Bob Geldof - 'Is That It? The Autobiography'
Bob Geldof is best known as the man who engineered the world's most well known charity concert, Live Aid, which took place on 13th July 1985 simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London, England, and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, USA, as well as similar performances in a number of other countries on the same date. He is also known for being the lead singer in the Irish rock band, The Boomtown Rats, from 1975, though this has been eclipsed by his charity work for Ethiopia.
Geldof's autobiography was originally published in 1986, and so is not very up to date. This is my only criticism of it, for I found that this book went above and beyond my expectations. Is That It? is more a political statement of twentieth century politics, told through the fiendish antics of one Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof, beginning in Ireland and stopping in many countries along the way including Spain, Canada, England, and of course, Ethiopia, before ending in England which, at the time of publishing, was an up to date location.
Is That It? begins, as one might expect of Geldof, whose record company was, at one point, going to release the bodies of dead rats over the crowd at a Boomtown Rats gig, at the most theatrical point of his career. During the band's Live Aid set, Geldof pauses in the middle of what had been their second number one single, I Don't Like Monday, with his fist raised to the sky.
"And the lesson today is how to die..."
Immediately, the reader is drawn in, for this is a moment which is well known to all fans of the band. The sheer poignancy behind the words is incredible, and even as I listen to the recording of the song whilst writing this, I can hear the meaning behind the words - they're loaded, and always will be. This is an incredible documentation of a man whose name will go down in history - and has done - for the charity work which he has done. The collective efforts of Band Aid and Live Aid raised around $150 million US dollars for the famine relief in Ethiopia.
The book itself was unputdownable; intricately detailed and incredibly written. The way he tells it, Bob Geldof has lived a thousand lives; a childhood in an extremely Catholic, troubled Ireland, squatting in London and teaching English in Spain, and all before the age of 22. I was astounded reading it, because there is so much more to the man than anybody would expect, and Is That It? is the story of an extraordinary man and his extraordinary life. Geldof's words were so real, his descriptions to vivid, that I felt as if I lived his life, too.
But Geldof doesn't embellish his words. He tells stuff as it is, which, I suspect, is part of why he was so successful when bartering with nations and leaders for Live Aid. In the past, Bob Geldof has been called many unflattering things, including arrogant and pompous and, on occasion, even smug. In this book, I find that he is none of these things, and instead is just an honest Joe telling his story with nothing fancy behind it. I admire him for many things, but this above all.
As Geldof says it is how it is.
I amend my earlier statement, then. This is not just the statement of a twentieth century pop star, but also a statement of twentieth century culture; the adventure, the sexual revelations as well as the politics. All that Geldof is known for cleverly fitting into his lyrics, he has included in this book, repeating the same patterns in both medias.
I cannot recommend this book enough. Read it not because you are a fan of Bob Geldof, or of Live Aid, or even of The Boomtown Rats. Read this book because you are interested in the twentieth century, and because you want somebody else's view on the last half of the 1900s other than your own. Read this book if you want an adventure around the world, and because you love music. Is That It? is an experience, and I wish I could tell Bob Geldof that to his face. Had I known what I do now when I met him 2019, we would have a completely different conversation to the one which we had.
