Sir Bob Geldof wins the Lifetime Achievement Award at ZYN Rolling Stone UK Awards 2025
Congrats, Sir Bob!
By Nick Reilly
The ZYN Rolling Stone UK Awards 2025 are continuing apace and the Lifetime Achievement Award, supported by Defender, has gone to the legendary Sir Bob Geldof.
The Boomtown Rats singer, Live Aid founder and humanitarian icon accepted the award from Mika and said: “You understand of course that in rock and roll terms, this is a gold watch so fuck off now please! But thank you Cliff and Darren. It’s odd to be sitting down at the Roundhouse because the first time I played here was after the Ramones in 1977 and we’d just finished a tour of schools. We played to these bemused teenagers in Bay City Rollers outfits.
“Those years passed in a blip and here I am. Paul McCartney was asked about his life and he said: “It’s strange because I look at myerlf and I know it’s me and I sort of remember those things but I don’t remember them at a distance. I finished touring with the Boomtown Rats the day before yesterday and I know nothing I did was done without the vital necessity of playing music.
“Many of us come from relatively grim backgrounds and the only station we had to listen to was Radio Luxembourg. What these young guys and guys suggested were whole different universes. Change was desirable and inevitable and the platform of that change would be rock and roll and the rhetoric that came around it.”
He also described how the band was named after Woody Guthrie’s songs, while rock provided the “necessity for change”. Check back soon for Bob’s full speech.
He’s the second winner of the night, after Biffy Clyro were the first new name to join our illustrious list of winners by picking up The Live Act Award.
The third ever ZYN Rolling Stone UK Awards kicked off earlier tonight with a performance of ‘My Generation’ from Just For One Day: The Live Aid Musical star Fayth Ifil, before Myles Smith took to the stage to deliver a rendition of his song ‘Someone New’.
Check back here for all the winners and stories from the ZYN Rolling Stone UK Awards 2025 across the evening and in the coming days.