<\/p>\n
Speaking on RT\u00c9 Radio 1\u2019s Brendan O\u2019Connor<\/span>, The Boomtown Rats frontman and political activist spoke about how he has dealt with grief in his life.<\/p>\n His mother, Evelyn, died when he was eight years old, and his former wife, British presenter Paula Yates, died of a heroin overdose in 2000.<\/p>\n The couple had three daughters \u2013 Fifi, Pixie, and Peaches. Their family later faced another tragedy when Peaches died of a heroin overdose in 2014 at the age of 25.<\/p>\n \u201cI’ve been stopped at traffic lights. This happened the other day, and suddenly Peaches was there. She was with me, and I wept,\u201d he said. “I wasn’t really aware I was weeping. I wasn’t sobbing, just tears as she was there.<\/p>\n \u201cSo all of these things I picture as like a memory stick for your laptop or something. And in that are all the memory, all the grief, all the pain, all the loss, all of that.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I stick that in an available compartment of my head. And when it erupts, as it does, unbeckoned, unbidden, at traffic lights stop, I can see it.<\/p>\n \u201cI can take it out, and I say: \u2018I know you, you little f**ker, get back where you belong\u2019. And that’s how I deal with it.<\/p>\n \u201cI’d be on stage. There was one of our songs, Diamond Smiles<\/span>, and suddenly Peaches was there in that song.<\/p>\n \u201cTo just recognise it, I just would do a little waltz with myself. I’d wrap my arms around like I was wrapping around her, and I just waltz around the stage a little bit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Geldof said it was his father who told him of his mother\u2019s death, adding that he has a \u201cclear memory\u201d of the night she died.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Paula [Yates] died, all of this was very useful, and I remembered the directness of my father, and that’s precisely what a child needs. Tell me exactly, no obfuscations. When I had to tell my children that their mom had died, it was terrible.”<\/p>\n Recently, the 74-year-old travelled for the 10th anniversary of the death of his friend and singer David Bowie.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was weird that it was 10 years. It just doesn’t seem like it. The thing about Bowie is, you’re obviously of that generation, the distant artist, almost cold. He was the very opposite. He was a kind, thoughtful, caring man.<\/p>\n \u201cBowie’s backing of me from the very beginning of Band Aid right through to his death was huge. It was David people forget who launched the original Band Aid video on the BBC,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Last summer, the Dubliner expressed interest in running for the presidency, however, he later decided not to join the race.<\/p>\n When asked whether he thinks he \u201cdodged a bullet\u201d, he said: \u201cWell, yes, without being rude, and not because of the contestants.<\/p>\n “I thought it was a flash election. I simply couldn’t do it. If I didn’t get the party nomination, I couldn’t do the 27 councils, and I don’t think they’d have nominated me.<\/p>\n \u201cI had this moment of \u2018I’m up in the \u00c1ras\u2019, and it’s a year and a half into the job. I’m staring out through these big windows and these posh curtains, and I’ve just met a bunch of people in the morning, and I’ve got a couple of ambassador’s credentials, and I’ve put into the government: \u2018Can I go back to England to see my children?\u2019<\/p>\n “And they’re approving a speech or otherwise, and I’m looking out in the park, and I’m thinking: \u2018Five and a half more years?\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the artist also spoke about turning 75 this year, adding that he has \u201ccompletely planned his funeral\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s when you see Bob Geldof \u2018bracket 74-75\u2019, that’s when it hits you. It’s mad. What am I doing being 74? It’s ridiculous.<\/p>\n \u201cI’ve completely planned [my own funeral]. Give me a break, you’re talking to Bob Geldof here. I completely planned the show. The show is written, and it’s to be a good time,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Geldof, who\u2019s set to play the Hub in Kilkenny next Saturday with The Boomtown Rats, said it\u2019s “utterly cathartic\u201d for him to perform on stage.<\/p>\n \u201cI could chat to you now at the side of the stage, and it’s like: \u2018Bob, you’re on\u2019, and suddenly, I start going nuts, and I don’t stop.<\/p>\n “It’s utterly cathartic. So if I’m doing the solo stuff, and I’ve done five or six solo albums, it’s more measured, and it’s clearly, because it\u2019s you, the songs have a different sensibility.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the Rats, there’s still tunes that I write, but it’s the band propelling these songs into meaning.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I\u2019m there, and I have to be the front man, I have to be the singer. I have to be the visual representation of what that sound is doing.<\/p>\n “But it’s what it’s doing to me, I don\u2019t think about. I’m so uncoordinated. When I was a kid, they used to say it was Jagger-esque. No, Jagger is a ballet dancer. I’m the shambling ape. I love it. Bobby Boomtown is in the house,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.independent.ie \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Speaking on RT\u00c9 Radio 1\u2019s Brendan O\u2019Connor, The Boomtown Rats frontman and political activist spoke about how he has dealt with grief in his life. His mother, Evelyn, died when he was eight years old, and his former wife, British presenter Paula Yates, died of a heroin overdose in 2000. 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