Bob Geldof

Bob Geldof was born in 1951 in Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin, Ireland

He is an Irish singer, activist and political campaigner.

He was educated at a private Catholic School but did not enjoy his time there due to the strict religious ethos and bullying due to his lack of interest in sport . After leaving school he had various odd jobs before moving to Canada to work as a music journalist. He formed his band, The Boomtown Rats in 1975, famously stating the reason he wanted to be in a pop band was “to get rich, get famous and get laid”.

His biggest commercial success was in the late 70’s /early 80’s with several chart hits, including Rat Trap, I Don’t Like Mondays and Banana Republic.

He is best known internationally for raising awareness of humanitarian causes. In 1984, Ethiopia and other African countries suffered severe famine and many thousands of people, particularly children., starved to death. Bob, together with his friend Midge Ure, decided to release a charity single to raise money to help them. Many of the best-known musicians at the time were invited to take part. Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? was written, recorded and released over only a few days and became a massive Christmas hit, selling over 3 million copies. This was followed up in summer 1985 by the Live Aid concert from Wembley Stadium, in London, sixteen hours of music raising money and awareness for Africa.

He was awarded an Honorary knighthood by the British Government in 1986 for his charity work.
In 2005 he organised a Live 8 concert, to coincide with the Make Poverty History Campaign.

Bob was married to Paula Yates the music journalist and TV presenter from 1986-96. They had three daughters together, Fifi, Peaches and Pixie. After the death of Paula Yates from a drug overdose in 2000, Bob and his partner adopted her daughter Tiger from her relationship with rock star Michael Hutchence who had died in1997. Peaches Geldof died in 2014.

Bob lives in Battersea, London with his partner Jeanne Marine.