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Meeting Myself Coming Back

Factual: Life Stories

High-profile figures, in conversation with John Wilson, replay their own sound archive

High-profile figures, in conversation with John Wilson, replay their own sound archive and use it as a basis for a re-examination of their lives

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Meeting Myself Coming Back: Series 3

Meeting Myself Coming Back: Episode 1: Bob Geldof

Bob Geldof

Episode 1

Episode 1: Bob Geldof

BBC Radio 4 - Meeting Myself Coming Back, Bob Geldof

From Boomtown Rat to famine relief ambassador, Bob Geldof explores his life in sound.

From Boomtown Rat to Live Aid organiser and famine relief ambassador, Bob Geldof explores his life through the BBC archives in an extraordinary frank conversation with John Wilson.

The first programme in the new series of "Meeting Myself Coming Back", the series in which leading public figures explores their lives through the BBC Sound archive, features an intimate, revealing and emotional interview with Sir Bob Geldof, in conversation with John Wilson. 

When Bob Geldof exploded onto the pop scene with "The Boomtown Rats" in the 1970s, he quickly forged a reputation for being outspoken. This trait would stand him in good stead when he used his skill as an organiser and negotiator to persuade fellow musicians to sing for famine relief in Africa, first on the Band-Aid single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and then for the subsequent Live Aid concert. It was to be the start of campaigning work which has lasted to the present day and brought him a knighthood, meetings with the world's leaders and recognition upon a global stage.

In the first programme of the new series of "Meeting Myself Coming Back", Bob Geldof meets his younger self in the BBC archives in an experience which provokes both laughter and tears. At one point he becomes overwhelmed by reliving his first experience of being in Ethiopia and seeing the consequences of the famine for himself.

He hears his own career progression from opinonated rock star through to Live Aid organiser and world anti-poverty ambassador.

And he relives his reactions to personal tragedies like the death of his former wife, Paula Yates.

Revised Repeat.

Producer: Emma Kingsley.

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