{"id":23508,"date":"2021-10-17T11:36:52","date_gmt":"2021-10-17T15:36:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=23508"},"modified":"2021-10-17T11:36:55","modified_gmt":"2021-10-17T15:36:55","slug":"bob-geldof-and-the-road-to-live-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=23508","title":{"rendered":"Bob Geldof And The Road To Live Aid"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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He just turned 70 last week and got a great reception on the Late Late show on RT\u00c9 with greetings from Bono and the Edge from U2, Elton John, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Sting, Roger Waters from Pink Floyd, President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins and many more. Here we have a part one of our bio on Bob Geldof that will give you some history on him and his band the Boomtown Rats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof, is an\u00a0Irish\u00a0singer-songwriter, actor and\u00a0political activist. He rose to prominence as the lead singer of the\u00a0Irish rock\u00a0band\u00a0the Boomtown Rats\u00a0in the late 1970s, who achieved popularity at the time of the\u00a0punk rock\u00a0movement. The band had\u00a0UK number one\u00a0hits with his compositions \u201cRat Trap\u201d and \u201cI Don\u2019t Like Mondays\u201d. Geldof starred as \u201cPink\u201d in\u00a0Pink Floyd\u2019s 1982 film\u00a0\u201cPink Floyd \u2013 The Wall\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a fundraiser, Geldof organized the charity supergroup\u00a0Band Aid\u00a0and the concerts\u00a0Live Aid\u00a0and\u00a0Live 8, and co-wrote \u201cDo They Know It\u2019s Christmas?\u201d, one of the\u00a0best-selling singles\u00a0of all time. He is widely recognized for his\u00a0activism, especially anti-poverty efforts concerning Africa. In 1984, he and\u00a0Midge Ure\u00a0founded the charity supergroup\u00a0Band Aid\u00a0to raise money for\u00a0famine relief\u00a0in\u00a0Ethiopia. They went on to organize the charity super-concert\u00a0Live Aid\u00a0the following year and the\u00a0Live 8\u00a0concerts in 2005. Geldof currently serves as an adviser to the\u00a0ONE Campaign, co-founded by fellow Irish rock singer and activist\u00a0Bono, and is a member of the\u00a0Africa Progress Panel (APP), a group of ten distinguished individuals who advocate at the highest levels for equitable and sustainable development in Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A single father, Geldof has also been outspoken for the\u00a0movement. Geldof was granted an\u00a0honorary knighthood\u00a0(KBE) by\u00a0Queen Elizabeth II\u00a0in 1986 for his charity work in Africa; although it is an honorary award as Geldof is an Irish citizen, he is often referred to as \u201cSir Bob\u201d. He is a recipient of the\u00a0Man of Peace\u00a0title which recognizes individuals who have made \u201can outstanding contribution to international social justice and peace\u201d, among numerous other awards and nominations. In 2005, he received the\u00a0Brit Award\u00a0for\u00a0Outstanding Contribution to Music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Geldof was born and brought up in\u00a0D\u00fan Laoghaire, Ireland, a son of Robert and Evelyn Geldof. His paternal grandfather, Zenon Geldof, was a Belgian immigrant and a hotel chef. His paternal grandmother, Amelia Falk, was a\u00a0British Jew\u00a0from\u00a0London. When Geldof was six years of age, his mother Evelyn died at age 41 of a cerebral\u00a0hemorrhage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Geldof attended\u00a0Blackrock College, where he was bullied for being a poor rugby player and for his middle name, Zenon. After work as a slaughterman, a\u00a0road navvy\u00a0and pea canner in\u00a0Wisbech, he was hired as a music journalist in\u00a0Vancouver,\u00a0British Columbia, Canada, for\u00a0The Georgia Straight. He briefly guest hosted the\u00a0Canadian Broadcasting Corporation\u00a0children\u2019s program\u00a0Switchback. Returning to Ireland in 1975, he became lead singer of\u00a0the Boomtown Rats, a\u00a0rock group\u00a0closely linked with the\u00a0punk\u00a0movement. In 1978, The Boomtown Rats had their first No. 1 single in the UK with \u201cRat Trap\u201d, the first\u00a0new wave\u00a0chart-topper in Britain. In 1979, they gained international attention with their second UK No. 1, \u201cI Don\u2019t Like Mondays\u201d. This was both successful and controversial. Geldof had written it\u00a0in the aftermath\u00a0of\u00a0Brenda Ann Spencer\u2019s attempted\u00a0massacre\u00a0at an elementary school in\u00a0San Diego,\u00a0California\u00a0in 1979.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1980, The Boomtown Rats released the album\u00a0\u201cMondo Bongo\u201d. Their single \u201cUp All Night\u201d was a huge hit in the US and its video was played frequently on MTV. Geldof became known as a colorful interview subject. The Boomtown Rats\u2019 first appearance on Ireland\u2019s\u00a0The Late Late Show\u00a0saw Geldof as deliberately brusque to host\u00a0Gay Byrne\u00a0and during his interview he attacked Irish politicians and the Catholic Church, which he blamed for many of the country\u2019s problems. He responded to nuns in the audience who tried to shout him down by saying they had \u201can easy life with no material worries in return for which they gave themselves body and soul to the church.\u201d He also criticized\u00a0Blackrock College. The interview caused uproar, making it impossible for The Boomtown Rats to play in Ireland again. In January 2013, Geldof announced The Boomtown Rats would be reforming to play together for the first time since 1986 at that year\u2019s\u00a0Isle of Wight Festival\u00a0in June. They subsequently announced further tour dates and released a new CD\u00a0\u201cBack to Boomtown: Classic Rats Hits\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Geldof left the Boomtown Rats in 1986 to launch a solo career and publish his autobiography,\u00a0\u201cIs That It?\u201d, which was a UK best-seller. His first solo records sold reasonably well and spawned the hit singles \u201cThis Is The World Calling\u201d (co-written with\u00a0Dave Stewart\u00a0of the\u00a0Eurythmics) and \u201cThe Great Song of Indifference\u201d. He also occasionally performed with other artists, such as\u00a0David Gilmour\u00a0and\u00a0Thin Lizzy; a performance of \u201cComfortably Numb\u201d with Gilmour is documented in the DVD release\u00a0\u201cDavid Gilmour in Concert\u201d\u00a0(2002). In 1992, he performed at the\u00a0Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert\u00a0with the surviving members of\u00a0Queen\u00a0at the old\u00a0Wembley Stadium, singing a song he jokingly claimed to have co-written with Mercury, called \u201cToo Late God\u201d. (The song was actually co-written by\u00a0Karl Hyde.) Geldof has also worked as a DJ for\u00a0XFM\u00a0radio. In 1998, he\u00a0erroneously announced\u00a0Ian Dury\u2019s death from cancer, possibly due to hoax information from a listener who was disgruntled at the station\u2019s change of ownership. The event caused music paper\u00a0NME\u00a0(who had been involved in a running feud with Geldof since his Boomtown Rats days\u2014primarily due to his disparagement of\u00a0The Clash) to call Geldof \u201cthe world\u2019s worst DJ\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with\u00a0U2\u2019s Bono, he has devoted much time since 2000 to campaigning for\u00a0debt relief\u00a0for developing countries. His commitments in this field, including the organization of the Live 8 concerts, kept Geldof from producing any more musical output since 2001\u2019s album\u00a0\u201cSex, Age & Death\u201d. In 2002, he was listed as one of the\u00a0100 Greatest Britons\u00a0in a poll conducted among the general public, 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\u00a0\u201cGreat Songs of Indifference \u2013 The Anthology 1986\u20132001\u201d\u00a0in late 2005. Following that release, Geldof toured, albeit with mixed success. In July 2006, Geldof arrived at\u00a0Milan\u2019s\u00a0Arena Civica, a venue capable of holding 12,000 people, to play a scheduled concert to find that the organizers had not put the tickets on general sale and that only 45 people had shown up. Geldof refused to go on stage once he found out how small the attendance was. To offer some compensation for fans, Geldof stopped to sign autographs to those who had shown up. He then played a well-attended free\u00a0Storytellers\u00a0concert for\u00a0MTV Italy\u00a0in Naples, in October 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Geldof\u2019s first major charity involvement took place in September 1981, when he performed as a solo artist for\u00a0Amnesty International\u2019s benefit show\u00a0The Secret Policeman\u2019s Other Ball, at the invitation of Amnesty show producer\u00a0Martin Lewis; he performed a solo version of \u201cI Don\u2019t Like Mondays\u201d. Other rock artists had \u201cplanted a seed\u201d and appeared to have affected Geldof in a similar manner. In 1984, Geldof responded to a BBC news report from\u00a0Michael Buerk\u00a0about the\u00a0famine in Ethiopia\u00a0by mobilizing the pop world to do something about the images he had seen. With\u00a0Midge Ure\u00a0of\u00a0Ultravox\u00a0he wrote \u201cDo They Know It\u2019s Christmas?\u201d in order to raise funds. The song was recorded by various artists under the name of\u00a0Aid. In its first week of release, the single became the UK\u2019s fastest-seller of all time, entering the chart at number one and going on to sell over 3 million copies, making it the biggest-selling single in UK history up to that point, a title it held for almost 13 years. The single was also a major US hit, peaking at number 13 on the\u00a0Billboard\u00a0Hot 100. \u201cDo They Know It\u2019s Christmas?\u201d returned to the UK chart a year later, reaching number three, and eventually it raised over \u00a38\u00a0million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Following this massive success, preparations were started for the biggest rock concerts the world had ever seen, the following summer. New versions of\u00a0\u201cDo They Know It\u2019s Christmas\u201d\u00a0were 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\u00a0Band Aid 30, to record an updated version of the\u00a0charity single, with the proceeds going to treat victims of the\u00a0Ebola virus\u00a0in West Africa. 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. On 13 July 1985, Geldof and Ure organized Live Aid, a huge event staged simultaneously at the\u00a0Wembley Stadium\u00a0in London and\u00a0John F. Kennedy Stadium\u00a0in\u00a0Philadelphia. 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. It was one of the most monumental stage shows in history, with\u00a0Phil Collins\u00a0flying on\u00a0Concorde\u00a0so that he could play at both Wembley and Philadelphia on the same day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the broadcast of Live Aid, Geldof shocked viewers into giving cash by not only twice mouthing profanities but 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. Nearly seven hours into the concert in London, Geldof gave an infamous interview in which he used the word\u00a0\u201cf\u201d. <\/em><\/strong>The BBC presenter\u00a0David 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: \u201cF the address, let\u2019s get the [phone] numbers!\u201d It has passed into folklore that he yelled at the audience, \u201cGive us your f***ing money!\u201d although Geldof has stated that this phrase was never uttered. Due to his Irish accent, the profanity was stated to be misheard as \u201cfock\u201d and \u201cfocking\u201d respectively. After the outburst, donations increased to \u00a3300 per second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The harrowing video of dying, skeletal children\u2014introduced by\u00a0David Bowie\u00a0following the end of his set\u2014that had been made by\u00a0CBC\u00a0photo-journalists setting their films to the tune of \u201cDrive\u201d by\u00a0The Cars, contributed to the concert\u2019s success. In total, Live Aid raised over\u00a0\u00a3150\u00a0million for famine relief. Geldof subsequently received an honorary knighthood, at age 34, for his efforts. His autobiography, written soon after with\u00a0Paul Vallely, was entitled\u00a0\u201cIs That It?\u201d. The book achieved further fame for being featured on the\u00a0General Certificate of Secondary Education\u00a0examination syllabus in a following year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of the money raised by Live Aid went to NGOs in Ethiopia, some of which were under the influence or control of the\u00a0Derg\u00a0military junta. Some journalists have suggested that the Derg was able to use Live Aid and\u00a0Oxfam\u00a0money to fund its enforced resettlement and \u201cvilification\u201d program, under which at least 3\u00a0million people are said to have been displaced and between 50,000 and 100,000 killed. However, in November 2010 the BBC formally apologized to Geldof for misleading implications in its stories on the subject of Band Aid, saying it had \u201cno evidence\u201d that Band Aid money specifically went to buy weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January 2004, on a visit to friends in 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\u00a0Tony Blair\u00a0from\u00a0Addis Ababa. According to the Live 8 program notes by Geldof\u2019s biographer and friend,\u00a0Paul Vallely, the Prime Minister responded: \u201cCalm down Bob. \u2026 And come and see me as soon as you get back.\u201d The result was the\u00a0Commission 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\u2019s 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, delivering debt cancellation, and reforming trade rules. The Commission drew up a detailed plan of how that could be done. It reported in March 2005. To force the issue Geldof decided to create a new international lobby for Africa with eight simultaneous concerts around the world to put pressure on the\u00a0G8. He called it\u00a0Live 8. The commission\u2019s recommendations later became the blueprint for the\u00a0G8 Gleneagles\u00a0African debt and aid package.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Geldof is a member of the\u00a0Africa Progress Panel\u00a0(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. The 2013 report outlined issues relating to oil, gas and mining in Africa. Bob Geldof worked closely with\u00a0DATA\u00a0(Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa), an organization founded by U2\u2019s 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\u00a0La Stampa\u00a0with a view on\u00a035th G8 summit. In March 2005, Geldof and Ure announced the\u00a0Live 8\u00a0project, to raise awareness of issues that burden Africa, including government debt, trade barriers, hunger, and AIDS issues. Geldof organized ten concerts on July 2nd, 2005 in large cities throughout the industrialized world. They featured musicians from different genres and locations around the world. The cities where Live 8 concerts were played were in industrialized 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\u00a0Gleneagles, for the\u00a0G8\u00a0economic summit, on 6 July. Ure organized the \u201cfinal push\u201d Live 8 concert at Edinburgh. \u201cThe boys and girls with guitars will finally get to turn the world on its axis,\u201d Geldof said in a statement. <\/p>\n

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