BOB SAYS HE
Bob Geldof, George Michael, David Bowie and Bono at Live Aid
“But that is normal and he’s singing better than the song and you’re going ‘For f**k’s sake, give it a break’.”
In the three-part series for BBC Four, Band Aid co-founder Midge Ure and pop singer Kim Appleby explore the music that came from Ireland and England in the golden decade of the 80s.
In the second episode of the series, Bob Geldof told Midge he wasn’t impressed with Ireland’s biggest musical export when he first heard them as a young band straight out of school.
Geldof said: “U2 at the beginning I thought were absolutely dire.
“They were up for anything, they were kids, but I thought they were frankly dire. They would pretend they were punk stars. They absolutely were not. Stop it.”
But he said when the breakout New Year’s Day came out in 1983, it changed everything,
He added: “All is quiet on New Year’s Day. What a great line that it because it is. They got there because they were seriously talented. They just needed time.”
The Live Aid founder also recalled the harrowing news report on the desperate plight of starving Ethiopian famine victims which triggered one of the most star-studded musical events of all time.
He said: “The images were so arresting Midge Ure and Geldof
They pretended they were punk stars. But they were absolutely not, stop it BOB GELDOF DID NOT APPRECIATE U2’S EARLY WORK BEFORE HE BECAME A FAN
Bono with Geldof in a sort of pornographic way is you like that it riveted your attention.
“Personally, you couldn’t allow it to happen you had to do something. All I knew was pop music.
“The only way we could make money within this narrow bank of time between October and November was a Christmas song but if the Boomtown Rats did it, it wasn’t guaranteed to be hit so that was futile
“So, I thought I would call up people I had met over the last 10 years in pop.”
The next day he went up to the Picasso cafe on the King’s Road to try and write words for this tune. He said: “I