66 Facts About Bob Geldof

1.

Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof is an Irish singer-songwriter and political activist.

2.

Bob Geldof rose to prominence in the late 1970s as lead singer of the Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats, who achieved popularity as part of the punk rock movement.

3.

Bob Geldof is widely recognised for his activism, especially anti-poverty efforts concerning Africa.

4.

Bob Geldof currently serves as an adviser to the ONE Campaign, co-founded by fellow Irish rock singer and activist Bono, and is a member of the Africa Progress Panel, a group of ten distinguished individuals who advocate at the highest levels for equitable and sustainable development in Africa.

5.

Geldof was granted an honorary knighthood by Elizabeth II in 1986 for his charity work in Africa: it is an honorary award as Geldof is an Irish citizen, but he is often referred to as 'Sir Bob'.

6.

Bob Geldof is a recipient of the Man of Peace title which recognises individuals who have made "an outstanding contribution to international social justice and peace", among numerous other awards and nominations.

7.

Bob Geldof was born and brought up in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland, a son of Robert and Evelyn Bob Geldof.

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8.

Bob Geldof's paternal grandfather, Zenon Geldof, was a Belgian immigrant and a hotel chef.

9.

Bob Geldof's paternal grandmother, Amelia Falk, was a British Jew from London of German-Jewish descent.

10.

When Bob Geldof was six years old, his mother Evelyn died at age 41 of a cerebral haemorrhage.

11.

Bob Geldof attended Blackrock College, where he was bullied for being a poor rugby player and for his middle name, Zenon.

12.

Bob Geldof had written it in the aftermath of Brenda Ann Spencer's attempted massacre at an elementary school in San Diego, California in 1979.

13.

Bob Geldof 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".

14.

In January 2013, Bob Geldof announced 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.

15.

Bob Geldof 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.

16.

In July 2006, Bob Geldof arrived at Milan's Arena Civica, a venue capable of holding 12,000 people, to play a scheduled concert to find that the organisers had not put the tickets on general sale and that only 45 people had shown up.

17.

Bob Geldof refused to go on stage once he found out how small the attendance was.

18.

Bob Geldof then played a well-attended free Storytellers concert for MTV Italy in Naples, in October 2006.

19.

At the invitation of Amnesty show producer Martin Lewis, Bob Geldof performed a solo version of "I Don't Like Mondays".

20.

In 1984, Bob 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.

21.

In November 2014, Bob 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.

22.

Bob Geldof subsequently received an honorary knighthood, at age 34, for his efforts.

23.

Bob Geldof telephoned the British Prime Minister Tony Blair from Addis Ababa.

24.

Bob Geldof is a member of the Africa Progress Panel, a group of ten distinguished individuals who advocate at the highest levels for equitable and sustainable development in Africa.

25.

Bob Geldof worked closely with DATA, an organisation founded by U2's Bono in 2002 to promote debt-relief, third world trade and AIDS relief in Africa.

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26.

Bob Geldof organised ten concerts on 2 July 2005 in large cities throughout the industrialised world.

27.

Bob Geldof performed his rendition of Nick Lowe's " Peace, Love, and Understanding" at Night for Ukraine, a fundraising benefit held at the Roundhouse in north London on the evening of March 9,2022, with the funds raised being donated to the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal, to provide aid to people fleeing Ukraine following the Russian invasion.

28.

Bob Geldof was criticised for the lack of African acts performing at Live 8.

29.

Bob 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.

30.

Some leading African campaigners have asked Bob Geldof to stand down from the global anti-poverty movement, and the New Internationalist said 'It would be long overdue if he did.

31.

At the NME awards in 2006, when accepting an award, Bob Geldof referred to the host Russell Brand as a "cunt".

32.

Winston Peters, the Minister of Foreign Affairs responded that Bob Geldof failed to recognise the "quality" of New Zealand aid as well as other New Zealand contributions.

33.

In 2016, when Ireland was marking the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising, Bob Geldof caused controversy when he likened the rebel leaders to Islamist suicide bombers.

34.

Bob Geldof called it the "original sin" of the Irish state.

35.

Bob Geldof said he does not want to be associated "with an individual currently engaged in the mass ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people".

36.

Bob Geldof added that if Suu Kyi "is stripped of her Dublin Freedom, perhaps the council would see fit to restore to me that which I take such pride in".

37.

Bob Geldof was furious at the decision to revoke his award, calling it a "Sinn Fein stitch-up" because of his Easter Rising comments.

38.

The Dictionary of Man, announced by Bob Geldof in 2007, is a project he started with director John Maguire, and which is financed by the BBC.

39.

Bob 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.

40.

Bob Geldof is chairman of 8 Miles, a private equity firm active in Africa.

41.

In 2002, Bob 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".

42.

Bob Geldof criticised the European Union in 2004 for what he called its "pathetic" response to Ethiopia's food crisis.

43.

MEP Glenys Kinnock responded that Bob Geldof's comments were "unhelpful and misinformed".

44.

In 2003, during a visit to Ethiopia, Geldof praised US President George W Bush's proposal to fight AIDS in Africa.

45.

In December 2005, Bob Geldof agreed to give advice on global poverty to the Conservative Party.

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46.

Bob Geldof was a vocal supporter of the unsuccessful campaign for the UK to vote "Remain" in the 2016 referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union.

47.

Shortly before the vote, in what was described as the "most surreal day in British politics ever", Bob Geldof led a flotilla on the River Thames to attack an opposition flotilla led by Eurosceptic politician Nigel Farage.

48.

Later that year, Bob Geldof campaigned for the Liberal Democrat candidate Sarah Olney at the Richmond Park by-election.

49.

Bob Geldof said the EU was "a mess" but warned Britain's young people had their futures "taken from them" as a result of the referendum.

50.

From January 2002 until sometime in 2005, Bob Geldof listened very closely to Father's Rights campaigners, and it was reported that he had sacks of mail arriving at his door on a daily basis from fathers who were unhappy with the British family courts.

51.

Bob Geldof has called for The Children Act to be repealed and his latest statement to Father's Rights campaigners was, "It's not in my nature to shut up".

52.

In March 2012 Bob Geldof expressed concern about rising population and falling water levels in Arab countries.

53.

Bob Geldof predicted famine, plague, and wars if the population did not stabilise.

54.

Bob Geldof asked countries to lower their birthrates to lessen the burden on the environment.

55.

Bob Geldof has received many awards for his fund-raising work including being invested by Elizabeth II as an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1986.

56.

In 1986 Bob Geldof was made a Freeman of the Borough of Swale, in north Kent, England.

57.

Bob Geldof had for some years been resident in the borough, at Davington Priory, Faversham, and was still living there as of 2013.

58.

In 2004, Bob Geldof was made a development chief in Ghana.

59.

In 2006 the New Statesman magazine conducted a survey of their readers to find the Heroes of our Time, Bob Geldof was voted third behind Aung San Suu Kyi and Nelson Mandela.

60.

Bob Geldof was known for her in-bed interviews on the show The Big Breakfast from 1992.

61.

Bob Geldof met Yates when she became an obsessed fan of The Boomtown Rats during the band's early days.

62.

Bob Geldof was named Fifi after Bob's aunt Fifi and Trixibelle because Yates wanted a 'belle' in the family.

63.

Bob Geldof later went to court and obtained full custody of his three children.

64.

Bob Geldof has since become an outspoken advocate of fathers' rights.

65.

Bob Geldof stated the family was "beyond pain" after he confirmed the news of her death.

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66.

Bob Geldof announced his engagement to French actress Jeanne Marine, his partner of 18 years, on 1 May 2014, and they were married in France on 28 April 2015.