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The Restless Knight Vanessa
Thorpe He's
the Boomtown Rat who launched Band Aid and Live Aid, became a TV
and internet entrepreneur, and still found time to bring up his
children almost singled-handedly. But does that make him a
saint?
He was joking,
surely? The whimsical title of Bob Geldof's 1986 autobiography
was Is That It? , but it must have been a monumental leg-pull.
After all, since then the blessed Irish knight, Sir Bob, has
lived a hundred lives and survived, we might well imagine, at
least as many mortal shocks. The
fund-raising achievements of Band Aid and Live Aid had given the
former rock star an early licence to take control of his own
story - before it had even been half-told and before other
versions might gain currency. In the 15 years
that have followed that precipitate autobiography the suggestion
that Sir Bob is a 'control freak' has resurfaced several times.
He is, apparently, someone who expects to operate only on his
own terms. And while this attitude has worked extremely well
when it comes to making money either for himself or for charity,
it has not been so effective at organising the things he has
really cared about; like keeping his wayward wife, for example,
or persuading world leaders to cancel all Third World debt. Now, speaking
this month to the women's magazine Marie Claire, Sir Bob has
unexpectedly broken his silence about the breakdown of his
10-year marriage to Paula Yates, on the first anniversary of her
death. 'The universes
of grief, oceans of loss and deserts of emptiness were so
profound, I just descended to a very primitive state,' he has
said. The candid
comments were offered in explanation of the lyrics of songs on
his poignant new album, Sex, Death and Age. The album, he
admits, is an attempt to express the sense of failure that
haunted him when Yates first left him for the late popstar
Michael Hutchence, in 1995. 'She was a
woman of such grace and style and even when she was being
ridiculous, there was always this vivid intelligence behind it,'
he said. Geldof's
decision to open his heart comes at a time when he is happier
than he has been for a long time. He lives with his girlfriend,
the French actress Jeanne Marine (whom he describes as 'the best
possible woman') and his three children by Yates, Fifi
Trixibelle, Peaches Honeyblossom and Pixie. Since February 2000
he has also had custody of Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily, Yates's
daughter with Hutchence. 'He has made
them very happy,' says Yates's close friend, Belinda Brewin.
'What does it matter now what went on before? The kids are very
happy. A year on, Tiger Lily comes to stay with me once a week
and she is absolutely fine. And I had a drink with Fifi the
other day and she seems happy too.' While some of Paula's
mourners have privately suggested that it might have been nice
if Geldof had praised his former wife publicly before now, they
do concede that he has re-built an emotionally functioning
family through sheer hard work. He cooks his children's supper
and walks them to school in the mornings. He also describes his
family as 'the core' of everything he does. But there is no
true rest for this man. He is, he says, congenitally unable to
relax and, as a result, his music has become an 'obsession' in
recent years. For Geldof's public, however, the music he has
made since The Boomtown Rats disbanded in 1985 has been
forgotten about amid a succession of high-profile business
ventures and global campaigns. After
the sale of his £5million worth of shares in Planet 24, the
television production company he owned with Lord Waheed Ali
and Charlie Parsons, Geldof set up Deckchair.com,
a website for cheap flights. He also launched a radio company
called Ten Alps (Planet backwards) and a Wap (Wireless
Application Protocol) phone venture called WapWorld that pumps
internet sport and entertainment news into your mobile phone.
Most recently, in a slightly mysterious deal involving the gift
of an Alfa Romeo, he has been recruited into the world of
advertising too, working as a kind of roving consultant for a
network of ground-breaking creative thinkers called Red Cell. After working
with Geldof on debt campaigns, Luca Lindner, the head of Red
Cell, has persuaded him to become one of his 'idea hamsters',
attached to a confidential range of client accounts. 'People just
see his iconoclast side,' explains Lindner. 'But Bob has a
refreshing mind. It's refreshing just to have a phone call from
him.' Lindner,
whose clients include Singapore Airlines, Alfa Romeo and,
controversially, Nestle, sees
three 'key facets' to Geldof's magic. 'First, he is very smart.
Colleagues who were with him in a London workshop had to admit
he was the fastest thinker with the most innovative ideas. He
understands how to get leverage on people's emotions. I would
love it if he was not just a consultant, but the chief executive
of the company!' The other two Geldof traits Lindner identifies
are 'a strong sense of his own value as a business, and even
as a brand', along with a balancing generosity of spirit. 'We had four
television interviews one day before a G8 summit and I was not
at ease, partly because of my language problem and partly
because of the cameras. Bob sensed it and stepped in. He did not
speak over me, he just made sure we had the right impact in the
short time we had.' Geldof has
doggedly championed the Drop the Debt cause for the Third World
with his friend, Bono, from U2, and, almost as an aside, he has
organised a millennium night firework display and a bizarre
national search for Britain's favourite word. (Serendipity, if
you were wondering.) It could be that a deep sense of guilt
drives him on, but if so, it stems from well before his time
with Yates. Perhaps it dates from his enforced early adulthood
back in Dublin. Geldof's mother died when he was seven and his
dad, a travelling salesman, was away so much that he had 'to
organise my own life'. He has, he says, recently grown closer to
the rest of his family after the consecutive dramatic deaths of
Hutchence, who was found hanging from a hotel door in Sydney,
and Yates, who was discovered dead in her London home after
overdosing on heroin on 17 September last year. His sister Lynn
works for Unicef and the two debate politics. 'There is a
certain shortness of fuse,' she has said of her brother's
character. Sir Bob
himself, who used to be known as Modest Bob back in his Boomtown
days, plays down his ambition. 'I'm pushed into doing things by
my irascibility,' he argues. But those who
work with him are reverent, even awestruck. A former colleague
at Drop the Debt puts his energy down to 'his strong sense of
injustice', while Jamie Drummond, the leading anti-debt activist
who works closely with Geldof and Bono on a number of campaigns
under the Jubilee Plus banner, is even more fulsome. 'I adore
Bob,' he says. 'We have gone through a lot of shit together. He
is a gas to work with and he is also inspirational.' Drummond
recalls one particular 'mad moment' when they were in Cologne
for a summit and Geldof turned up on a motorbike. 'We met Gerhard
Schroder and gave him a petition. Then we were supposed to meet
up with Tony Blair, but we weren't sure if we wanted to talk to
him because he hadn't done what we hoped.' Geldof pushed for the
meeting, remembers Drummond. 'He said we had to keep talking -
you have to have rational debate.' Both Blair and Gordon Brown,
Drummond is convinced, are fans of Geldof. 'If you watch them
together, you can tell they think his impulses are important.' Those at Drop
the Debt were also impressed by Geldof's reliability,
particularly as he doesn't use an assistant or a secretary. 'He
cuts through the bullshit,' says Drummond, 'but he is well aware
of the ridiculousness of the fact it requires celebrities to get
this kind of thing discussed.' Drummond is repeatedly amused to
see how he terrifies strangers. 'People who don't know him think
he is scary. The veins in his temples rise and they know they
are going to get a bollocking. It is just Bob's way.' When the
final Geldof story is written, it might well emerge that the
greatest virtue of this alleged saint and avowed sinner was to
have used his character flaws to do some good. |