Bob Geldof Letter
The first ever TV Broadcast of Starsuckers was on the 6th April 2010 on More4. 2 weeks beforehand, we wrote to Bob Geldof and Max Clifford for a formal response to the allegations we make about them in the film. We gave them one week to respond, in order for us to formulate fair right to reply statements to put at the end of the broadcast. Max Clifford, quite sensibly, completely ignored us this time around – probably having learned that by over reacting he would just hand us more publicity (when the film was released in the cinema he threatened to injunct the film using law firm Carter Ruck)
Bob Geldof was not so coy. The deadline for his response came and went and we were contacted by various members of Geldof's team on an almost hourly basis telling us that their master was working on a detailed response. Then, on the working day before broadcast, Chris Atkins the director received 58 pages of angry from Sir Bob. Among this was an 11 page letter to Chris personally, ordering him to recut the film, as well as a slew of insults, threats and an extensive cv of Bob's career to date. Despite this being marked "not for publication", it’s contents were a rebuttal of the allegations in the film to be used to write a public write to reply for the broadcast. Also given the unelected political power that Geldof wields, it's contents are blatantly in the public interest. The Guardian somehow got hold of the letter, and splashed some of it's contents on page three on the 3rd April 2010. It was swiftly followed by a very strong response from John Hilary from War on Want, rejecting Geldof's argument that anti poverty campaigners were just "wankers dressed as clowns" who "marched round in circles". and the debate continued in the news for the following week with pieces in The Scotsman, Forbes, PR Week and Index on censorship. Since then we've had several requests to see the whole letter, so we thought it easiest if we put the whole thing up online.
It is really worth reading the whole thing, not least for the sheer comedy value of an unfettered Geldof rant on paper. And if nothing else it should serve as a reminder that there are some emails that you really should just keep in your drafts instead of pressing "send". Enjoy.
Starsuckers Geldof Letter (PDF 62Kb)
Bob Geldof cover note (PDF 10Kb)
Letter from Bob Geldof (PDF 61Kb)
