0:00:01 > 0:00:07This programme contains some
0:00:26 > 0:00:30Baptised in 1951 in Ireland as Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof,
0:00:36 > 0:00:38who reached number one with
0:00:40 > 0:00:45His earliest nickname, Bob the Gob, came from his outspoken style.
0:00:56 > 0:00:57and Live 8, ten years later,
0:00:57 > 0:01:21as part of his campaign against
0:01:21 > 0:01:37Boomtown Rats. Although for some,
0:01:37 > 0:01:40to David Cameron, Prime Minister
0:01:40 > 0:01:42or President Obama, could you?
0:01:46 > 0:01:48and I would get Bono to call Obama.
0:01:50 > 0:01:54So you have... You have power at that level still? You have access.
0:01:58 > 0:02:03And you have access initially through
0:02:03 > 0:02:08and I think probably stems from
0:02:08 > 0:02:13when that whole celebrity notion
0:02:13 > 0:02:18I think, when politicians became confused as to whether they were
0:02:18 > 0:02:22or celebrities in their own right.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25Where they were appealing in HELLO!
0:02:25 > 0:02:28So we sought to use that, really.
0:02:28 > 0:02:32But you only have access in as much as that you talk about the thing
0:02:34 > 0:02:39You don't go in and start talking
0:02:39 > 0:02:41Because you won't be listened to.
0:02:41 > 0:02:45And, you know, they are busy people and you have X amount of time.
0:02:47 > 0:02:54I've been doing the African issue for, whatever it is, 30 years.
0:02:54 > 0:02:57I know from whence I speak.
0:02:57 > 0:03:00I certainly know more about
0:03:00 > 0:03:02than maybe the leader does,
0:03:02 > 0:03:05but he will be surrounded by civil servants who are also expert.
0:03:05 > 0:03:08So you have to be on your mettle, you've got to have an agenda,
0:03:11 > 0:03:14certain results in the half-hour
0:03:14 > 0:03:18power now in their forties, fifties,
0:03:18 > 0:03:20it's just the right generation
0:03:20 > 0:03:22They are the Live Aid generation.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25I mean, most of them remember, presumably, having watched it.
0:03:33 > 0:03:40Blair, people forget, was very young in Parliament when Band Aid happened.
0:03:48 > 0:03:51But once it became a phenomenon
0:03:51 > 0:03:54because numbers are political.
0:04:02 > 0:04:06I mean, Thatcher wrote to me and the Liberals wrote to me.
0:04:06 > 0:04:09around something that most people
0:04:09 > 0:04:14have forgotten about, about whether
0:04:14 > 0:04:16And this became...blown up.
0:04:16 > 0:04:18And I think it was Neil Kinnock
0:04:33 > 0:04:51But what he did do was he went and got all living Prime Ministers
0:04:51 > 0:04:55Prime Minister, where he is
0:05:00 > 0:05:03Whatever else one might think,
0:05:08 > 0:05:11and achievable once you had power.
0:05:11 > 0:05:13cos you can look back and say,
0:05:13 > 0:05:15"I did that. It can be done."
0:05:22 > 0:05:25And that was to our advantage.
0:05:25 > 0:05:29Is it true you rang up Blair from Africa and shouted at him? Yes.
0:05:29 > 0:05:33But I've rung Blair from many places
0:05:36 > 0:05:39He says I do, but, I mean...
0:05:43 > 0:05:51I'm fluent enough, but I don't
0:05:54 > 0:05:57The other thing I see myself doing
0:05:59 > 0:06:01doesn't annoy me. That's just it.
0:06:01 > 0:06:03But it's such a great word.
0:06:03 > 0:06:07but it is the emphasis on something
0:06:07 > 0:06:12it can be humour, it can be whatever.
0:06:18 > 0:06:22a great consequence one day.
0:06:27 > 0:06:30and I got overwrought and I swore.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37People were enraptured with the day.
0:06:37 > 0:06:41The romance of it. Which I never quite got until afterwards.
0:06:41 > 0:06:45It was a gorgeous day in Britain. Everyone was watching this thing.
0:06:45 > 0:06:49here were these great bands,
0:06:49 > 0:06:51and they forgot what it was.
0:06:51 > 0:06:53And I think that my panic...
0:06:55 > 0:06:59I tried to find the word and I just,
0:06:59 > 0:07:05It was like a slap, I think.
0:07:05 > 0:07:09And especially then, that word was a little more violent, maybe.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12Although it's like "Play it again, Sam." You never actually said,
0:07:12 > 0:07:15"Give us your fucking money."
0:07:15 > 0:07:19at the time, the announcers,
0:07:19 > 0:07:35the DJs, were talking about
0:07:35 > 0:07:38and that word, at that moment,
0:07:38 > 0:07:41seemed to exemplify that urgency.
0:07:41 > 0:07:43you've got to get on the phone
0:07:43 > 0:07:46and take the money out of your pocket. Don't go to the pub tonight.
0:08:05 > 0:08:13you have had many formal proposals,
0:08:13 > 0:08:16I have often been asked why I don't.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19But no-one... Like at the time of the whole Martin Bell thing,
0:08:19 > 0:08:21when there was this call for people
0:08:27 > 0:08:32People suggested always to me, "Why don't you go into it?" But why?
0:08:32 > 0:08:35it was a single-issue thing.
0:08:37 > 0:08:42I thought it was awful, preposterous,
0:08:42 > 0:08:47this cockamamie simplicity,
0:08:49 > 0:08:52as many people dying as possible.
0:08:52 > 0:08:57Two, hunger is only symptomatic of
0:08:57 > 0:09:03a singular empirical economic
0:09:03 > 0:09:08And given that it's political
0:09:08 > 0:09:11and given that it's economic,
0:09:16 > 0:09:20the agents of change in our world,
0:09:20 > 0:09:23To do that, you need to create a lobby that agrees with you.
0:09:23 > 0:09:27And then you have access. So that is the sequence of events. It took us...
0:09:27 > 0:09:30I think 2005 was the key moment
0:09:30 > 0:09:33when all that effort paid off,
0:09:33 > 0:09:38So here, you had a man who was almost contemporary with me and this issue,
0:09:38 > 0:09:43who, after this shouting from Africa,
0:09:43 > 0:09:49and come and see him. And the
0:09:49 > 0:09:53why does this massive continent
0:09:56 > 0:09:59Eight miles, that is the gap between
0:09:59 > 0:10:02still the richest continent in the world and the poorest.
0:10:18 > 0:10:22he was advised not to do it.
0:10:22 > 0:10:25I mean, his adviser would say, "What is the upside?" They're very blunt.
0:10:25 > 0:10:29Not to me, but just saying,
0:10:29 > 0:10:45And my pitch was - we didn't have
0:10:54 > 0:11:072005, Kofi Annan called it the "Rubicon-crossing moment" for Africa.
0:11:10 > 0:11:21except they would say to me, "Name one country that succeeded with aid."
0:11:21 > 0:11:23So that was achieved, more or less.
0:11:23 > 0:11:29What we hadn't thought of was massive
0:11:29 > 0:11:32to secure the raw materials to power their economy, which kept us going.
0:11:32 > 0:11:35And the fourth thing that brought
0:11:35 > 0:11:39increased aid and investment,
0:11:39 > 0:11:44the glue, the virtual infrastructure in a continent with no roads,
0:11:44 > 0:11:46air or rail was mobile telephony,
0:11:47 > 0:11:51So as soon as this got disseminated
0:11:51 > 0:11:56like everywhere else where people can talk and trade, bang, take-off.
0:11:56 > 0:11:58seven of the ten fastest-growing
0:11:58 > 0:12:02at this moment are African.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05But some of these situations
0:12:10 > 0:12:13and you're jamming with him
0:12:15 > 0:12:19"This is just effing weird,"
0:12:26 > 0:12:29but I'm lucky that I can do that.
0:12:29 > 0:12:34I get to hear and see things I never
0:12:38 > 0:12:42you just think it's normal.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51You know, at 13, I was doing the anti-apartheid thing in school
0:12:51 > 0:12:55and be friendly with Nelson Mandela.
0:12:55 > 0:12:59And you kind of have to go...
0:12:59 > 0:13:02When we played South Africa,
0:13:05 > 0:13:10And then the kids and that, you know,
0:13:13 > 0:13:17Another consequence of what
0:13:17 > 0:13:19the first Irishman in space.
0:13:19 > 0:13:23trying to get around to that, Lawson!
0:13:35 > 0:13:40It's only 15 minutes, but how
0:13:45 > 0:13:48I do... I don't know what reason, I do really want to see the Earth.
0:13:48 > 0:13:57"What are you going to do up there?
0:13:57 > 0:14:00It's pointless, in the end,
0:14:00 > 0:14:02to play out alternative lives
0:14:02 > 0:14:33in your head the scenario...
0:14:40 > 0:14:44and I know this is dismissed -
0:14:44 > 0:14:49but what is essential to me
0:14:49 > 0:14:53playing live and, to be clear,
0:15:01 > 0:15:05The need to make music and to make these songs and these records.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08Cos the process of the songs
0:15:08 > 0:15:10It doesn't stop, it goes on.
0:15:10 > 0:15:14People are interested in you, but you are a very famous musician
0:15:16 > 0:15:18But that doesn't bother you?
0:15:21 > 0:15:23it probably does bother me.
0:15:26 > 0:15:29I understand, as I constantly say,
0:15:29 > 0:15:33that the brand is bigger than
0:15:40 > 0:15:45nobody knows what they do, really.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54we chucked out all the oldies,
0:15:54 > 0:15:57the music I'm doing, even though
0:15:57 > 0:16:01it was playlisted on Radio 2, the biggest station in the country,
0:16:01 > 0:16:04they playlisted it because they
0:16:04 > 0:16:07Does it sell records any more? No.
0:16:07 > 0:16:10What was the number one sales
0:16:10 > 0:16:15My first number one, to get there,
0:16:15 > 0:16:19When you go back and do something
0:16:21 > 0:16:24is that strange? Is it a sort of
0:16:24 > 0:16:28that you're recreating something
0:16:34 > 0:16:38I've said that I'm doing it
0:16:43 > 0:16:48The age thing is significant
0:16:48 > 0:16:52passed between us doing anything.
0:17:17 > 0:17:21it only gets to 89 in the charts.
0:17:21 > 0:17:26I am much more interested in that
0:17:28 > 0:17:33I said, "Let's give it a go."
0:17:33 > 0:17:39and it was very weird, but charming.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55and, I promise you now, not trying to sell the gigs or anything,
0:17:55 > 0:18:02that random group of individuals.
0:18:02 > 0:18:06You know... Like, if I took the technicians and you here
0:18:12 > 0:18:16Put another guy in, something else.
0:18:18 > 0:18:22And, of course, that's what made
0:18:22 > 0:18:25I'm going to mention a few of the descriptions often used about you.
0:18:25 > 0:18:30people say. Do you accept that? No.
0:18:32 > 0:18:36I don't think I'm arrogant.
0:18:42 > 0:18:47because there is a lot of rubbish
0:18:47 > 0:18:51he was broke when Live Aid started
0:18:51 > 0:18:52"and now he's very wealthy.
0:18:52 > 0:18:54"You do the math," they say.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57And they are all astonishing,
0:18:57 > 0:19:00and we should settle it for people.
0:19:00 > 0:19:04You are rich because you sold
0:19:04 > 0:19:08another very successful one,
0:19:08 > 0:19:10which is "planet" backwards.
0:19:10 > 0:19:13And that's why you're wealthy. I also have other companies.
0:19:13 > 0:19:17I've got this educational technology
0:19:17 > 0:19:22Also...do lots of other things
0:19:24 > 0:19:28Wrote the book, which bailed me out of being broke after Live Aid.
0:19:28 > 0:19:30I mean, that is why I got offered
0:19:32 > 0:19:37And I couldn't do that because it was using what had happened to me.
0:19:53 > 0:19:57not least being...ten years, our records weren't selling.
0:19:57 > 0:20:01pick up the record contract.
0:20:01 > 0:20:05So I was offered a solo contract,
0:20:09 > 0:20:15So after two years of doing this thing, you know, I was out of cash.
0:20:15 > 0:20:19And the Rats hadn't made money
0:20:25 > 0:20:29where you are being offered all these silly things that would have,
0:20:29 > 0:20:31in my view, abused that thing.
0:20:31 > 0:20:35So the only legitimate way...
0:20:39 > 0:20:49the curiosity about this person
0:20:49 > 0:20:51And thirdly, make some money from it.
0:20:51 > 0:20:59So I got 100 grand, I think,
0:21:17 > 0:21:20Like, it must be pretty wild,
0:21:20 > 0:21:23Well, I don't hang with them,
0:21:23 > 0:21:29and it's interesting I'm with them. And I know I'm wealthy, but I forget.
0:21:29 > 0:21:33I know this sounds weird to people and, "Lucky you," you know,
0:21:44 > 0:21:48the genteel sort of poverty
0:21:48 > 0:21:53It's not poverty as you see it in
0:21:53 > 0:21:57but there was no money. And...
0:21:57 > 0:22:02And I can't escape that panic
0:22:08 > 0:22:12and employing people and, you know,
0:22:14 > 0:22:17I'm very afraid of is loneliness,
0:22:17 > 0:22:21because that was it at the beginning.
0:22:23 > 0:22:27no more than I'm consciously aware that I'm with some mega politician.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39I wrote in the margin of your book
0:22:39 > 0:22:42It was astonishing to me. With the notable exception of your father,
0:22:45 > 0:22:48you have the early death of
0:22:48 > 0:22:50You're sitting eating a sandwich
0:22:50 > 0:22:54by a train in front of you.
0:22:54 > 0:22:59A brother-in-law. Much later, Paula.
0:22:59 > 0:23:04You have been stalked by it, really.
0:23:06 > 0:23:11when people scrutinised the Rats'
0:23:11 > 0:23:14That all the time, there's reference to it, which I hadn't noticed.
0:23:18 > 0:23:20What you've just said to me,
0:23:20 > 0:23:25I've thought about, not recently,
0:23:35 > 0:23:39I don't want this adventure
0:23:55 > 0:24:05Engaged all the time, and gradually, as his world became narrower,
0:24:19 > 0:24:32Part of me hopes this bloody rocket
0:24:36 > 0:24:40relationship with your dad?
0:24:47 > 0:24:51is that the parent who survives
0:24:54 > 0:24:59When I started beginning to be
0:25:03 > 0:25:09..I was opting out of everything.
0:25:09 > 0:25:13And I was more interested in stuff that was happening...
0:25:13 > 0:25:16I mean, I was reading a lot,
0:25:16 > 0:25:20do homework, so I just read.
0:25:20 > 0:25:23And I was reading Steinbeck,
0:25:23 > 0:25:27Studs Terkel, the brilliant
0:25:27 > 0:25:32which I took the name Boomtown Rats.
0:25:32 > 0:25:36And Dickens. I had a bout of pleurisy
0:25:43 > 0:25:46You know, it was a very thin world,
0:25:46 > 0:25:51The potential for being a kid
0:25:56 > 0:25:59where there is no rock 'n' roll circuit, where the bands are thin,
0:25:59 > 0:26:03pale imitations of funky grooves
0:26:03 > 0:26:09with names like Nightbus, Supply
0:26:09 > 0:26:12And suddenly, into this world
0:26:12 > 0:26:15famously to people in my generation -
0:26:18 > 0:26:21microstation on the planet,
0:26:24 > 0:26:28talking of other universes, other
0:26:28 > 0:26:32You know their names - Jagger, Townshend, Lennon, Dylan, et cetera.
0:26:41 > 0:26:51You know, I just ferociously
0:26:51 > 0:26:55inchoately felt and wanted to say.
0:27:01 > 0:27:07the inevitability of change,
0:27:13 > 0:27:47Don't forget, Mick and Keith
0:27:56 > 0:28:02You know, being disempowered, put down, beaten up, beaten down,
0:28:02 > 0:28:07because of something as preposterous as the colour of your skin.
0:28:07 > 0:28:09I just simply couldn't get it.
0:28:09 > 0:28:12I had never seen someone of a different colour in Ireland anyway,
0:28:12 > 0:28:14so perhaps it was easy for me.
0:28:14 > 0:28:17you become enraged with this.
0:28:17 > 0:28:20And I had a mate, Mick Foley. And the two of us listened to the blues
0:28:20 > 0:28:22and tried to play harmonica,
0:28:22 > 0:28:25He's now one of the editors of
0:28:26 > 0:28:32And so, you know, right-on,
0:28:34 > 0:28:40not characters from Dickens,
0:28:48 > 0:28:51men who had lost their lives
0:28:54 > 0:29:00And it doesn't have to be that way. In fact, it shouldn't be that way.
0:29:02 > 0:29:08So when the Rats became exactly that, that platform, that rhetoric,
0:29:08 > 0:29:11of course you are going to write
0:29:11 > 0:29:15Of course you are going to look around and write Banana Republic.
0:29:15 > 0:29:19be in America and an event happens
0:29:19 > 0:29:21and you write I Don't Like Mondays.
0:29:21 > 0:29:25And the chilling thing is, as I said, I could write them yesterday.
0:29:28 > 0:29:34ours more spectacularly than most.
0:29:34 > 0:29:37# Banana Republic
0:29:39 > 0:29:42# Sufferin' in the screamin' sea
0:29:49 > 0:29:51# The black and blue uniforms
0:29:52 > 0:29:55The reason you're on your own
0:29:55 > 0:29:58your father was away, he was a salesman, so he was doing that.
0:29:58 > 0:30:01Your mother had died suddenly.
0:30:01 > 0:30:03There is a memoir by the writer
0:30:03 > 0:30:06who lost his mother in similar circumstances, and he describes
0:30:06 > 0:30:10suddenly becoming aware as a child of adults crying in the house.
0:30:10 > 0:30:13And you had a similar experience,
0:30:13 > 0:30:14I was the boy and the third child,
0:30:14 > 0:30:20on the night my mum died, I remember
0:30:20 > 0:30:24she gave me a cuddle, sitting in the bay window of the house.
0:30:28 > 0:30:32and there is this hubbub downstairs.
0:30:32 > 0:30:38and he sits at the side of the bed.
0:30:38 > 0:30:43And he just said, "Your mum died last night," and he started crying.
0:30:43 > 0:30:47And, of course, you're six,
0:31:05 > 0:31:08And forever doesn't mean much.
0:31:08 > 0:31:10And anyway, your mum is just
0:31:13 > 0:31:15my mother again. I wasn't...
0:31:15 > 0:31:18I didn't go to the funeral. Kids didn't in those days, I suppose.
0:31:18 > 0:31:20You were taken to the cinema.
0:31:22 > 0:31:25Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin.
0:31:25 > 0:31:27I knew there was something up.
0:31:28 > 0:31:32I wasn't told she was being buried.
0:31:35 > 0:31:38..a weirdness about the adults
0:31:38 > 0:31:43like I was this tender little thing.
0:31:44 > 0:31:48One of the reasons perhaps bands, it is so difficult for them
0:31:48 > 0:31:52thrown together accidentally.
0:31:52 > 0:31:56Quite randomly. That was certainly the case with the Rats, wasn't it?
0:31:56 > 0:31:59One day, beautiful spring evening,
0:31:59 > 0:32:05a different pub, Fitzgerald's, which
0:32:09 > 0:32:13one from just down the road, Garry,
0:32:13 > 0:32:18and one the brother of a mate of mine, Johnnie. And I was...
0:32:18 > 0:32:21His older brother was my mate. And they were sitting there.
0:32:26 > 0:32:30George Harrison, I'd written about.
0:32:30 > 0:32:33And they said, "We were actually thinking of starting a band."
0:32:33 > 0:32:37And I said, "Well, with what?"
0:32:37 > 0:32:40And Garry said, "I've got a guitar."
0:32:42 > 0:32:45And Johnnie said, "I've got
0:32:53 > 0:32:57know, did blues things at parties.
0:32:57 > 0:33:00instruments?" "Don't know."
0:33:05 > 0:33:07and the stylistics, nothing.
0:33:07 > 0:33:10"You have got to talk about
0:33:10 > 0:33:14And Garry said, "You should be
0:33:16 > 0:33:27He calls me the next day and he says, you know, "Let's go into town
0:33:27 > 0:33:29He also bought a Meazzi amp.
0:33:29 > 0:33:41Now, you may not know this esoteric machine, but the great thing
0:33:41 > 0:33:51And his mother told us to shut up and, you know, to stop that racket,
0:33:59 > 0:34:06You must have been pleased with
0:34:18 > 0:34:21which sounds like, you know,
0:34:21 > 0:34:23some wild, Hollywood thing.
0:34:23 > 0:34:27want to shag on my dad's bed.
0:34:27 > 0:34:30Where was my bedroom? I don't know.
0:34:32 > 0:34:34and I was just going to take
0:34:34 > 0:34:40We were on the floor and she was smoking, and the fag drifted off.
0:34:40 > 0:34:45I came back to this blazing inferno.
0:34:45 > 0:34:50My dad was away, and... He was in Spain, wasn't he? He was, yeah.
0:34:50 > 0:34:54So I thought, "I've got to face up to this." So I went to the airport.
0:35:01 > 0:35:08So we were in the car going back
0:35:08 > 0:35:11and then we talked the holiday chat.
0:35:11 > 0:35:14He said, "So what have you been
0:35:23 > 0:35:27As we were driving towards this
0:35:27 > 0:35:30"So, you remember the house?"
0:35:30 > 0:35:35'remember'?" So that was it.
0:35:35 > 0:35:40I was sad because a lot of his photos
0:35:46 > 0:35:49Music is very big on categorisation, partly because of record stores
0:35:49 > 0:35:54which, for younger viewers,
0:35:54 > 0:35:57But New Wave, punk, all that stuff,
0:36:01 > 0:36:08we started a year before that sort of exploded in the UK. That idea.
0:36:08 > 0:36:12I was aware that there was a pressing demand for change, especially through
0:36:12 > 0:36:17the New Musical Express and writers
0:36:18 > 0:36:22He wrote something about "All aboard the Titanic," or something.
0:36:22 > 0:36:26writing for the NME, don't forget.
0:36:26 > 0:36:28And I completely agreed with this.
0:36:28 > 0:36:32I thought it was going to be
0:36:34 > 0:36:40the absolute kings of this.
0:36:40 > 0:36:43You had Kilburn And The High Roads, which later became Ian Dury.
0:36:44 > 0:36:47who was superseded, unfortunately,
0:37:01 > 0:37:11What did it mean to us, you know, limousines, bouffants and mansions?
0:37:11 > 0:37:42And we come to England in '76.
0:37:42 > 0:37:46And we got confused with that.
0:37:46 > 0:37:50Cos we looked like this, but at the time, because of the Feelgoods,
0:37:52 > 0:37:55But we were younger than them.
0:37:55 > 0:37:59faster than them. For some reason,
0:38:03 > 0:38:07trying to jump on this bandwagon.
0:38:07 > 0:38:09There was a cultural Taliban saying,
0:38:12 > 0:38:18And, you know, I am contrarian
0:38:25 > 0:38:27This lot are against that orthodoxy,
0:38:30 > 0:38:34just as institutionalised as
0:38:38 > 0:38:42There was a disparity between the
0:38:51 > 0:38:54I vividly remember people walking around singing I Don't Like Mondays
0:38:54 > 0:38:58as if it was about not having French
0:38:58 > 0:39:01rather than actually shooting large numbers of your classmates.
0:39:07 > 0:39:11the thing about Mondays was...
0:39:13 > 0:39:16against somebody shooting someone.
0:39:18 > 0:39:21It was this sort of amorality that I encountered in America.
0:39:21 > 0:39:25This sort of wild moral vacuum
0:39:25 > 0:39:29Bret Easton Ellis is best about it in
0:39:29 > 0:39:32And I think that came a year later. I am not sure if it was a year before.
0:39:32 > 0:39:34I certainly remember reading that.
0:39:34 > 0:39:40And I obviously don't have his skill, but it was this oddness about it.
0:39:40 > 0:39:42And also, the fact that on the plane over, I had been reading about
0:39:42 > 0:39:47these new things called computers and that they had invented a system of,
0:39:47 > 0:39:50you know, making them very powerful
0:39:50 > 0:39:54And that was made of silicon.
0:39:54 > 0:39:58The silicon chip inside the brain.
0:40:00 > 0:40:04And I thought, that's literally what
0:40:10 > 0:40:16# The silicon chip inside her head
0:40:24 > 0:40:57# And Daddy doesn't understand it
0:40:57 > 0:41:01There was a chap called Steve Jobs
0:41:01 > 0:41:12and play in his front lawn,
0:41:12 > 0:41:17And, you know, I said, "A barbecue on a front lawn? With his mates
0:41:17 > 0:41:21"building one of these things? No."
0:41:21 > 0:41:25And I said, "No, we don't do
0:41:25 > 0:41:28But all that was going on, so when
0:41:32 > 0:41:35we'd done a song about a kid
0:41:35 > 0:41:39who disappeared in Dublin who used
0:41:39 > 0:41:43Hopeless. So we'd done this.
0:41:52 > 0:41:55So here's this ghetto lager...
0:41:58 > 0:42:02His dad worked up in Belfast
0:42:04 > 0:42:09But an intense sense of music. And Van grows up listening to
0:42:09 > 0:42:12But Van, being incredibly curious
0:42:12 > 0:42:16of this great hinterland of another culture, and goes to investigate,
0:42:18 > 0:42:20And comes up with this Yeats-ian
0:42:20 > 0:42:22that he embues with the blues
0:42:22 > 0:42:26and creates a whole new type of music, which influences Springsteen,
0:42:26 > 0:42:28who clearly acknowledges it,
0:42:31 > 0:42:36who picked up on Van but tried to marry it with Irish mythic stuff,
0:42:36 > 0:42:38cos he was an outsider, he was the only black guy in Ireland,
0:42:38 > 0:42:42basically, and tried to say, "I'm one of you..." I think.
0:42:46 > 0:42:50I'll write about this kid, you know,
0:42:50 > 0:42:53in this sort of...I'll describe
0:42:58 > 0:43:00they never knew the words -
0:43:00 > 0:43:05just the sense of it...make it
0:43:05 > 0:43:09The fact that it went to number one was bizarre, because it was
0:43:09 > 0:43:12John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John
0:43:15 > 0:43:18"The traps have been sprung
0:43:18 > 0:43:21behind all the closed doors.
0:43:21 > 0:43:23from its scab-crusted sores.
0:43:23 > 0:43:26and crying in the high-rise blocks.
0:43:26 > 0:43:34"It's a rat trap." You know, how does that beat John Travolta
0:43:48 > 0:43:51# You've been caught in a rat trap
0:43:51 > 0:43:56# You've been caught in a rat trap. #
0:43:56 > 0:43:59over your children's names.
0:43:59 > 0:44:01Did you expect or even invite
0:44:18 > 0:44:24which I loved - she was the one
0:44:24 > 0:44:28She'd say all these things...
0:44:39 > 0:44:43came along, I just wanted to say,
0:44:43 > 0:44:48"Thanks. Never said it to you before,
0:44:48 > 0:44:54but of course when we did it,
0:44:56 > 0:44:58Well, is the Trixibelle bit,
0:44:58 > 0:45:02is from Tennessee Williams,
0:45:02 > 0:45:07I mean, he's clearly taking the piss.
0:45:11 > 0:45:13He's doing all those things,
0:45:13 > 0:45:18Paula loved all those dresses
0:45:21 > 0:45:24Cat On A Hot Tin Roof thing...
0:45:32 > 0:45:35And we were driving up Shaftesbury
0:45:38 > 0:45:40and there was Tennessee Williams
0:45:40 > 0:45:43So we just stopped, said, "Do you want a lift?" He said, "Yeah."
0:45:43 > 0:45:47So we went off with Tennessee Williams in the thing, in the van,
0:45:54 > 0:45:58"Fifi Trixibelle, it's such a strange name." And she said,
0:46:01 > 0:46:06I took Fifi to ballet class when
0:46:06 > 0:46:09galumphing around the place,
0:46:09 > 0:46:12lady beside me, and she said,
0:46:12 > 0:46:15"I love the name of your daughter." I said, "Thanks very much."
0:46:21 > 0:46:23And I said, "What about these two -
0:46:23 > 0:46:28And she said, "We had a terrible
0:46:28 > 0:46:31"and I got fed up after six months of calling them Baby One and Two,
0:46:31 > 0:46:40"and so, I was making jelly
0:46:57 > 0:46:59But that happened afterwards.
0:47:03 > 0:47:12She's called Little Pixie after Little Richard...first, and...
0:47:12 > 0:47:26Yeah. And then Pixie Frou-frou
0:47:29 > 0:47:33I mean, I took a Polaroid of her
0:47:33 > 0:47:37And it was a difficult birth. And she
0:47:37 > 0:47:40And Paula said, "She's an odd
0:47:40 > 0:47:44like a Pixie," trying to be nice!
0:47:44 > 0:47:47And... She was like a little pixie.
0:47:47 > 0:47:50Peaches came out and she was like...
0:47:50 > 0:47:54you know, classic English complexion.
0:47:54 > 0:47:57Peaches and cream. Peaches.
0:48:02 > 0:48:05"Why, Peaches Honeyblossom, you come right down here right now!"
0:48:05 > 0:48:09And frankly, they can all fuck off.
0:48:09 > 0:48:11the break-up of the marriage,
0:48:13 > 0:48:17I remember talking to you around
0:48:19 > 0:48:24front pages, paparazzi, all of that.
0:48:24 > 0:48:26Is there any way of dealing with that, or do you just have
0:48:26 > 0:48:30and just hope you're standing
0:48:32 > 0:48:36So I'll go back now to a point
0:48:36 > 0:48:39about that sense of loss seems
0:48:39 > 0:48:42"Well, cumulatively, my dad,
0:48:42 > 0:48:46all those things all the..."
0:48:47 > 0:48:52"..all the mass death I saw in Africa..." You see, the thing is,
0:48:52 > 0:48:57Mark, I have seen things that people shouldn't ever have to see.
0:48:57 > 0:49:02So it's only when you access
0:49:02 > 0:49:04that it bothers you, really.
0:49:06 > 0:49:11you know, Paula leaving me...
0:49:25 > 0:49:27and I go ahead and do that.
0:49:42 > 0:49:45And, you know, you spend 20 years together and you create this family,
0:49:45 > 0:49:51and she had, as some people know,
0:49:51 > 0:49:54This bizarre, mad background,
0:50:02 > 0:50:12we both have a thing about,
0:50:12 > 0:50:22but literally, just what happened to,
0:50:46 > 0:50:57but you can't comprehend it,
0:50:57 > 0:51:02And, couldn't function at all.
0:51:02 > 0:51:06And, er...so it was not good, it was not easy. And then...
0:51:09 > 0:51:14Someone's taking care of me, but I'm steered, bizarrely,
0:51:14 > 0:51:21into the path of this other
0:51:23 > 0:51:26who hasn't a clue who I am in France.
0:51:26 > 0:51:30and Live Aid uniquely in the planet.
0:51:30 > 0:51:32I mean, she wasn't fooling,
0:51:32 > 0:51:36and she's going like this today even, "I must look at it sometime."
0:51:43 > 0:51:47sorry boring people about this stuff,
0:51:50 > 0:51:54this ruined man, and I really cannot
0:51:54 > 0:51:58I mean, you saw me at some point
0:52:06 > 0:52:09Because what was happening over
0:52:12 > 0:52:15..madness. I mean, genuine madness, what was happening over there,
0:52:15 > 0:52:19so, you know, I'm freaking out
0:52:25 > 0:52:28she's no notion of the English press.
0:52:28 > 0:52:32You know, and we've heard over the last three years about the behaviour.
0:52:32 > 0:52:35I can trump all of it, believe me.
0:52:35 > 0:52:38And forget phone hacking of mobiles,
0:52:40 > 0:52:43They rented the house opposite
0:52:43 > 0:52:46and just had lenses in there.
0:52:46 > 0:52:48Literally followed to France,
0:52:48 > 0:52:52They may as well have had News of the World written on their shirts.
0:52:52 > 0:52:54Were you hacked? Yeah. Yeah.
0:52:57 > 0:53:01No. Um...because I don't have the sort of mobile that could be hacked.
0:53:01 > 0:53:07but I was certainly bugged,
0:53:07 > 0:53:10And other journalists who waited outside told me who was doing it.
0:53:10 > 0:53:14That's how I know. The phone was
0:53:15 > 0:53:26And, er...then the other journalists
0:53:26 > 0:53:30and my mate got into the car
0:53:34 > 0:54:01and then I slammed to a halt and he pulled in in front of the guy
0:54:01 > 0:54:16So into this walks this girl
0:54:16 > 0:54:19I don't want to get through this.
0:54:19 > 0:54:21Yeah, I did think that, yeah.
0:54:26 > 0:54:30Not heaving sobs, but just tears.
0:54:30 > 0:54:33I'd been crying in my sleep.
0:54:34 > 0:54:39And, um...a friend of mine,
0:54:39 > 0:54:42I had great boy friends, men friends,
0:54:42 > 0:54:47Johnny McGuire, Howard Angel,
0:54:48 > 0:54:51Um...Charlie and Waheed from Planet.
0:54:51 > 0:54:57Um...and Phil was kind of staying
0:55:02 > 0:55:05and he said, "If you ever want to record anything, I'm here."
0:55:07 > 0:55:11And, um...so they were trying
0:55:11 > 0:55:14to sort of handle this thing.
0:55:14 > 0:55:18And I really didn't understand
0:55:18 > 0:55:22that it was a physical pain. I didn't understand that, but it's physical.
0:55:22 > 0:55:26The doctor said, "Take these,"
0:55:28 > 0:55:30because that's part of being human.
0:55:30 > 0:55:33But it was so extreme, like,
0:55:33 > 0:55:36my hair was turning white anyway,
0:55:36 > 0:55:40but it was now accelerating, I lost,
0:55:40 > 0:55:42But I was very ill, as well.
0:55:42 > 0:55:45And, um...Keeping your end up.
0:55:45 > 0:55:49And, er...So I just thought, I'm not going to do this any more now.
0:56:01 > 0:56:04The pros and cons of being alive.
0:56:12 > 0:56:14you won't feel this, you won't have
0:56:14 > 0:56:17you won't see these people, you won't do this, this. Long list.
0:56:24 > 0:56:25..frankly, that wasn't enough.
0:56:30 > 0:56:34So I called my mate Pat and he just said, "You stay where you are now.
0:56:34 > 0:56:40"Don't move. You stay where you are."
0:56:52 > 0:56:55and pain and...all the rest of it.
0:56:57 > 0:57:00Funny, I've been quoting throughout
0:57:04 > 0:57:07Are we going to get another volume?
0:57:07 > 0:57:16Because of some of the things
0:57:24 > 0:57:30It was the 2005 G8 and the BBC
0:57:34 > 0:57:38And frankly, it's not that gripping.
0:57:40 > 0:57:46Um...and...I think it's lived
0:57:46 > 0:57:51Um...I've tried, I think most
0:57:54 > 0:57:58as the poet said, you know.
0:58:01 > 0:58:03you should be in this world.
0:58:06 > 0:58:09You know, I take the road less
0:58:12 > 0:58:15when you get back from Space.
0:58:17 > 0:58:20I hope I'm made an honorary colonel
0:58:23 > 0:58:25# You've been caught in a rat trap
0:58:25 > 0:58:28# You've been caught in a rat trap
0:58:28 > 0:58:31# You've been caught in a rat trap
0:58:31 > 0:58:34# You've been caught in a rat trap
0:58:35 > 0:58:37# You've been caught in a rat trap
0:58:37 > 0:58:39# Did the whole world know your name?
0:58:39 > 0:58:41# You've been caught in a rat trap
0:58:41 > 0:58:44# You've been caught in a rat trap. #
0:58:44 > 0:58:46Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd