Bob Geldof

My hero is called Bob Geldof. Robert Frederick Zenon 'Bob' Geldof was born on October 5th 1951 in Dun Laoghaire, a small county of Ireland. He was educated at Blackrock College, near Dublin. After working as a slaughterman, he started a career as a music journalist in Vancouver for the newspaper ,,Georgia Straight".

When he returned to Ireland in 1975, he became the singer of the rock band "The Boomtown Rats".Three years later the band had their first No. 1 single in Great Britain. In 1981 he performed as a solo artist by the benefit show "The Secret Policeman's Other Ball" to collect money for children in the Third World, esp in Africa. When Geldof saw a TV-report about the famine in Ethiopia, he wanted to do something against the poverty. So Bob wrote together with Midge Ure the song, "Do they know it's Christmas?" They formed together a group called Band Aid, which was made up of many celebrity singers like Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie.

After the success of the Band Aid single, Geldof organised the charity concert Live Aid, which made much money in July 1985. After 20 years he has organised six concerts till 2005: in London, Paris, Berlin, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Ontario. For his work he has won many awards. He was almost nominated for the Nobel Peace Price. After the end of his relationship with his long-time partner Paula Yates he travelled again to many places collecting funds and visiting African schools and hospitals. Today "Sir" Bob Geldof is 56 years old.

I saw Bob Geldof for the first time on an awards show on TV, where he had won an award for his lifework. And after his speech I was really impressed. I think it's amazing how much he has done to vanquish famine and poverty in the Third World. Geldof alerted people to the problems there and encouraged them to spend money. He organised charity shows and concerts. He has sacrificed so much time for his project, for his dream. And he has accomplished such a lot of things. I admire his work, because I couldn't reach this enormous accomplishment myself.