After negotiating the music industry's merry-go-round for almost 30 years, Sir Bob Geldof is relieved it's his music, not his career moves, that have taken centre stage.

The rock star, best known as the former Boomtown Rats frontman and organiser of the Band Aid and Live Aid concerts in the mid-80s, is in Australia to promote his latest album, Sex, Age and Death.

He was among the presenters at Tuesday night's ARIA music awards at Sydney's SuperDome.

At a reflective point in his long career, Geldof joked with journalists after the ARIAs that making music had been easier during his heyday of the 1980s because there were bigger crowds.

"But what has changed is that, in the past, when I was starting, you would be bothered about how many people were in, what the size was of the venue, whether you sold out faster than the last time ... so every concert, though enjoyable, was part of a career move," he said.

"Now I couldn't give a f*** about that, so you're just left with the pure enjoyment of playing - and that's much more refreshing."

With the Boomtown Rats, Geldof had some of the biggest and most durable pop hits of the 80s, such as the irrepressible I Don't Like Mondays (actually released in 1979).

Geldof, now 50, said it still surprises him how popular that song is, along with The Great Song of Indifference.

"I was in India once ... and I passed a wedding hall, or temple, and the Indian wedding party were doing a karaoke version of I Don't Like Mondays and I thought, that's cool," he said.

But he said the enduring success of some of his earlier work is not something he places much importance on.

"Not very much, no, they're just songs over 27 years and I've heard other people say this and it's nonetheless true, not one song is more important than the others.

"The ones that tend to factor more with you are ones you've most recently done because they're the ones that articulate the moment."

Geldof is clearly more proud of his latest album, his first in five years, which has been internationally acclaimed by critics.

Sex, Age and Death is a deeply personal reflection on his tumultuous life, which has rarely been out of the tabloids since 1994 when his marriage to Paula Yates collapsed after her affair with INXS singer Michael Hutchence.

After Hutchence's death in a Sydney hotel room in 1997, and Yates' own death of a heroin overdose three years later, Geldof adopted Tiger Lily, Yates' daughter with Hutchence.

He had already won custody of his three daughters with Yates - Fifi Trixibelle, Peaches and Pixie.

But Geldof prefers to leave most insight about the last decade's personal hell to his lyrics, such as in the searingly honest songs, Inside Your Head and Scream in Vain.

While he remains focused on his music, "Saint Bob" still chairs the Band Aid and Live Aid organisations which have raised millions for Africa's starving.

He said he and countryman Bono, of the band U2, still work together lobbying international politicians to raise funds for humanitarian causes.

AAP

This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/10/17/1034561265151.html