Category Archives: Bob Geldof

Live Aid campaigner Bob Geldof was ‘scathing about African leaders’, files reveal

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Singer urged Tony Blair not to appoint African co-chair to commission on aid, UK government papers show

The Live Aid campaigner Bob Geldof urged Tony Blair not to appoint an African co-chair to the UK-led organisation working to overhaul international aid to the continent because he thought African leadership was “very weak” on the issue, newly released government documents suggest.

The singer was “scathing about the ability and worthiness of virtually all African leaders” before the establishment in 2004 of Blair’s Commission for Africa, which would produce a report, Our Common Interest, and prompt a landmark pledge by rich nations to boost aid and write off debt.

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Band Aid 40 fails to reach UK Top 40 in opening week

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All-star version of Do They Know It’s Christmas?, spliced together from previous versions, falls short of the No 1 success of those earlier hits

The 40th anniversary version of Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? has failed to enter this week’s Top 40, reaching No 45.

The new version of the song was made up of performances spliced together from three previous versions, in an arrangement by producer Trevor Horn. But despite featuring the unusual A-list juxtaposition of George Michael, Sinead O’Connor, Chris Martin, One Direction and more, the new version has not yet matched the success of its predecessors, which each went straight to No 1 in 1984, 2004 and 2014.

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As Band Aid marks 40th anniversary critics take aim at Africa stereotypes

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Latest version of Do They Know It’s Christmas fundraiser reignites debate about ‘problematic’ lyrics and imagery

Forty years ago this week, a group of pop stars gathered at a west London studio to record a single that would raise millions, inspire further starry projects, and ultimately change charity fundraising in the UK.

Do They Know It’s Christmas, Bob Geldof and Midge Ure’s festive charity behemoth, would go on to raise almost £150m for famine relief and development in Ethiopia and elsewhere in Africa. To mark the anniversary, on Monday a new version of the single – its fifth – will be released under the name Band Aid 40.

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‘No rear view mirror in this car’: Bob Geldof on love, loss and lockdown

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The Boomtown Rats’ new album, their first in 36 years, coincides with a BBC documentary on the band

Bob Geldof doesn’t do nostalgia. Now 68, the Irish musician and activist says that he has lived his life refusing to look back. “I have the point of view that there’s no rear view mirror in this car,” he says.

So it might seem surprising that he not only agreed to the BBC making a documentary, Citizens of Boomtown, about his first band, The Boomtown Rats, but has also spent the last year actively engaged in reliving his past through it.

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Bob Geldof’s firm’s use of tax haven is legal, but the system hurts African nations

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Private equity company 8 Miles channels funds through Mauritius in a ‘depressingly routine’ arrangement

At their closest point, Europe and Africa are just eight miles apart. That’s the inspiration for the name of Sir Bob Geldof’s private equity firm, 8 Miles, set up to channel investment into successful businesses in Africa.

But we learned last week that 8 Miles’ cash travels considerably further than this on its way from one continent to the other. It has established a cluster of companies in Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean, which funds pass through.

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