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Bob Geldof

1951–

 

Though he first made his name in the field of music, Bob Geldof was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for an extraordinary feat of organization which both astonished and delighted the world.

      Though Geldof himself seems essentially Irish in his outlook and attitudes, his grandfather was a Flemish pastry cook who ended up in Dublin.  He was born in middle-class Dublin.  His mother died when he was only seven, leaving his rearing largely to an older sister.  His father was now a businessman, which meant they were at least well off.

      He was educated at fashionable and elite Blackrock College, where he did not, he thought, do well.  Youthful rebelliousness took him away from home to England and then to Canada.  He took a series of varied jobs, as a truck driver, factory hand, street entertainer, and English language teacher.  He also did a stint as a pop music journalist on a newspaper in British Columbia called the Georgia Strait.

      However, his break came when in 1975 he returned to Dublin to start his own free community paper in the city and with others set up a rock group called the Boomtown Rats, of which he was the lead singer.  The band quickly achieved a certain local fame in their native city, due in part to Geldof's own personality and flair for publicity.

      In March 1977 they went to London, where they were signed by a record company.  They had two important hits, 'Rat Trap' in 1978 and 'I Don't Like Mondays' in 1979.  The early albums also sold well, but the band depended on Geldof, whose range was never wide, and the band began to fade in the early 1980s.  This was due largely to Geldof's own attitude to the music business, which he saw with refreshing cynicism.  In San Diego, in 1979, when they were playing a showcase gig that would have launched them onto US television and radio, he urged the crowd of youngsters to boo and heckle the radio company bosses sitting in the balcony.  The albums, not unnaturally, had their playtime cancelled.  This penchant for speaking his mind made him many enemies, though many others found him friendly, frank, and engaging.

      Geldof returned to London.  In October 1984 reports of the famine in Ethiopia appeared on British television; indeed, they were said to have contributed to the overthrow of the Emperor Haile Selassie and the installation of the Communist regime, which was equally unable to cope with an increasingly dire situation.  Children and adults were shown dying of starvation on the nightly news.  Many were moved, but Geldof decided something must be done.

      He organized his friends in the music business, and to aid Ethiopia they recorded and issued a single called 'Do They Know It's Christmas?'  The group was called Band-Aid, and that season the song became the biggest-selling single in British history, making over £8 million for the appeal.

      This was success enough, but Geldof was on a roll.  He now pulled in even more favours and from his base in London organized the Live Aid Concert, held simultaneously in both London and Philadelphia on 13th July 1985.  The show was a huge success, and was broadcast live around the world to an audience said to have numbered more than one and a half billion viewers.  It raised some £50 million, and a further effort in 1986 called Sport Aid raised yet another £50 million.  Geldof was chairman of the Ethiopian appeal, and for some years was actively involved in the distribution of the monies raised.  It was recognized that this achievement was due very largely to Bob Geldof's nerve and determination.  Whatever he had not been taught at school, he had been taught not to turn back.

      In 1986 he published his autobiography, Is That It?, which became a bestseller in Europe and America.  By now, however, his own musical career was dead.  His talent and drive were harnessed to various projects and companies in television.  A relationship with the television personality Paula Yates ended in separation, and was later followed by the tragic death of her new companion and of Paula herself in 2000.

      Heroes in the past had often been held up as being all of a piece, people of exemplary virtue in every way.  Geldof showed this was not the case.  He remained his sarky and abrasive self, despite receiving an honorary knighthood from the queen of England in July 1986.

      Yet he had shown what could be done on a universal scale to aid those unfortunate victims with which the modern world is filled.  No-one expected him to become a saint, and he didn't.  But he had given an example of what could be done with enthusiasm and passion when the right man met the right cause.  He had found that rock 'n' roll was not enough - even rock stars have to grow up.

      For anyone reared in Ireland, famine has a special meaning.  From the grim days of the Great Famine in the 1840s the Irish have been inspired when they can help the less fortunate though development aid and missionary work.  The efforts of Bob Geldof carried this national aspiration through the most spectacular ultimate achievement.  For a few days he enabled the whole world to feel as one.