Bob Geldof reflects on personal toll of Live Aid: “It probably cost me my marriage”

They also took in some of the most iconic live sets in music history – including Queen‘s show-stealing turn at Wembley Stadium.

But in a new interview to mark the 35th anniversary, Geldof said the shows had a huge personal cost on his life.

Live Aid 1985. Credit: Getty Images.

“I hated it. It became impossible,” Geldof said of the praise that surrounded his charity work.

“For a while I was bewildered. I didn’t have much money at the time. It impinged entirely on my private life. It probably ended up costing me my marriage (he later divorced Paula Yates in 1996),” he told AP.

Geldof also admitted that the huge success of the event meant it was harder to return to his day job as a musician.

“I wasn’t allowed go back to my job. I’m a pop singer. That’s literally how I make my money. That’s my job. I get up in the morning, if I’m in the mood. I’ll try and write tunes. I’ll go and try and rehearse,” he said.

“And I couldn’t. And no one was interested. Saint Bob, which I was called, wasn’t allowed to do this anymore because it’s so petty and so meaningless. So, I was lost.”

Reflecting on whether the event could ever take place again, he admitted: “It was the end of that political period of cooperation and consensus and compromise. Would that happen today? No. You just have to look at the clowns running the planet to understand that could never happen again.”

Earlier this year, Geldof said he believed Live Aid could never happen today.

He also pioneered Live 8, which took place in eight different locations in 2005, but Geldof believes another event on the Live Aid scale would be impossible today.

Speaking to CBC, Geldof said: “We had a huge lobby: 1.2 billion people, 95 per cent of the television sets on Earth watched that concert.

”Things do change, but that instrument of change is no longer plausible,” he added. “Rock and roll was the central spine of our culture for 50 years. The web has broken down the world into individualism and that’s easy for authoritarians to use.”

Last year, Queen guitarist Brian May stated his desire for another Live Aid to be organised in order to tackle climate change.

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Bob Geldof says “there had to be a political agenda” behind Lady Gaga’s ‘One World: Together At Home’ benefit concert

In a new interview, Geldof said that while “Gaga was correct to try and do it,” he wasn’t interested in it and believes there was a political agenda behind it.

“Well done her and everybody for doing it, but I don’t understand the purpose,” the musician and Live Aid co-organiser said on this morning’s (June 6) BBC Radio 4 Today programme (the discussion starts at the 21:31 mark).

“Gaga was correct to try and do it,” he continued. “She’s an artist, she felt a responsibility, she got the others to come to the party.

“And then there had to be a political agenda behind it, which would achieve – what? What was it they wanted?”

Lady Gaga. CREDIT: Press

Earlier this year, Geldof said he believed Live Aid could never happen today.

The charity event took place at London’s Wembley Stadium in 1985, and was watched by nearly two billion people worldwide, over 40% of the world’s population. It raised $127 million for famine relief in Africa.

Another concert series of a similar kind, Live 8, took place in eight different locations in 2005, but Geldof believes another event on the Live Aid scale would be impossible today.

Meanwhile, the Boomtown Rats frontman has revisited the time he once sent 1,000 dead rats to radio DJs in the US as a publicity stunt.

“It was 1,000 dead actual rats which were ordered from the sanitation department of New York City and sent out from Chicago to 1,000 disc jockeys who were busy playing disco in the middle of the ’70s,” he explained on The One Show.

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Bob Geldof once sent 1,000 dead rats to radio DJs in the US as a publicity stunt

“On Monday morning there was this dump on the desk of a 1,000 DJs and it was a rat in formaldehyde, in plastic,” he said, before adding: “That was basically the end of The Boomtown Rats in America.”

Watch Geldof discuss the stunt below:

When Sir Bob Geldof first went to America, what freebie did his record label send to 1,000 radio stations?@alandavies1 and @sanditoksvig reveal their answers! Were they right, Bob? 🐀 #TheOneShow | @qikipedia pic.twitter.com/wyowh8LLrT

— BBC The One Show (@BBCTheOneShow) May 27, 2020

Earlier this year, Bob Geldof said he believes another Live Aid could never happen today.

Another concert series of a similar kind, Live 8, took place in eight different locations in 2005.

Meanwhile, Band Aid founders Bob Geldof and Midge Ure angrily denied rumours that they take any of the proceeds from Band Aid.

The pair set up the Band Aid charity in 1984, when they wrote ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’ to help fight famine in Ethiopia.

The song was that year’s Christmas No 1 and went on to be the best-selling single of all time in Britain. It has sold over two million copies and raised over £200m for famine relief.

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Tag: Bob Geldof

Bob Geldof reflects on personal toll of Live Aid: “It probably cost me my marriage”

Bob Geldof says “there had to be a political agenda” behind Lady Gaga’s ‘One World: Together At Home’ benefit concert

Bob Geldof once sent 1,000 dead rats to radio DJs in the US as a publicity stunt