Thursday April 6, 2023
Today, Sir Bob Geldorf (Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof) was interviewed by Neil Kelly, starting at 10:45am, and was the first time that any interview was simulcast to all televisions all over the ship, while at the same time in Illuminations and the live production in the Theatre. Not only that, Neil just asked 2 questions: where did you get started? and what’s next? and the interview / talk lasted 2 hours. The Captain traditionally gives a noon time nautical update, but he was preempted and had to wait until 1PM to do his noon day update. So a truly amazing and unique experience where everything stopped on the ship while Sir Bob recounted his story from very humble beginnings to getting the G8 to sign an agreement to help the hungry in Africa, raise US$170 million in one concert and change the attitude of the world on hunger. He was born in 1951 in a small Irish town near Dublin. His mother (Evelyn) died at the age of 41 of a cerebral hemorrhage, when he was 6 and his father (Robert) was employed as a “door to door” towel salesman, the only job he could get. Bob and his two sisters were home alone and he was not good in school, basically not paying much attention after about 13. At Blackrock College he was bullied and made fun of. He was a voracious reader and played all the music of the day which led him to a career in music. He had various odd jobs, in abattoir (Slaughterhouse), journalist for Canadian newspaper about Rock Music, TV presenter and others. He had a falling out with his father (later they repaired the relationship prior to his death). A couple of friends asked him to join the Boomtown Rats Rock group in 1978 as lead ginger, where they had various #1 songs and achieved great success for nearly 10 years through 1986. He then went solo and had a number of hits. He claims that 1989 was a pivotal year in the world where the Berlin Wall fell, thus ending the War that started in 1910, and the World Wide Web was formed. In 1992 he performed a big concert at Wembley Stadium in memory of Freddie Mercury with the surviving members of Queen. He and his good friend Bono and Sting through concerts, focus on debt relief for African nations, which was achieved. The amount owed to the richer nations is relatively small, but for the African Nations servicing of the debt is a major burden on the economy, stopping the growth of the various nations.
A documentary he saw in 1984 by Michael Bjerknes about the famine in Ethiopia on BBC, changed his life and triggered him into a life of activism. At 15 or 16 the South African Team was to play the Irish Rugby team in Dublin and he and a friend decided to protest apartheid. Thinking it would attract maybe a few friends, it gathered 44,000 people and the shouts of Stop Apartheid brought the game to a halt and made news. This was his entry into a life of activism through music. In 1984 he founded the “Super-Group” Band Aid: with many artists recording one song on November 25, 1984 “Do they know it’s Christmas” which sold millions of records, to the extent that virtually all European record production houses, only printed that one record for a while due to demand. Other concerts to raise funds and awareness of famine in Ethiopia followed: Live Aid with 1,000 musical groups / individuals lasting 17 hours was seen by billions all around the world. This led to many interactions with world leaders who pledged to give money for the famine relief. Then the free Live 8 concerts located in 10 cities around the world simultaneously, leading to the Heads of the G8 to sign an agreement at Tony Blair’s Gleneagles Summit in 2005, to help the poorer nations with the famine and to help the nations economically.
In the Q & A with members of the audience he took each question seriously and expounded at length, speaking very eloquently about his views on politicians and what can be done to stop hunger worldwide. Overall we were fascinated and privileged to be present in the room for this fascinating interview. It will certainly go down in the history of Cunard as the interview that stopped everything and was simulcast all over the QM2 for 2 hours on April 6th, 2023! We decided to go to the pub for lunch as we figured the other lectures were cancelled or postponed due to the total overrun of the Sir Bob interview. We did end up going to the show that evening which was Kenny Martyn, the multi-instrumentalist: Clarinet Saxophone, Banjo, and others. An excellent musician and a good show.
Roger & Anne Travels 