Rat still Live and kicking

Pop star, Live Aid organiser and businessman Bob Geldof's latest mission is summoning a million people to Edinburgh for a march to pressure the G8 leaders to sign up to a debt relief and aid package for Africa. Kyran Fitzgerald reports.

BACK in 1989, Fianna Fáil councillors decided to block an award of the Freedom of the City of Dublin to Bob Geldof, on the grounds that the inspiration behind the hugely successful Band Aid single and Live Aid concerts for Africa was "still young and volatile."

The lead singer of the Boomtown Rats is no longer young, but there are plenty of rattled people in high places who would be happy to describe him as "volatile."