Bob Geldof Remembers Sinead O'Connor

Bob Geldof was young (Instagram @bob.geldof.fanpage)

JAKARTA - Bob Geldof spoke with Sinead O'Connor a few weeks before his death, in a recent show.

Songwriters and activist Bob Geldof reminisced about his long-standing friendship with Sinead while on stage during the Cavan Calling festival in Ireland.

Here, he reflected on growing up in the same path as him and his family, as well as his admiration for his courage when appearing in public.

"He means a lot to everyone. He means a lot to us," vocalist The Boomtown Rats started.

"Sinead lives on the same road about 75 yards at the end of the road. I know him and his brother Joseph, a great novelist. We used to share a bus stop 7A to go to school... So I grew up with O'Connors and they were great and he was a gun."

He is relentless. He has a voice we have never heard of so purely. And as a great artist, that voice fully represents his soul and spirit and whenever we hear that we will always be with that great woman.

As Geldof continued his words, he also touched on Sinead's "terrible concept" and the sense of "dash" throughout his life, admitting that he had received SMS from the singer of the Nothing Compares 2 U song in recent weeks - given the tide he experienced..

"There is no other choice, as you all know, besides going on. Sinead has been full of terrible loneliness and terrible despair," he explained.

"He was a very good friend of mine. We spoke up to a few weeks ago. Some of the texts were full of despair and sadness, and some were very happy. He was like that."

Towards the end of his touching respect for which made him wear a t-shirt with a photo of Sinead on the front he also praised the late singer who decided to embrace Islam in the 2018 realm for his bold performance on Saturday Night Live in 1992.

The now-famous clip shows Sinead performing Bob Marley, War in akapela, and then tearing up a photo of Pope John Paul II as he says the word "crime", and throwing the fragments of the photo on camera, said "against the real enemy".

The show protested against sexual abuse against children in a church that resulted in the banning of Sinead from the show.

"He tore up the Pope's image because he saw me tearing up a John Travolta image on the Top Of The Pops," Geldof said. It's a little more extreme than tearing up the disco. Torn the Vatican is something else but it's actually more true. I should have done it.

Ireland's iconic singer and activist Sinead died 56 weeks ago, after being found unconscious at his home in London. He was pronounced dead at the scene.