Bob Geldof

Robert Frederick Xenon Geldof, KBE (born October 5, 1954 in Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin) is an Irish singer, songwriter, actor and political activist, known simply as Bob Geldof. He is of Irish and Belgian extraction.

Geldof was educated at Blackrock College near Dublin, a school whose staunch Catholic nationalist ethos he disliked. He started as a music journalist in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada for the weekly Georgia Straight publication before coming to fame in the mid-1970s as leader of the Boomtown Rats, a rock group closely linked with the punk movement. In 1978, they had their first Number 1 single with "Rat Trap", which was the first New Wave chart-topper in the UK. A follow-up, "I Don't Like Mondays", was equally successful and also controversial, as Geldof wrote it in the aftermath of Brenda Ann Spencer's attempted massacre at an elementary school across the street from her house in San Diego, California at the beginning of 1979.

Geldof quickly became known as a colourful spokesman for rock music. The Boomtown Rats' first appearance on Ireland's The Late Late Show led to complaints from viewers. He had limited success as an actor, his most notable role being in the 1982 film Pink Floyd The Wall, based on the Pink Floyd album The Wall.