Bob Geldof is one of the few modern pop stars to be taken seriously outside music. RUTH MEECH asks the singer about his saintly image...

POP star, poet, politician, living saint, devil's advocate, freelance genius, natural irritant, ubiquitous celebrity and media mogul - Bob Geldof is all of these and more.

Multi-layered, multi-faceted and multi-talented, he hits the headlines where ever he goes and on Tuesday he is going to be in Hampshire for the Eastleigh Summer Music Festival.

But whatever else he is - or is seen to be - music is what makes him tick.

"In my head," says Geldof, "music is what I do. I'm sure millions of people will be surprised by that. In fact, certain generations will probably be shocked that I make music at all, but music is central to who I am. I physically need to do it."

Listening to Sex, Age & Death, Geldof's latest album and the first he has released for five years, you can sense this imperative at work in every track.

Rarely has a record detailed such a complexity of emotion or attempted to deal with subject matter this difficult - and with some cracking tunes in there for good measure.

So much of Geldof's life is a matter of public record. From his early life in Dublin, through to punk rock, The Boomtown Rats, Paula Yates, I Don't Like Mondays, Africa, Do They Know It's Christmas?, Live Aid, the profanity, the pride, squaring up to Lady Thatcher, schmoozing Mother Teresa, the knighthood and the autobiography Is That It?.

We have seen him as the dot.com millionaire, the loyal friend, the curiously compulsive radio presenter, the heartbroken husband and loving father.

We can all measure our lives in terms of Geldof's extraordinary experiences.

"Why such extremes?" he wonders. "Plenty of guys join bands but they don't have number one records.

"Plenty of guys do a charity gig but the whole world doesn't watch it and then they don't get knighted and put up for the Nobel Peace Prize.

"Plenty of guys always have a bit of wedge in their pocket but I've always been either hopelessly broke or stupidly rich."

While life has undoubtedly been kind to Geldof, it has also been cruel. The past five, heavily documented years have seen him confront more than most mortals could honestly cope with.

Throughout this time, he wrote Sex, Age & Death as a confession, as a release and simply, as the man says, because this is what he does.

"I can only ever write about that which happens to me or my response to situations," says Geldof.

"This is the latest instalment of the diary. Some things are unsayable, but maybe you try to articulate the unspeakable in music.

"Maybe I have gone and made an unspeakable album..."

Bob Geldof is at the Eastleigh Summer Music Festival on 29 July. Box office: 023 8065 2333 or 023 8055 5366.