt and aid package.

Geldof is a member of the Africa Progress Panel (APP), a group of ten distinguished individuals who advocate at the highest levels for equitable and sustainable development in Africa. Every year, the Panel releases a report, the Africa Progress Report, that outlines an issue of immediate importance to the continent and suggests a set of associated policies. In 2012, the Africa Progress Report highlighted issues of Jobs, Justice and Equity.^[60] The 2013 report outlined issues relating to oil, gas and mining in Africa.

Bob Geldof worked closely with DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa), an organisation founded by U2's Bono in 2002 to promote debt relief, third-world trade and AIDS relief in Africa. It merged with One Campaign in 2008, where Geldof also is very active. In June 2009, on behalf of One Campaign, he co-edited a special edition of the Italian newspaper La Stampa with a view on 35th G8 summit.^[61]

On 31 March 2005, Geldof and Ure announced the Live 8 project, to raise awareness of issues that burden Africa, including government debt, trade barriers, hunger, and AIDS issues. Geldof organised ten concerts on 2 July 2005 in large cities throughout the industrialised world. They featured musicians from different genres and locations around the world. The cities where Live 8 concerts were played were in industrialised countries, and drew huge crowds. The locations were London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Philadelphia, Barrie, Chiba, Johannesburg, Moscow, Cornwall and Edinburgh.

The concerts were free, and were scheduled just days before world leaders gathered in Gleneagles, for the G8 economic summit, on 6 July.^[62] Ure organised the 'final push' Live 8 concert at Edinburgh. 'The boys and girls with guitars will finally get to turn the world on its axis,' Geldof said in a statement.^[63] Pink Floyd's performance in London was their first since 1981 to include original vocalist/bassist, Roger Waters.

Geldof performed his rendition of Nick Lowe's "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding" at Night for Ukraine, a fundraising benefit held at the Roundhouse in north London on the evening of 9 March 2022, with the funds raised being donated to the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal, to provide aid to people fleeing Ukraine following the Russian invasion. The event was organized by Fabien Riggall in collaboration with the Ukrainian pop duo Bloom Twins.^[64]

Although part of the campaign "Make Poverty History" (MPH), Live 8 was accused by John Hilary, then a senior executive of the campaign, of hijacking MPH by planning its concerts on the same day as the march in Edinburgh, which was said to be the biggest social justice march in Scottish history.^[65]

Geldof was also criticised for the lack of African acts performing at Live 8.^[66] Geldof responded that only the biggest-selling artists would attract the huge audience required to capture the attention of the world in the run-up to the G8 meeting. In the lead-up to the G8 summit, Geldof, who had been a member of Tony Blair's Commission for Africa on which the Gleneagles recommendations were largely based,^[67] labelled Kumi Naidoo's criticism of the summit "a disgrace".^[68] Some leading African campaigners have asked Geldof to stand down from the global anti-poverty movement, and the New Internationalist (between January and February 2006) said 'It would be long overdue if he did.'^[69]

There were also accusations that Live 8 gave unqualified support to the personal and political agendas of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, particularly in the lead-up to an election. Though many felt that it was the British politicians who had accepted Geldof's agenda, rather than the other way round, this led to accusations that Geldof had compromised his cause.^[70]

The promises made for Africa at the Gleneagles summit were widely praised: "the greatest summit for Africa ever" (Kofi Annan), "an important, if incomplete, boost to the development prospects of the poorest countries" economist (Jeffrey Sachs) or "a major breakthrough on debt" (Kevin Wakins, former head of research at Oxfam). But many aid agencies pronounced their disappointment with the outcome, feeling that the strict conditions imposed on African countries for accepting debt relief left them little better off than before. The New Internationalist scathingly stated, since becoming prominent in the salvation of Africa, "Geldof has re-released the entire back catalogue of the Boomtown Rats."^[69]

Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher became one of the more vocal sceptics about the impact of Live 8, citing his belief that rock stars have less influence over world leaders than popular culture may believe. His explanation was:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but are they hoping that one of these guys from the G8 is on a quick 15-minute break at Gleneagles and sees Annie Lennox singing "Sweet Dreams" and thinks, 'Fuck me, she might have a point there, you know?' And Keane doing "Somewhere Only We Know" and some Japanese businessman going, 'Aw, look at him. ... we should really fucking drop that debt, you know.' It's not going to happen, is it?^[71]

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Geldof swore on the music television programme CD:UK, saying "Fuck the tape" while concluding his chat with Cat Deeley.^[72] At the NME awards in 2006, when accepting an award, Geldof referred to the host Russell Brand as a "cunt". Brand responded by saying "It's no wonder Bob Geldof knows so much about famine – he's been dining out on 'I Don't Like Mondays' for 30 years".^[73] Then, in mid-July 2006, he infuriated many New Zealanders by criticising the New Zealand government's foreign aid contribution as "shameful" and "pathetic".^[74] Winston Peters, the Minister of Foreign Affairs responded that Geldof failed to recognise the "quality" of New Zealand aid as well as other New Zealand contributions.^[75]

During mid-November 2008, a local for-profit organisation, Diversity@Work, invited Geldof to Melbourne, to speak about Third World poverty and the failure of governments to combat the crisis. It was later revealed that he was paid $100,000 for his speech, which included a luxury hotel room and first-class airfares.^[76]

After being criticised earlier in the decade for his stance on aid to African countries,^[77] in July 2019, according to a report on its "Mauritius Leaks" project by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), Bob Geldof was mentioned as allegedly involved in tax avoidance by corporations and individuals doing business in Africa and other continents. His private equity fund 8 Miles (named after the shortest distance between Europe and Africa: the eight miles width of the Strait of Gibraltar), which aimed to generate a 20 per cent return by exclusively buying stakes in African startup businesses, had set up subsidiaries in the tax haven of Mauritius, "an offshore jurisdiction with a wide network of double taxation treaties in interesting markets". Geldof declined to comment on the leaks.^{[78][79][80][81][82][83][84]}

By 1992, Geldof had established himself as a businessman through co-ownership of the TV production company Planet 24, which made early-morning Channel 4 show The Big Breakfast. Planet 24 was sold to Carlton TV in 1999. TV production company Ten Alps was founded the next day by Geldof and business partner Alex Connock. In April 2011, a new entertainment-formats company, Pretend, was launched.^[85]

The Dictionary of Man, announced by Geldof in 2007, is a project he started with director John Maguire, and is financed by the BBC.^[86][87] It was planned that the collected material would be displayed on a website, and be available for distribution through DVDs, books, magazines, CDs, and exhibitions.^[88] Geldof reportedly had been planning it since he visited Niger in the 1980s and became aware of the number of native languages becoming lost forever as native speakers died.^[89]

As of 2009^[update], he served a term as patron of the Exeter Entrepreneurs' Society at the University of Exeter.^[90]

Geldof is chairman of 8 Miles, a private equity firm active in Africa.^[91][92]

In 2002, he became a founding partner of Groupcall,^[93] which specialises in providing communication software and data extraction tools to the education, public and business sectors.^[94] His initial involvement arose from concerns for his children's safety.^[95]

In 2002, Geldof appeared in an advertisement opposing the possibility of the United Kingdom joining the single EU currency, saying it was "not anti-European to be against the euro".^[96] He also criticised the European Union in 2004 for what he called its "pathetic" response to Ethiopia's food crisis.^[97]