Holocaust museum honours Geldof
Bob Geldof has been honoured with a humanitarian award by the Holocaust Museum Houston for his work organising 1985’s Live Aid concert.
Geldof received the 2006 Lyndon Baines Johnson Moral Courage Award on Sunday night at the museum’s annual dinner. He told the audience that he was humbled by the award.
“I can honestly say I feel fraudulent standing here” among survivors of the Holocaust, the 51-year-old Irish rocker said. “Their greatest triumph was that they defeated history. Their unique triumph is the grace with which they lived their lives.”
Geldof was inspired to organise the concert after watching a nightly news broadcast on the Ethiopian famine.
“The next day I thought, this requires more than simply putting a pound in the charity box,” he said.
He composed Do They Know It’s Christmas and recorded it with friends he had made in the rock ’n’ roll business.
That recording led to Live Aid fundraising concerts in London and Philadelphia, which featured 60 top acts and a worldwide TV audience.
Geldof said he does not just want to alleviate some of the suffering in Africa but also incite political and economic change that could end it for good.
He organised last year’s Live 8 concerts.
