Bob Geldof gets his bollocks cut off
Band Aid organiser Bob Geldof has weathered a tempestuous start to promotion of his charity Band Aid single – after being booted off air for repeated use of the word bollocks during a live Sky News interview.
Geldof faced criticism from presenter Jayne Secker that the record, released to raise money for humanitarian organisations dealing with the Ebola outbreak, was hypocritical as many of the stars lined up to sing were tax dodgers.
Secker said: “There are a lot of detractors saying, ‘Look at a lot of those people in that room… if they all paid their taxes in the right way we wouldn’t need these kind of fundraising singles.”
The line of questioning drew an abrupt response from Geldof who said: “I think they’re talking bollocks.” A clearly rattled Secker then requested that Geldof refrain from the use of ‘colourful language’ but when asked to say whether the record was patronising to Africans Geldof repeated: “Complete and utter bollocks.”
At this point Sky pulled the plug on the interview.
Despite controversy the Band Aid tune has generated more than £1m in sales thus far and is said to be a dead cert to top the charts on Sunday.