Bob Geldof turning the big 60
The Irishman founf fame the 70s band The Boomtown Rats, but the rock star's profile soared in the 8-s when mass famine in Ethiopia prompted his to dedicate his life to ending world poverty.
Famed as the organiser of the groundbreaking Live Aid global concert, which he planned again 20 years later for Live 8 in 2005, Geldof approaches his 60s having found peace with partner Jeanne Marine following his traumatic divorce with Paula Yates in the 90s.
To celebrate his milestone birthday WENN has put together a list of top 10 fascinating facts about the charismatic campaigner.
- Geldof is left-handed and had to learn how to play guitar chords "upside-down".
- Before finding fame as frontman of The Boomtown Rats, Geldof had a variety of jobs including music journalist and road worker.
- He has been bestowed with a number of honours, including the Beacon Fellowship Prize, an Honorary Patronage of the Trinity College Dublin University Philosophical Society, a Man of Peace Award, and an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II. He has twice been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, in 2006 and 2008.
- During a stint as a guest DJ for Britain's XFM radio station in 1998, Geldof mistakenly announced the death of rocker Ian Dury. Singer Dury, who had battled ill health for years, died in 2000.
- He was bullied at school over his unusual name, Robert Frederick Xenon Geldof.
- Geldof's charity single Do They Know It's Christmas, co-written with Midge Ure in aid of famine relief in Africa, was the biggest-selling single in U.K. history for 13 years following its release in 1984.
- Duran Duran frontman Simon Le Bon was the best man at his wedding to Paula Yates in 1986.
- He and Paula Yates had three daughters together - Fifi Trixiebelle, Peaches and Pixie - before she left him for INXS rocker Michael Hutchence. Following his ex-wife's death in 2000, Geldof won custody of her orphaned daughter with the late Hutchence, Tiger-Lily.
- Geldof's estimated worth was $48 million (£30 million) in 2001.
- He starred as Pink in Pink Floyd's 1982 epic movie The Wall, but has never had another leading film role.
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