Bob Geldof's unbearable grief for Peaches

I’LL BE AT THE TRAFFIC LIGHTS & SOB! After a life of loss and heartbreak, the rocker admits time doesn’t heal

- ADRIAN DEEVOY

Bob Geldof is close to tears. He’s speaking about his daughter Peaches, who died from a drug overdose in 2014, aged 25, and is overwhelmed by emotion. “She was lovely,” says Bob, before taking a moment to compose himself.

“But she was always a frantic child as a little baby. She couldn’t sleep. And that continued all through her infancy.

“She did weird little things as a kid, she had these cute habits. She’d go around collecting twigs. She sucked a dummy until she was 10 or 11. She’d go around truffling on her dummy and topping up her twig collection.

“She was such a clever, sweet, eccentric girl,” her father reflects. “There was always that franticness, that constant panic in the eyes. You know the Leonard Cohen song, ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’? ‘Thanks for the trouble you took from her eyes, I thought it was there for good, so I never tried.’

“Well, I did try. Of course, I did,” he says sadly.

A happier thought occurs to Bob. “She had her own language, a dog language,” he tells, describing Peaches as a child regularly greeting guests with a series of affectionate growls.

In later years, was he aware she was in trouble? “If you’re talking about drugs trouble, I knew she was doing drugs,” he replies honestly. “I wasn’t specifically aware. I knew she’d always dabbled and that the panic was always there.

“By 2013, we’d been through it. The family had gone to Utah to a rehab place. She was doing pretty well and we all flew out, because you have to.

“Then she ran away from there. I tried to stop her at the door but there’s nothing you can do.” His voice wavers. “She was free to leave.”