Whatever happened to…

WHEN YOU THINK BACK TO THE NAMES THAT IMPRESSED YOU IN YOUR GROWING UP YEARS, THE STARS THAT MADE YOUR HEART BEAT THAT LITTLE BIT FASTER, THE SPORTS PERSONALITIES YOU WANTED TO EMULATE... YOU WONDER HOW THE DECADES HAVE TREATED THEM

Words: JILL ECKERSLEY

Bob Geldof

Bob Geldof’s first claim to fame was as the outspoken lead singer and songwriter for the Irish punk band The Boomtown Rats, who had huge hits like I don’t like Mondays that song – based, as it was, on a school shooting by a young girl in the USA who made that her excuse – caused controversy. Bob Geldof said, much later: “It’s not in my nature to shut up!” and he wasn’t joking!

In 1984, his then-girlfriend Paula Yates (they married in 1986) drew his attention to the horrifying BBC TV reports on the famine in Ethiopia. With his friend Midge Ure of Ultravox, Bob penned the worldwide hit single Do They Know It’s Christmas – sung by every pop singer who was anyone in 80s Britain. All proceeds went to help Ethiopia and Geldof topped that by organising two vast pop concerts in 1985 – Live Aid – at Wembley Stadium in London and Philadelphia USA, which raised £150 million for famine relief in Africa.

Ever since then, he has worked to support charities in the developing world and argued in favour of debt relief for poorer countries. He was awarded an honorary knighthood by the late Queen Elizabeth in 1986. His wife Paula, the mother of his three daughters, died in 2000 and his daughter Peaches in 2014. The following year he married his French girlfriend Jeanne Marine and they currently live in South London where he continues to campaign for the causes he believes in.