Friday, March 10, 2006

(175) Geldof 's milk

On the evening of February 4th 2001 I joined in a discussion in Channel 103 at the Internet Chess Club on whether money brought happiness.

I remarked that I had heard that Sir Bob Geldof would be doing some work on the house next door to ours the next day and that, even though I was certain that his motives in setting up Live Aid in 1985 had been wholly philanthropic, the fact was that he had also benefited from it financially.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_Aid
James Eadon queried how. I said that he had had indirect benefits, e.g. appearing in TV ads for milk.
Simultaneously Eadon remarked "He was made famous by Live-Aid and if you have fame you can milk that." He noted our joint mentions of milk, and then said that he was unaware of Geldof’s milk ads.

The following afternoon Fiona, who was unaware of the above interchange and who almost never drinks milk, asked me to go out and buy a pint in anticipation of the chaps working next door perhaps wanting some teas or coffees. In the event they all, Geldof included, declined her when she offered to make them drinks.

I gave the first copy of Coincidences as a gift to Paula Yates and her family. I inscribed it -
"To our nice new neighbours".
The next month she died, and so it passed into the home of her ex-husband, Geldof.

Phil Harris, to whom I also gave a gift copy, ran a restaurant near Canterbury called The Sportsman.
http://www.shepherd-neame.co.uk/pubs/pubs.php/sportsman_whitstable Geldof was a regular client and would usually be accompanied by some of his family.
Phil was to tell me that he mentioned the book to Geldof who responded that he recalled seeing it in the Hastings house and that "... it looked very interesting. But I don´t know what happened to it!"

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