Bob Geoldof praises Paula Yates for key role in Live Aid

Bob Geldof has praised his late ex-wife Paula Yates for being instrumental in both Band Aid and Live Aid.

Bob Geldof has praised his late ex-wife Paula Yates for being instrumental in Live Aid.

The Boomtown Rats frontman assembled a host of famous performers at the time for 1984’s Band Aid charity single Do They Know It’s Christmas?, which then led to the huge global concert series the following summer, but he admitted he wouldn’t have been able to bring the line-up together without the help of his then-partner, who was co-host of music show The Tube.

Speaking in upcoming documentary Live Aid At 40: When Rock ‘n’ Roll Took On The World, Bob said: “All I had the power to do was write tunes. But the Boomtown Rats were not guaranteed to have hits any more. All these new guys had come along with beautiful suits and coiffed hair.

“And I understood this new thing because my wife had befriended all these people on the show that she was host of, The Tube.

“So I called Paula and I asked who was on the show that night and she said, ‘Ultravox’. I said, ‘Put Midge Ure on’ and he just said, ‘What do you want to do?’.”

And even setting up an initiative to ease Ethiopian famine was the brainchild of Paula when she and Bob were watching an infamous news report on the situation with their daughter Fifi, who was two at the time.

Bob, now 73, said: “My partner Paula couldn’t stand watching it, she didn’t want our child to watch it. She clearly associated what she was seeing with our child. She just grabbed her and went upstairs, but I stayed, transfixed.

“I came down the next morning and there was a green bowl on the table in the kitchen, and Paula had put a note in there saying, ‘Anyone who comes to this house must put a pound or five pounds into this bowl’. I thought, ‘That’s not adequate’.”

Several of the musicians who took part in Band Aid praised Paula’ – who died in 2000 aged 41 – for her calming presence during recording.

U2’s Bono said: “There was a lot of male egos in the room, not enough women.”

Gary Kemp noted: “Paula Yates was really the lovely glue, carrying her child around, Fifi, and their dog, Growler. They’re a great family.”

And Midge added: “Everybody knew Paula, we all knew Bob through Paula.

“She was funny and witty and highly intelligent, and she kept everyone entertained, walking around chatting to them.”

Live Aid At 40: When Rock ‘n’ Roll Took On The World airs on BBC Two next week.