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Passengers on a Ryanair flight from Venice to Bristol were left stunned on Friday when they realised, they were sharing the cabin with none other than Sir Bob Geldof.
The Boomtown Rats frontman, Live Aid organiser and global humanitarian was seen queuing like everyone else at Marco Polo Airport in Venice, alongside his bandmates, waiting to board the £47 budget flight back to the UK after a string of shows in Italy.
Eyewitnesses described the 72-year-old as a “low-key legend,” dressed casually in a bleached denim shirt, blue jeans, dark sunglasses, and a peaked cap. Sporting his trademark long hair and bushy beard, Geldof looked every inch the rock star, but without any of the usual celebrity airs and graces.
Fellow traveller Jay Curtis told BristolLive:
“There was quite a long queue at the Ryanair check-in, and Bob Geldof was there with the Boomtown Rats. I even managed to get a selfie with him in the line, but saw him again twice more after that. He didn’t pay for fast-track or anything, he just queued with everybody else and didn’t moan once.”
Jay Curtis grabbed a selfie with the star - Credit: Jay Curtis/SWNS
According to Curtis, Geldof even joked with passengers about his thrifty travel choices, saying:
“I don’t spend millions on luxury travel.”
The Irish singer-songwriter and philanthropist, whose estimated fortune is reported to be around £110 million, seemed completely unfazed by the budget experience, mingling and chatting to those who recognised him.
Curtis added:
“I was just surprised; the guy’s worth over £110 million and he’s queuing with everyone else. He was so down to earth.”
Geldof, who rose to fame in the late 1970s as the frontman of The Boomtown Rats, famously co-organised the 1985 Live Aid concert, raising millions to help tackle famine in Ethiopia. Over the decades he’s become just as well known for his charity work and political activism as he has for his music career.
The Boomtown Rats, known for hits like “I Don’t Like Mondays” and “Rat Trap”, continue to perform live and had been playing dates across Italy before Friday’s return flight to the UK.
Fans on social media praised Geldof for keeping his feet firmly on the ground despite his fortune and global fame. One commenter wrote:
“Bob’s still one of the people. What a legend.”
Another said:
“You can take the man out of Dublin, but you can’t take Dublin out of the man.”
