The Guardian

'No rear view mirror in this car': Bob Geldof on love, loss and lockdown

The Boomtown Rats’ new album, their first in 36 years, coincides with a BBC documentary on the band
Bob Geldof: ‘You have to invent your own universe’. Photograph: Christophe Archambault/AFP via Getty Images

Bob Geldof doesn’t do nostalgia. Now 68, the Irish musician and activist says that he has lived his life refusing to look back. “I have the point of view that there’s no rear view mirror in this car,” he says.

So it might seem surprising that he not only agreed to the BBC making a documentary, Citizens of Boomtown, about his first band, The Boomtown Rats, but has also spent the last year actively engaged in reliving his past through it.

Over the years our opinions of Geldof have shifted constantly. From mouthy young punk star with opinions to spare; to Saint Bob, the impassioned campaigner behind Live

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