Speaker 1: Bob Geldoff is a man that represents goodness and kindness
Speaker 1: and mischief and intelligence, all things that I rate very
Speaker 1: very highly personally. I have enjoyed his creativity, curiosity, and
Speaker 1: correct courage from the moment that he first boomed into
Speaker 1: our lives as their frontman of the boomtown Rats over
Speaker 1: fifty years ago. Can you believe it? He is touring
Speaker 1: the country next year in his show An Evening with
Speaker 1: Bob Geldof or has it been renamed Life WTF? Whatever
Speaker 1: it's called. Get your tickets now at TEG Dainty dot com.
Speaker 1: I am thrilled to welcome to the Christy Cast. Thanks
Speaker 1: sir Bob Geldof. I just want to I want to
Speaker 1: start with I'm so desperate for you to like me.
Speaker 2: Yep, and so whether you deranged to sort of pretend
Speaker 2: you just got into the left when I got in
Speaker 2: kind of sad. I've been following you all morning, absolutely
Speaker 2: sucking me at the Melbourne carp.
Speaker 1: I have, you know, tried to research as much as
Speaker 1: I can, and I have found that I've been doing
Speaker 1: this for over twenty years, and I found the bigger
Speaker 1: the name, the more bullshit there is written about them,
Speaker 1: absolutely on the internet. So forgive me if I say
Speaker 1: something that this is not true breakfast. Do you judge
Speaker 1: somebody on their opinions about breakfast if they have it
Speaker 1: or not?
Speaker 2: On brexit?
Speaker 1: Yeah, breakfast? No, not Brexit. Now we're not this is
Speaker 1: not this is not going to get politically Okay.
Speaker 2: Do you judge someone in their opinion on breakfast? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I read that, But you're a breakfast off Shinado. No,
Speaker 1: oh god.
Speaker 2: I mean it's coffee and that's it.
Speaker 1: Like that's mad, that's yeah, well that was written about you.
Speaker 1: What about cups? Are you a cups guy?
Speaker 2: What sort of cops?
Speaker 1: Well I read about you that you carry your own cup.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: That's completely nuts. Now. The thing about the web, but
Speaker 2: you must know, is that there's a version of the
Speaker 2: self that takes place in this other universe and people
Speaker 2: chip in and had bits and it becomes this car.
Speaker 2: It used to be the tabloid Press which had a
Speaker 2: version of you. It was your name, but you didn't
Speaker 2: recognize anything about yourself. It's the same with the Web,
Speaker 2: which I've never looked at, Not a single time have
Speaker 2: I looked at any reference to myself. You know, well,
Speaker 2: I'm not interested, but two, you know, you just kind
Speaker 2: of go okay whatever.
Speaker 1: So we'd think breakfast, no cups and breakfast. Well that
Speaker 1: I mean I.
Speaker 2: Bought is because in the UK I had a production
Speaker 2: company and we did the breakfast show for Channel four
Speaker 2: for ten years, called The Big Breakfast. And so maybe
Speaker 2: it's that there's a story that I keep a cup,
Speaker 2: and it's the cup Mick Jagger drank coffee out of
Speaker 2: when my sister brought me to see The Rolling Stones
Speaker 2: in nineteen sixty four and I saw Mick and he
Speaker 2: was drinking a cup of coffee and I ducked in
Speaker 2: behind the commissionaire, who was the guy at the stage
Speaker 2: door at the cinema they were playing at, and I
Speaker 2: ran in behind him and grabbed the cup. When Mick
Speaker 2: went to practice, I thought, I now know it's soundcheck,
Speaker 2: but and I grabbed it. So fast forward and I
Speaker 2: want the Stones to play live aid and I'm having
Speaker 2: breakfast Mick Jagger at the Savoy Hotel in London, as
Speaker 2: you do. And Mick I was probably pre his strict diet.
Speaker 2: Every think it was forty years ago. So Mick's having
Speaker 2: you know, classic bacon and eggs. That's English breakfast stuff,
Speaker 2: and so obviously the Rolling Stones are a huge thing.
Speaker 2: Like I saw the Beatles, I saw Bob Dylan in
Speaker 2: the same Cinnamon the same year, but it was the
Speaker 2: Rolling Stones. I just said, I'm going to be in
Speaker 2: that gang. That's it, you know. So I'm saying to
Speaker 2: make like I still have the fan thing going on.
Speaker 2: It's odd to me that in my life I've got
Speaker 2: to know this guy and like, you know, he's not
Speaker 2: a mate, but like we chat away, you know. But
Speaker 2: I can't get rid of the fan filter, no more
Speaker 2: than I could say with David Bowie or people I
Speaker 2: really admire. I can't get past that. But I can
Speaker 2: have a normal chat. But I'm all the time thinking
Speaker 2: I'm this kid from dud Leary County, Dublin. I'm talking
Speaker 2: to David Bowie, you know that sort of. So I
Speaker 2: said to make mix saying no, no. His downs were,
Speaker 2: can't do a merganism fighting with me out with Keith,
Speaker 2: you know. So he was going to go to New
Speaker 2: York and put it together with Tina and Keith. As
Speaker 2: soon as you heard this, he went off and got
Speaker 2: that rang bobbed and said can I play with you?
Speaker 3: Said?
Speaker 2: They had this whole thing going on, But I sort
Speaker 2: of say, here's the thing, and mix sus what And
Speaker 2: I said, I have this plastic cup that you drank
Speaker 2: coffee out of in nineteen sixty four. And I said,
Speaker 2: I know I could never give that away. I'll never
Speaker 2: sell it. I said, what's that about, you know? And
Speaker 2: he said, oh, I don't know. Do you want my
Speaker 2: fucking bacon and eggs? I said, no, no, I don't
Speaker 2: want your bacon eggs. But that could be the breakfast
Speaker 2: and the cup.
Speaker 1: It could be. It could be where is the.
Speaker 2: Cup right now in my attic?
Speaker 1: And what does it look like?
Speaker 2: Plastic? It's black with a white rim around the top.
Speaker 2: You remember those plastics sort of yeah, and it still
Speaker 2: has a bit of dried froth on the inside. Really yeah,
Speaker 2: you'd think I'd have it mounted on something nobody's in
Speaker 2: with all the other crap. You know, I know it is,
Speaker 2: but it's not going anywhere.
Speaker 1: If you were really fanning and being creepy, you could
Speaker 1: take it to a lab and reconstitute the coffee that
Speaker 1: was in it, like Dolly the Sheep.
Speaker 2: Reconstitute mixed DNA. Because he's got a big mouth and
Speaker 2: he's probably that lip stuff is all over the rim
Speaker 2: of that cup.
Speaker 1: And you know, that's another thing I read about you,
Speaker 1: whoa that you grew up with a big set of lips,
Speaker 1: and everybody was cruel to you about it, and then cruel.
Speaker 2: And heart it was hard hot.
Speaker 1: You're still not over it, yeah, I know. And then
Speaker 1: Mick Jagger arrived and suddenly you were hot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well I wasn't hot. I mean, yeah, it was
Speaker 2: awkward because you know, boys as they're forming into men
Speaker 2: eleven two, fifteen, sixteen, they're really crap, you know, yeah,
Speaker 2: and got one at high Yeah, okay, so I was
Speaker 2: beyond crap, like and so you know, my hair was
Speaker 2: a mess, my clothes were a mess, and there was
Speaker 2: no one to rectify that because my dad was off.
Speaker 2: He was a commercial salesman, so he was off selling
Speaker 2: towels around the countryside of irond He'd leave on Monday,
Speaker 2: come back on Friday. My mum was dead, so there
Speaker 2: was no one there too, you know, ironed or do
Speaker 2: washing or I certainly wasn't going to go to the
Speaker 2: loan drette at the age of nine or ten, forget it.
Speaker 2: So and then my hair was all over the place.
Speaker 2: So I was always kind of getting thrown out of
Speaker 2: school for deportment or like thereof. And when girls sort
Speaker 2: of swam into view, it was one Catholic Ireland there
Speaker 2: was no chance of anything ever happening, but two, quite
Speaker 2: correctly from their point of view. I was horrible, you know,
Speaker 2: my mouth was far too big, my ears were true,
Speaker 2: I looked like sort of King Charles at the age
Speaker 2: of eleven, and my hair was a mess, and my
Speaker 2: clothes were you know, useless.
Speaker 1: So you've always spoken about yourself in this way, but
Speaker 1: you are very attractive men they must.
Speaker 2: Be, Yeah, is it if you were fourteen and I
Speaker 2: was fourteen? Let's go back to it, you know. So
Speaker 2: the first time I actually did a girl who said yes,
Speaker 2: she would dance with me, and Rice and what the
Speaker 2: vampire not her? So we went, you know, basically you
Speaker 2: got kind of a dancer too out of the girl
Speaker 2: before she sat down again. It was the days when
Speaker 2: girls lined up along one side of the room and
Speaker 2: you were down the other, and it was the Sunday afternoons,
Speaker 2: and all.
Speaker 1: Of that stuff is just fresh hell to me.
Speaker 2: So, you know, I asked her to dance and she
Speaker 2: said okay. By asking her to dance, it meant I
Speaker 2: sort of grunted at her and kicked her shit, which
Speaker 2: is an indication. And they said your next dance please,
Speaker 2: is slow dancing. She stayed with me, so I thought
Speaker 2: game on, and so, you know, I was trying to
Speaker 2: cop a feel looking expectantly. Remember this is Ireland and
Speaker 2: James Bond was banned in Ireland, you know, because there
Speaker 2: was always a sentence her nipples were a wreck with desire.
Speaker 2: I no, no, and I couldn't possibly had no understanding
Speaker 2: of what that meant. I'd never seen a nude woman,
Speaker 2: you know, there just wasn't any in Ireland. They didn't
Speaker 2: ever go you.
Speaker 1: In fact, I've always imagined that it must be so
Speaker 1: exciting as a young man to see your first set
Speaker 1: of pusease like that moment.
Speaker 2: You think so vivid on a second by second basis
Speaker 2: you are a laser pointed missile. There's just you really are,
Speaker 2: and if nothing's happened, nature will take its own course
Speaker 2: and it just you know, naturally, it's just you know,
Speaker 2: And so I guess it was that. But as I
Speaker 2: was trying to you know, tune in whatever, you know,
Speaker 2: copp Field, I expected her to be sort of her
Speaker 2: head you know, swaying with ecstasy, et cetera, because I've
Speaker 2: read about this in my Illegal James Bomb book. And
Speaker 2: I looked down and she was just there, chewing gum,
Speaker 2: looking around, completely indifferent to me. As I pulled the
Speaker 2: Irish Times out of our brasier, you know, and I
Speaker 2: was reading that day's news from the chest of this
Speaker 2: young girl. You know, That's what That was my first
Speaker 2: experience of this. It wasn't good.
Speaker 1: I would have been smadged to the print.
Speaker 2: Sweat of my pal definitely, you know.
Speaker 1: Can you remember what songs were around at that time?
Speaker 2: Yeah? They were good. I mean to put this in perspective.
Speaker 2: The bands that sometimes I heard were Van Morrison's band,
Speaker 2: you know them who were just brilliant Taste, which was
Speaker 2: Rory Gallaher's band. They got a bit older. So these
Speaker 2: were good. We knew they were good. The other bands
Speaker 2: were pre crap. And but it would have been sort
Speaker 2: of nineteen mid sixties seventies, so you had the high
Speaker 2: point of rock and roll lyrics, really a whiter shade
Speaker 2: of pale strawberry fields forever. The Who, in particular for me,
Speaker 2: the King, the Mobs, you know, the King, so Who,
Speaker 2: the small faces. That was the stuff I just And
Speaker 2: then of course suddenly at the Blue you get stats
Speaker 2: in Moltown. That was fantastic. And I've gone on my
Speaker 2: you know, delayed pilgrimage to visit all those places where
Speaker 2: those records were made. You know, me too, paid homage
Speaker 2: to them and they're makers.
Speaker 1: You have said that, well, I hope you have, because
Speaker 1: you've also intimato, So I think this is true. People
Speaker 1: think I'm scruffy, Well I am a seven year old
Speaker 1: boy is not going to wash his clothes. He's just not.
Speaker 1: I am that person. And I heard that and I went, oh,
Speaker 1: maybe I've got this theory that who we are as
Speaker 1: a child, like we're born the way we are, and
Speaker 1: life sort of takes us away from that original person,
Speaker 1: the person that we're supposed to be. What did Bob
Speaker 1: Geldoff like to do in his heart and Saul when
Speaker 1: he was a little boy.
Speaker 2: Well, you are a blank canvas. You've inherited a bunch
Speaker 2: of genes that will determine some characteristics either way. You
Speaker 2: look some behavior as we now know, but the most
Speaker 2: of it is cultural or societal and what forms you.
Speaker 2: So that's Freuden. We know that you know always as psychiatrist,
Speaker 2: will go to formative things in your experience. What did
Speaker 2: I like was a function of the conditions of my life,
Speaker 2: which very early weren't great. I mean, you know, I'm
Speaker 2: not playing a fiddle here. I didn't really think much
Speaker 2: about it at the time. Retrospectively, I feel sorry for
Speaker 2: that little boy, but not at the time. It just
Speaker 2: was what it was. So as you pointed out, you know,
Speaker 2: no one was going to do the washing. That was
Speaker 2: because my mum was dead and my dad, say went away,
Speaker 2: no fault of us. Only had no choice. There was
Speaker 2: no economy in arms. It was the only job you
Speaker 2: could get. So it was myself and sisters. The oldest
Speaker 2: sister was seventeen. She was not going to be a
Speaker 2: sort of good mother to a Brasish little brother, and
Speaker 2: she got out quickly.
Speaker 1: So what's the age difference between you and your sisters?
Speaker 2: Between My eldest one was about eight to ten years.
Speaker 2: I think my middle one was five or six years.
Speaker 2: She was the school geek. She stayed in school. The
Speaker 2: nuns gave her food, and so I'd come back to
Speaker 2: the house and make my own dinner and stuff like that,
Speaker 2: and you know, it was it was maybe I remember
Speaker 2: a child.
Speaker 1: It was a child cook, but what is a child cook?
Speaker 2: That's good whatever was in the cupboard. There was no
Speaker 2: fridge or TV or telephone because we didn't have money.
Speaker 2: So what I remember cooking for myself. What I really
Speaker 2: liked cooking, not cooking but already eating, was rice with
Speaker 2: an oxo cube dissolved in the water. I sort of
Speaker 2: worked this out myself, plus a bit of bacon sliced
Speaker 2: up and put put into the water, which gave it
Speaker 2: a smoky flavor. And then when that was cooked, I'd
Speaker 2: fried egg and put it on top foot so it
Speaker 2: was kind of like fried rice, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, sort of a nazzy goring risotto.
Speaker 2: Well not without the peanutsy thing you're going on the stuff.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I remembered that, and I guess though for
Speaker 2: lunch there was a scam going on because parents would
Speaker 2: never allow mothers would never allow their kids to have
Speaker 2: sugar sandwiches, you know, which is basically uncooked bread and
Speaker 2: butter pudding. You know. So I would make you know,
Speaker 2: sugar sandwiches and you know it's bread, butter, sugar, and
Speaker 2: knowing that the guys you know wanted this, I'd make
Speaker 2: six sandwiches for myself every morning before going to school,
Speaker 2: and I.
Speaker 1: Got twelve pieces of bread.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'd swapped them then far because they all
Speaker 2: wanted it. So I'd swapped one sugar sandwich was worth
Speaker 2: one to match or one egg sandwich, and so two
Speaker 2: sandwiches for one one ham and thing. So I was
Speaker 2: the king of sandwiches in school, you know, stuff like that.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it was all right. I mean I worked
Speaker 2: my way. The point is to your point, at that age,
Speaker 2: because of this, you become very self reliant, very independent,
Speaker 2: and very organized, you know. So the adjunct to what
Speaker 2: you said is that I was always scruffy, yes, but
Speaker 2: I had a tidy mind. And that's the mistake people
Speaker 2: make because this shambling oaf wanders into a meeting and
Speaker 2: he sits there apparently not listening and scratching and looking
Speaker 2: around and being distracted and dudling NonStop, not looking at anyone.
Speaker 2: But I'm listening intently, not not that's what I do unconsciously,
Speaker 2: and they're going, you know, and in political well, in
Speaker 2: political meetings in particular. But I remember getting the Order
Speaker 2: of the Nile second Class from the President of the
Speaker 2: Sudan who was, of course, inevitably some cockamami general who'd
Speaker 2: taken over the day before sort of thing. And they
Speaker 2: were giving me this medal, which is amazing thing. It's
Speaker 2: this blaze of gold, silver and ivory and ceramic on
Speaker 2: my chest. And I walked in. I will not go
Speaker 2: into these meetings without journalists to make a record, because
Speaker 2: I don't want to be nailed for being, you know,
Speaker 2: not saying the right thing or pulling up these leaders
Speaker 2: on an amnesty report or anything. And so the general
Speaker 2: walks over to the smartest looking general. Are the smartest
Speaker 2: looking journalists, says mister Geldoff, You know, so and so
Speaker 2: so some the journalists just pointed at me, and you
Speaker 2: could see the guy got him. You know.
Speaker 3: I was there sneakers and jeans that haven't been washed,
Speaker 3: and hair all over the place that just come out
Speaker 3: of the desert. So like, you know, I was a mess,
Speaker 3: and he kind of just slapped it on my chest
Speaker 3: and said, off you go.
Speaker 2: That sort of thing happens. So it's a useful device
Speaker 2: when it comes to those sorts of things. It's equally
Speaker 2: useful in rock and roll. You know, there's an idea
Speaker 2: of Bobby Boomtown and it's largely true.
Speaker 1: It's like your alter ego.
Speaker 2: Well, I think guy on stage is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Bobby Boomtown and Bob Geldoff both deeply do not
Speaker 1: care what people think of them.
Speaker 2: I think that's true. So I'm not bothered by social media.
Speaker 2: I never never ever look at it. I don't have sights.
Speaker 2: There are sites saying Bob Gelvin that was nothing to
Speaker 2: do with me. It just has no interest in me whatsoever.
Speaker 2: More than that, I don't want to look at anything
Speaker 2: that I'm meant, like to say the Queen movie or
Speaker 2: where there's a version of me, or this musical that's
Speaker 2: on in the West End about live called Just for
Speaker 2: One Day, which I did have to go to and
Speaker 2: is absolutely fantastic, but there's a guy doing me and
Speaker 2: I had to get over that and very weird. Yeah,
Speaker 2: well it's you know, I was expecting some guy to
Speaker 2: come on stage and go I should be right, you know,
Speaker 2: because it's hard to do my dull monotone at anoidel
Speaker 2: south of the middle class accent.
Speaker 1: You know, is it over overdone? Like does he shamble?
Speaker 2: He hasn't nailed. I mean. The interesting thing about it
Speaker 2: is that from the when he was nine years old.
Speaker 2: His granny used to make him stand on the kitchen
Speaker 2: table in Liverpool and do Bob Geldoff, which is kind
Speaker 2: of mad. I mean, he was in Hamilton and now
Speaker 2: he's doing this and that. He's like, he's big, but
Speaker 2: he's not bad. And actually, because physically he's not like me,
Speaker 2: it doesn't matter his attitude. So it's it's a bit
Speaker 2: disconcerting because I'm good. I'm not like that, you know.
Speaker 2: But when the family go, he's just like you shut up.
Speaker 2: He's nothing like me.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: So that's kind of that's kind of now I see
Speaker 2: him as a character and it's just is that character
Speaker 2: playing well tonight? But in general I don't And it
Speaker 2: goes to your point about being scruffy. It's an easy
Speaker 2: cartoon to make of someone. Yeah, and you know, don't.
Speaker 2: I don't like seeing myself. I don't like hearing myself.
Speaker 2: I will never listen to this. And if I if
Speaker 2: I heard you on the radio and me, I just
Speaker 2: turn it off. I don't like hearing me singing. I
Speaker 2: just can't stand the stupid things I say. So I'm
Speaker 2: so so annoyed with myself, so embarrassed by myself.
Speaker 1: Wow. I also never listen to myself, but that's because
Speaker 1: I don't care what I say either. Do you think
Speaker 1: that your absolute belief in the way that you live
Speaker 1: your life and your opinions and the fact that you
Speaker 1: don't care about what other people think comes from all
Speaker 1: the time alone you spent as a child.
Speaker 2: Listened to. Again, that's clever, I think, along with the
Speaker 2: independence and the self organization. The downside of this is
Speaker 2: that because you're on your own, there's no one to temper.
Speaker 2: You're rapidly growing ideas and opinions of the world, so
Speaker 2: you tend to be very dogmatic and see things in
Speaker 2: black and white. And I don't care what you think,
Speaker 2: you know. That's what's it, I think. And my dad
Speaker 2: and we had a tough time. We eventually ended up
Speaker 2: as mates, thank goodness. And I regret the things that happened,
Speaker 2: and I regret me being such a prick with him,
Speaker 2: but equally I regret that he was such a fucking
Speaker 2: idiot with me. I regret that too late. But we
Speaker 2: did grow to be good pals, and when he was
Speaker 2: asked about me, he'd say, you know, I was ashamed
Speaker 2: of him. I was embarrassed by him me the way
Speaker 2: he looked, and when I was with my friends, he'd
Speaker 2: shamble along in these long coats and just grunted people,
Speaker 2: and his hair was everywhere. And he said the thing
Speaker 2: that I had to understand very very early, was that Robert,
Speaker 2: which he still call me Robert, just simply didn't care
Speaker 2: what I thought about him or what other people thought
Speaker 2: about him. Now, I'm not sure that's a virtue. In fact,
Speaker 2: there's a vanity in that. And I disliked that, so
Speaker 2: I din't, well, I do you know. I mean, I'm
Speaker 2: careful with leaders, democratic leaders, because they have been whether
Speaker 2: you agree with them or not, and you know, whether
Speaker 2: you agree with their politics, they were elected by the
Speaker 2: vast by a majority of people, so therefore they do
Speaker 2: represent those people, and the other people who didn't vote
Speaker 2: for them have accepted that. So you accept that those
Speaker 2: people's vergic and you must respect that. And I do.
Speaker 2: I have to correct myself before I go into this
Speaker 2: and say, it's not this person you disagree with, it's
Speaker 2: this person who has this position, and he is legitimately there.
Speaker 2: So if I met Putsin, he's illegitimate, he's you know,
Speaker 2: he's an autocrat. That's the that's power through the military.
Speaker 2: If if Trump gets in, you know this will go
Speaker 2: out afterwards. I can't respect that. It's the power of wealth.
Speaker 2: Is it's a it's a plutocracy, it's illegitimate. So but
Speaker 2: that's me. And you know, if I did meet that horrendous,
Speaker 2: amoral creep, then I would be very hard put to
Speaker 2: have a normal conversation with them. In fact, I wouldn't.
Speaker 2: I just wouldn't bother. No, you wouldn't.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about parenting because you enjoy parenting,
Speaker 1: and for me, parenting has been one of the greatest
Speaker 1: joys of my life, but for reasons that are unexpected,
Speaker 1: I didn't really know what to expect it. I love
Speaker 1: it a lot more than I did thought I would.
Speaker 1: Given that your mother passed away so early and your
Speaker 1: father was largely absent, how did you know how to
Speaker 1: be such a beautiful father.
Speaker 2: You'd have to ask the girls whether that's true or not.
Speaker 1: I think it is. I think it is.
Speaker 2: It very strange. Last night I was out with friends
Speaker 2: and the women were talking about, you know, being homes
Speaker 2: and I actually said, did you enjoy it? And you
Speaker 2: know their children are all grown up and boringly we
Speaker 2: were showing each other, you know, pictures of our kids.
Speaker 2: But I was showing my latest grandson, who's the cutest
Speaker 2: thing that ever walked the planet. You know, old is
Speaker 2: he and he's three and he was a shock last
Speaker 2: week for Halloween. You know, he was shark ever and
Speaker 2: like was.
Speaker 1: He baby shark? Baby shark?
Speaker 2: Probably he was, you know, he had his outfit and
Speaker 2: he went and his his little girlfriend, so he was
Speaker 2: was of course a zombie princess, you know. So. But
Speaker 2: I liked the responsibility of it. There's a part of
Speaker 2: you that always in Caru you are, says it's going
Speaker 2: to be better than what I had. Though I have
Speaker 2: met people who've got who've had just the most brilliant childhoods,
Speaker 2: and they seek to replicate that, which is equally fine.
Speaker 1: But how did you not replicate yours?
Speaker 2: Because the conditions weren't there? I mean, there were there
Speaker 2: were things that happened which seemed to me time looping
Speaker 2: about itself. So I remembered when my mom died, my
Speaker 2: dad the night before my mom. So memory is pristian,
Speaker 2: you know, cruse thing about remembering smells and things. So
Speaker 2: I pieced together of a version of my mother. I
Speaker 2: think anyone does anyway about memory. So my mother to
Speaker 2: me is lipstick on a fag button the ashtray, lipstick
Speaker 2: on a teacup velvet, evening gloves up to the elbow,
Speaker 2: and legs moving up and down on the thread mill
Speaker 2: of a singer sewing machine. Because I must have been
Speaker 2: underneath that, and from that you conjure up a sense,
Speaker 2: though I never needed to, and I have no memory
Speaker 2: of her. And I don't say, oh my god, that's nothing.
Speaker 2: It just isn't there. But if you asked me to
Speaker 2: put together something, it would be that.
Speaker 1: And so it's very that's a very sensory account. Is
Speaker 1: that how your brain works?
Speaker 2: No, I mean no, you know, I remember the night
Speaker 2: of it, but only for specific reason. There were two
Speaker 2: things happening. My sister was having a midnight feast with
Speaker 2: her who was on a sleepover. I said, can I
Speaker 2: be in the sleepover? You know, the small annoying brother,
Speaker 2: And they said, yeah, okay, we'll wake you. So I
Speaker 2: was allowed to sleep in the other bed in their bedroom.
Speaker 2: And I woke up in the middle of the night
Speaker 2: and I heard them crying, my sister and her maid,
Speaker 2: and I said, why are crying? And they said, we're not,
Speaker 2: we're laughing. Go back to sleep. And I said, well,
Speaker 2: has the feast started yet? They said no, no, we'll
Speaker 2: wake you. So I went back to sleep. The next morning,
Speaker 2: they're not there, but I heard this hubbub in the house,
Speaker 2: various aunts and uncles, very soft talking and you know,
Speaker 2: touching and soft sobbing and that, and you know, odd.
Speaker 2: And then my dad came up and he just sat
Speaker 2: on the side of the bed and he I remembered
Speaker 2: this that there was this silence, and he took my
Speaker 2: hand and I don't think he knew what to say,
Speaker 2: but he just said, your mom died last night. And
Speaker 2: then he started crying. And I'd never seen my father cry,
Speaker 2: like grown men crying. It just had never occurred to me.
Speaker 2: And that then made me cry because I got afraid, why,
Speaker 2: you know, like, I've never seen this, so you know,
Speaker 2: I started crying as that. But it wasn't because my
Speaker 2: mom died, because that's meaningless in that age group, you know,
Speaker 2: infinity in terms of that's just means nothing. So that's
Speaker 2: that's what happened. And so when the time came to
Speaker 2: tell my children that their mom had died, I remember
Speaker 2: that very well. And you know, I had to put
Speaker 2: down the phone and I left the room and I
Speaker 2: collected myself and I came back and that they were
Speaker 2: in the they were all the same room, and I
Speaker 2: just said, you know, I've got something to tell you
Speaker 2: that's very serious. And they were small, and you know,
Speaker 2: and I just said, your mom died last night. Now
Speaker 2: it was less of a shock, but it wasn't a
Speaker 2: shock to me that she was dead. But there was
Speaker 2: no indication my moment die. She just had a brain hemorrhage.
Speaker 2: Bank one. She was forty. It was less so around
Speaker 2: the more contemporary circumstances because things weren't good. So but
Speaker 2: nonetheless I just took the lesson from his playbook, be
Speaker 2: very direct with children. You know, don't in any way equivocate,
Speaker 2: don't hedge, because they know. And once you're clear, then
Speaker 2: they can absorb that. They can handle it unto themselves.
Speaker 2: And if they need help with absorbing it, then you
Speaker 2: could help to unpick that and unpack it for them
Speaker 2: and sit with them and do it. And so you know, stuff,
Speaker 2: as I said, loops around itself. And so that moment
Speaker 2: came back when it was necessary to return to me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when you're dealing with serious family situations like that,
Speaker 1: would you recommend easy silence or whatever's offers of questions.
Speaker 2: Whatever's necessary, you know, don't be all hearty and say
Speaker 2: everything's going to be just you know, let it happen.
Speaker 2: I mean, they will come to you when they need to,
Speaker 2: and if they need to you just just the awareness.
Speaker 2: You don't have to say, I'm always here for you.
Speaker 2: It's a given. I mean, if you're a parent, that's
Speaker 2: the job. And I don't like people. This is not
Speaker 2: what we're here for. But I just don't like people
Speaker 2: being bad. I don't understand it. It's possible to have
Speaker 2: your jobs, it's possible to do that to you know,
Speaker 2: to do whatever you like in your life. But also
Speaker 2: the primary function of being grown up, of being grown
Speaker 2: up exactly what those words are. The primary function of
Speaker 2: the species is to raise the young to be able
Speaker 2: to live a proper life and fulfill whatever possibleies they
Speaker 2: have in that little brain.
Speaker 1: To that point, do you think sometimes a rough childhood
Speaker 1: or discomfort in childhood is a good thing.
Speaker 2: No, I'm not convinced by that. It messes you up.
Speaker 2: I mean I'm not. You know, there's deep anger in me,
Speaker 2: and my animus is rage. My response to something that
Speaker 2: I think is unfair is rage. I temper it because
Speaker 2: I'm old. But when I was when the band started,
Speaker 2: the Rats, that howl of anger, that is our early music,
Speaker 2: which powered us up the charts, because that's what people felt.
Speaker 2: They were disenfranchised. Britain had twenty seven percent inflation when
Speaker 2: we arrived in England. Twenty seven percent. I mean what
Speaker 2: you know, everything you buy is twenty seven percent more
Speaker 2: expensive there for your wages twenty seven percent less. That's
Speaker 2: not possible to live.
Speaker 1: And a lot of people couldn't afford it when it
Speaker 1: was twenty seven percent less at that time.
Speaker 2: They couldn't. So you know, where's the future. What's the
Speaker 2: future for the young? Ireland had a zero economy viz
Speaker 2: my father, you know, and so when we came of age,
Speaker 2: there was nothing for us. That's a form of treason
Speaker 2: by a government when they cannot give their younger future.
Speaker 2: And you know, New York was bankrupt. New York, the
Speaker 2: great City had declared bankruptcy. So it's not a mistake
Speaker 2: that out of New York you get the Ramones out
Speaker 2: of Range, you get the Boomtown Rats out of the UK,
Speaker 2: you get the Class and the sex pistols, and we
Speaker 2: all meet at this full crumb of anger and demand change.
Speaker 2: That's the purpose of rock and roll in my time.
Speaker 2: And you know all of us had the same thing.
Speaker 2: You know, this is crap. You know. The first thing
Speaker 2: you heard Johnny Rotten say was I'm the antichrist. I'm
Speaker 2: an anarchist. There is no future in England's dreaming. That's brilliant.
Speaker 2: Joe Strummer of the Class, I want to riot on
Speaker 2: my own, you know. Bob Geldoff, the first thing you
Speaker 2: heard him say was the world owes me a living.
Speaker 2: I don't want to be like you. I'm going to
Speaker 2: be like me, you know. And so this blast, you know,
Speaker 2: so it found itself at the right moment, at the
Speaker 2: right time, expressed through this really good band, and I
Speaker 2: was lucky, you know. But it's still the thing and
Speaker 2: where I will agree with you. If you've had bad
Speaker 2: luck when you were a kid in your upbringing, then
Speaker 2: I think you recognize you're very alert to it happening
Speaker 2: around you. You're very alert to people on the street,
Speaker 2: You're very alert to what the news is telling you.
Speaker 2: Because pathetically you associate your own conditions with that, and
Speaker 2: that would be conditions of it's not right, it's unjust injustice,
Speaker 2: and you know, we had no money, and it's crap.
Speaker 2: Poverty is crap, Greed is not good, greed is stupid,
Speaker 2: and so all of those things that you imbibe. But
Speaker 2: you're not a where they're informing you. You just get
Speaker 2: on with your life the best possible way you can.
Speaker 2: I just got into a rock and roll band at
Speaker 2: a period when rock and roll was the lingua franca
Speaker 2: of the planet, the common language. It wasn't English, it
Speaker 2: was pop music, and everyone could understand pop music, and
Speaker 2: so it seemed logical to me to talk to the
Speaker 2: world in this common language through the you know, through
Speaker 2: this new medium of satellites, about a common problem of
Speaker 2: thirty two million people dined unnecessarily of hunger.
Speaker 1: Do you believe that the timing of the Boomtown Rats
Speaker 1: was perfect because you learned to express your anger be
Speaker 1: the voice of a whole generation of.
Speaker 2: It's luck, timing and talent, I mean, but rock and
Speaker 2: roll and technology go hand in hand. You can't get
Speaker 2: Elvis and Little Richard unless you have the transistor. And
Speaker 2: the transistor was the means to the glue of the
Speaker 2: packs Americana. American troops were all over the world. How
Speaker 2: did they stick together through the transistor this new thing?
Speaker 2: And what was the music that first utilized that. Elvis
Speaker 2: and little Richard, who you know, weren't allowed into the
Speaker 2: American dream because they were on the wrong side of
Speaker 2: the tracks. But you know, Elvis young, beautiful, force of nature,
Speaker 2: you know, brilliant understanding of you know, his times. Little
Speaker 2: Richard young, black, gay, beautiful. He was never going to
Speaker 2: get on Telly, But here they come. The Beatles were
Speaker 2: the function of television. Britain gets TV for the first
Speaker 2: time and hear these working class boys who don't even
Speaker 2: understand the word deferent. So when they meet monarchies and
Speaker 2: prime ministers, they're just laughing. You know, they don't understand
Speaker 2: that your hair has to be this way, we want
Speaker 2: it this way, you know, And they laughed the whole time.
Speaker 2: Are the Rolling Stones contemptuous insolence. They will sort of
Speaker 2: wander on stage picking their noses. No concession to show
Speaker 2: business at all, you know. And and so you go forward,
Speaker 2: and you know, you get the punk thing with satellites
Speaker 2: and stuff like that, and then you guess the death
Speaker 2: of rock and roll with the introdus and the web.
Speaker 1: Bob Gildoff webbing wrapped up, but I could talk to
Speaker 1: you for ever. Thank you so much for your time today.
Speaker 1: If you want to see Bob Geldof, and why wouldn't
Speaker 1: you enjoy an evening with Sir Bob Geldoff, hit up, I'll.
Speaker 2: Change the name. Oh oh, what is it I've called
Speaker 2: I'm decided to go it Life WTF.
Speaker 1: I love it. Guys, see Life WTF with Bob Geldof,
Speaker 1: hit up, tech Dainty dot com. Thank you again, and
Speaker 1: thank you for being the first person that, at the
Speaker 1: age of eleven years old, I was watching live aid.
Speaker 1: It was the hugest thing in Australia. It was the
Speaker 1: hugest thing in the world. But in Australia, you know,
Speaker 1: we were so far away from everything, and.
Speaker 2: There was this so connected.
Speaker 1: Magical explosion of kindness and care and it just it
Speaker 1: made me feel so understood that you made kindness cool,
Speaker 1: because sometimes kindness is like why would you do that?
Speaker 1: And you were this amazing, inspirational, strong scrupl a little
Speaker 1: bit fucked off guy going this is not good enough
Speaker 1: and look what I made. And I just want to
Speaker 1: thank you for that.
Speaker 2: Thanks