The Rock Star Who Inspired A Generation
At the edge of Club Lounge, the heartbeat of the Nordic-inspired space, the Harbour Bridge stands as a steady backdrop while an eager, yet intimate, crowd of entrepreneurs, philanthropists and industry leaders wait for a man who’s spent his life pushing boundaries – Sir Bob Geldof.
Moments later, entering the room with Florence Guild Founder and CEO Soren Trampedach, Geldof looks every bit as untamed as his Boomtown Rats days.
FROM MODEST MEANS
Geldof begins, opening up about his childhood, sharing that his path has been anything but easy. He was raised in a rainy South Dublin suburb under challenging conditions, both economically and personally.
“When I was growing up, the only job my dad could get was selling towels around the countryside of rural Ireland in the 50s, where the idea of washing was novel,” he explains, with a certain lightness. “My mother died when I was very small,” Geldof continues, candidly weaving painful memories into his otherwise lighthearted and entertaining rhetoric.
Navigating this life of modest means alone with his siblings, Geldof reflects that there was little to guide him besides his own curiosity and determination. So he spent his time with books and a single radio station, Radio Luxembourg, which blasted out rock and roll to a generation craving change.
“They were talking endlessly of change, its desirability, its inevitability and that they themselves seemed to be the avatar of that change. And using the very rhetoric of change itself, which was rock and roll.”
MORE THAN A ROCK STAR
By the time Geldof rose to prominence with the iconic The Boomtown Rats, he had crafted a voice and purpose that transcended his rock star status.
Trampedach asks him, “Fame versus stardom, what did you want?”
Geldof, taking a moment to digest, he replies, “There’s another calibration there. It’s fame versus stardom versus celebrity. And celebrity is entirely hollow and embarrassing. Stardom is something that is given to you when you are of an excellence. Fame, I wanted, I wanted to use the platform fame gave me for the things that bothered me,” he explains.
MAKING AN IMPACT
At the time, the thing that kept him up at night was the devastating famine in Ethiopia.
Geldof shares how he watched a special report on the BBC, outlining the horror of what’s been called the worst famine of the 20th century.
To him, sending money wasn’t enough. Instead, Geldof recalls dialing his friends and other music greats from his extensive contact list, persuading them to join together to help. And help they did. Working with fellow musician Midge Ure, Geldof managed to recruit top musicians like U2’s Bono, Sting and George Michael for the all-star British Band Aid.
Together, they sang the now iconic single ‘Do They Know it’s Christmas?’. The single went on to sell more than three million copies, with just over US$1 of each going toward aid relief in Ethiopia.
THE NEXT CHAPTER
Geldof’s next chapter takes him on tour through Australia, starting March 2025.
In his closing remarks at Florence Guild Presents’ event, Sir Bob Geldof doesn’t talk much about his upcoming tour. Instead, he responds to the question, ‘What’s keeping you up at night?’
“Jet lag,” he says with a wry smile.
But the truth is, Geldof’s sleepless nights are likely filled with thoughts of what remains to be done. After all, for a man who believes history is “too busy beginning” to ever truly end, there will always be a next chapter to write.
