He's the Boomtown Rat who launched Band Aid and Live Aid, became a TV and internet entrepreneur, and still found time to bring up his children almost singled-handedly. But does that make him a saint?

Observer

The fund-raising achievements of Band Aid and Live Aid had given the former rock star an early licence to take control of his own story - before it had even been half-told and before other versions might gain currency.

In the 15 years that have followed that precipitate autobiography the suggestion that Sir Bob is a 'control freak' has resurfaced several times. He is, apparently, someone who expects to operate only on his own terms. And while this attitude has worked extremely well when it comes to making money either for himself or for charity, it has not been so effective at organising the things he has really cared about; like keeping his wayward wife, for example, or persuading world leaders to cancel all Third World debt.

Now, speaking this month to the women's magazine Marie Claire, Sir Bob has unexpectedly broken his silence about the breakdown of his 10-year marriage to Paula Yates, on the first anniversary of her death.

'The universes of grief, oceans of loss and deserts of emptiness were so profound, I just descended to a very primitive state,' he has said.

The candid comments were offered in explanation of the lyrics of songs on his poignant new album, Sex, Death and Age. The album, he admits, is an attempt to express the sense of failure that haunted him when Yates first left him for the late popstar Michael Hutchence, in 1995.

'She was a woman of such grace and style and even when she was being ridiculous, there was always this vivid intelligence behind it,' he said.

Geldof's decision to open his heart comes at a time when he is happier than he has been for a long time. He lives with his girlfriend, the French actress Jeanne Marine (whom he describes as 'the best possible woman') and his three children by Yates, Fifi Trixibelle, Peaches Honeyblossom and Pixie. Since February 2000 he has also had custody of Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily, Yates's daughter with Hutchence.

'He has made them very happy,' says Yates's close friend, Belinda Brewin. 'What does it matter now what went on before? The kids are very happy. A year on, Tiger Lily comes to stay with me once a week and she is absolutely fine. And I had a drink with Fifi the other day and she seems happy too.' While some of Paula's mourners have privately suggested that it might have been nice if Geldof had praised his former wife publicly before now, they do concede that he has re-built an emotionally functioning family through sheer hard work. He cooks his children's supper and walks them to school in the mornings. He also describes his family as 'the core' of everything he does.

But there is no true rest for this man. He is, he says, congenitally unable to relax and, as a result, his music has become an 'obsession' in recent years. For Geldof's public, however, the music he has made since The Boomtown Rats disbanded in 1985 has been forgotten about amid a succession of high-profile business ventures and global campaigns.

After the sale of his £5million worth of shares in Planet 24, the television production company he owned with Lord Waheed Ali and Charlie Parsons, Geldof set up Deckchair.com, a website for cheap flights. He also launched a radio company called Ten Alps (Planet backwards) and a Wap (Wireless Application Protocol) phone venture called WapWorld that pumps internet sport and entertainment news into your mobile phone. Most recently, in a slightly mysterious deal involving the gift of an Alfa Romeo, he has been recruited into the world of advertising too, working as a kind of roving consultant for a network of ground-breaking creative thinkers called Red Cell.

After working with Geldof on debt campaigns, Luca Lindner, the head of Red Cell, has persuaded him to become one of his 'idea hamsters', attached to a confidential range of client accounts.

'People just see his iconoclast side,' explains Lindner. 'But Bob has a refreshing mind. It's refreshing just to have a phone call from him.'

Lindner, whose clients include Singapore Airlines, Alfa Romeo and, controversially, Nestlé, sees three 'key facets' to Geldof's magic. 'First, he is very smart. Colleagues who were with him in a London workshop had to admit he was the fastest thinker with the most innovative ideas. He understands how to get leverage on people's emotions. I would love it if he was not just a consultant, but the chief executive of the company!' The other two Geldof traits Lindner identifies are 'a strong sense of his own value as a business, and even as a brand',along with a balancing generosity of spirit.

'We had four television interviews one day before a G8 summit and I was not at ease, partly because of my language problem and partly because of the cameras. Bob sensed it and stepped in. He did not speak over me, he just made sure we had the right impact in the short time we had.'

Geldof has doggedly championed the Drop the Debt cause for the Third World with his friend, Bono, from U2, and, almost as an aside, he has organised a millennium night firework display and a bizarre national search for Britain's favourite word. (Serendipity, if you were wondering.) It could be that a deep sense of guilt drives him on, but if so, it stems from well before his time with Yates. Perhaps it dates from his enforced early adulthood back in Dublin. Geldof's mother died when he was seven and his dad, a travelling salesman, was away so much that he had 'to organise my own life'. He has, he says, recently grown closer to the rest of his family after the consecutive dramatic deaths of Hutchence, who was found hanging from a hotel door in Sydney, and Yates, who was discovered dead in her London home after overdosing on heroin on 17 September last year.

His sister Lynn works for Unicef and the two debate politics. 'There is a certain shortness of fuse,' she has said of her brother's character.

Sir Bob himself, who used to be known as Modest Bob back in his Boomtown days, plays down his ambition. 'I'm pushed into doing things by my irascibility,' he argues.

But those who work with him are reverent, even awestruck. A former colleague at Drop the Debt puts his energy down to 'his strong sense of injustice', while Jamie Drummond, the leading anti-debt activist who works closely with Geldof and Bono on a number of campaigns under the Jubilee Plus banner, is even more fulsome. 'I adore Bob,' he says. 'We have gone through a lot of shit together. He is a gas to work with and he is also inspirational.' Drummond recalls one particular 'mad moment' when they were in Cologne for a summit and Geldof turned up on a motorbike.

'We met Gerhard Schröder and gave him a petition. Then we were supposed to meet up with Tony Blair, but we weren't sure if we wanted to talk to him because he hadn't done what we hoped.' Geldof pushed for the meeting, remembers Drummond. 'He said we had to keep talking - you have to have rational debate.' Both Blair and Gordon Brown, Drummond is convinced, are fans of Geldof. 'If you watch them together, you can tell they think his impulses are important.'

Those at Drop the Debt were also impressed by Geldof's reliability, particularly as he doesn't use an assistant or a secretary. 'He cuts through the bullshit,' says Drummond, 'but he is well aware of the ridiculousness of the fact it requires celebrities to get this kind of thing discussed.' Drummond is repeatedly amused to see how he terrifies strangers. 'People who don't know him think he is scary. The veins in his temples rise and they know they are going to get a bollocking. It is just Bob's way.' When the final Geldof story is written, it might well emerge that the greatest virtue of this alleged saint and avowed sinner was to have used his character flaws to do some good.

Bob Geldof

Born: 5 October 1954, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin

Family: Married and divorced Paul Yates; three daughters

Education: Blackrock College