Sir Bob Geldof's 2006 on-stage insult towards Russell Brand at the NME Awards has resurfaced online, following Brand's recent conviction and sentencing for rape and sexual assault. The moment, captured on video, shows Geldof calling Brand a 'c**t' into the microphone.
At the time, Brand was at the height of his fame in 2006, presenting an award to Geldof for his work on Live 8. As the Boomtown Rats singer approached the stage, he briefly shook Brand's hand before delivering the insult, looking at Brand and nodding as he spoke. Brand appeared visibly uncomfortable.
Brand's Response and Reflection
After regaining his composure, Brand retorted: "Really, it's no surprise that he's such an expert on famine. He has been dining out on I Don't Like Mondays for 30 years."
Later that year, Brand admitted in an interview with the Guardian that he was hurt by the comment. "It's Bob Geldof! And he's achieved things beyond... well, instead of, music, which is really admirable," he said. "I've been told since by numerous people whose opinion I respect, Noel Gallagher for instance, and Carl Barat (of Dirty Pretty Things) that he misjudged the room, and it was just embarrassing and awkward. There was a part of me that needed that confirmation."
Conviction and Public Reaction
Twenty years later, the context has shifted dramatically. Brand is now a convicted rapist, sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison for one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault. The allegations first emerged in a joint 2023 investigation by Channel 4 Dispatches, The Times and The Sunday Times, in a documentary titled 'Russell Brand: In Plain Sight', which detailed accusations of rape, sexual assault, and emotionally abusive behaviour from five women.
Following the documentary's airing, Sharon Osbourne spoke out against Brand's treatment of both Sir Bob Geldof and Sir Rod Stewart. In the same year as the NME Awards incident, Brand had sparked fury with comments about Sir Rod Stewart's daughter at the GQ Man of the Year Awards, bragging about hooking up with Kimberley Stewart, who was around 27 at the time, in front of her father.
Speaking about Brand's interactions with Sir Rod and Sir Bob, Sharon said: "You just don't do that to people's families, when that father is in the room." She told Piers Morgan on TalkTV: "The only thing I can say about Russell Brand, is the two things I don't like, was when he spoke about… one of them is a very good friend of ours, Kimberley Stewart, about what he had done to Kimberley Stewart in front of her father [Rod Stewart]. And then he did the same with Sir Bob Geldof… He's done it twice now and that's the thing that sticks with me."
