Geldof says Boomtown Rats helped him cope

Bob Geldof says his bandmates from the Boomtown Rats helped him fight depression after his wife left him.

He also says the pain is still there but he now knows how to handle it.

Paula Yates, the mother of Geldof's three daughters, left him for Michael Hutchence in 1995.

Geldof said: "Howard and Pete, with whom I played in the Boomtown Rats, moved in with me.

"We would sit around and be completely silent together. It was bizarre, but calming."

He said the situation led him to consider suicide, which he'd always found "pathetic" before.

"I collapsed. I couldn't function at all for two or three years. It was beyond depression."

But despite hitting rock bottom, he now knows how best to combat depression.

"You remove this lump of pain from your gut and examine it and say to yourself 'So this is what you look like, I know you now' and then put it back again.