(Originally published in Irish Political Review January 2015)
The history of punk is long and mercenary. Shakespeare used the word as a synonym for whore and when Bob Geldof arrived in Britain he announced his ambition to get rich, famous and laid. Great artists have reaped such rewards incidentally but enriched civilisation with their art. But Geldof went back to basics when declaring himself a punk. To misquote Mae West- Music had nothing to do with it. .
Geldof’s LIVE AID spectacular in 1986 captured the admiration of millions, including myself. It was the first I ever saw of Bono to whom I took a dislike that has not abated. His laying on of hands as if he could cure leprosy was nauseating. Though I don’t doubt that it was all Pro Bono. Geldof’s star, then on the wane, rose and shone more than ever.
Geldof is perhaps a greater self-publicist than the American showman P T Barnum who famously observed that there was a fool born every minute. Jeffrey Archer, who, to his credit, made Oxfam the successful charity it is, pales beside him. Perhaps in Britain only Horatio Bottomley, publisher of John Bull, can compare with Geldof. It must be said though that Bottomley displayed a sense of humour unnoticed in Geldof or Archer.When jailed for fraud a prison visitor, seeing him working with mailbags asked -“Sewing, Bottomley?”
“No, Reaping” came the reply.
Within minutes of the death of Princess Diana, Geldof was all over the media like a cheap suit, blaming the media for her death. This was a bit rich, considering how she had played the media like a violin and was threatening to displace Geldof himself as its chief manipulator. Whatever respect he had earned with me through LIVE AID evaporated.
Geldof was a day-pupil in Blackrock College in Dublin,which has been one of Ireland’s most prestigious schools for a hundred and fifty years. It currently charges 6,500 Euros per annum for day pupils. Geldof’s father, by all accounts a decent man, could also afford a sailing boat.
But Geldof informed the High Court in London, that he came from a poor Irish background and was not particularly well-educated. In his memoir “Is that it?” he recalled being caned by his father for dishonesty.
Considering Sir Bob’s pose as a Ragged-Schooled Philanthropist Geldof Pere wasted his money on school fees and his energy on Bob’s chastisement.
I agree with the dislikeof Bono. Icould put it even stronger but will say only that he is a hateful West Brit. Geldoff and him are good mates.
The day and date was pretty famous, Saturday 13th July 1985!
As much as I dislike ‘Sir Bob’ and am repulsed by his politics and pretty much everything about the traitor, John Bruton would provide a more suitable benchmark for this settled East West-Brit.
I rather like the English, Scots and Welsh that I’ve worked, played, laid and drank with since
I landed in their island 51 years ago.
The, Irish too, and various other peoples here are, in the main, pretty sound.
It’s the sycophantic, crawling Irish who abase themselves in order to win favour with the bosses in Britain that I can’t stand.
The Cockneys call such people, wherever they come from “ARSEHOLE CRAWLERS”
Don’t knock the English language. Like the Lee Enfield rifle it is a precision weapon in the
right hands.
Well put, F….
Spot on. Two useful idiots for the British establishment is what boner and fraud Geldof are. Btw he’s went very quiet on the refugee crisis all of a sudden. Seeing as the narrative now is to shut the borders it’s only to be expected that he has went mute.
maybe hes realised the foreign aid would be better spent at home on his own people sleeping in dublins doorways.
Bob Geldof and Bono are two of a kind……sycophants to the elite.
Is that it?