February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Bono will receive the organization’s Humanitarian Award in recognition of his Drop the Debt campaign and his work to highlight the AIDS epidemic in Africa. He will split the $100,000 prize between Irish aid organizations Concern Worldwide and GOAL.
There’s no cash attached to the Lifetime Achievement Award, but the musical validation alone must be very satisfying for Geldof. After his early success with the Boomtown Rats, the singer’s career was overshadowed by his Band Aid and Live Aid efforts. Despite releasing some terrific solo work in the ’90s, including the brilliant album “The Vegetarians of Love,” the public was reluctant to view him as anything other than Saint Bob of Live Aid or Mean Bob of the Paula Yates/Michael Hutchence chronicles, so the albums remained on the store shelves.
After a five-year layoff, Geldof bounced back with his most personal work to date, the wrenching “Sex, Love and Death.” The album was a critical, and moderately commercial, success. Geldof, who will also be honored for his long tradition of humanitarian work, will perform at the Meteor Awards with his current band. Although we’d be surprised if a few of his rodent buddies didn’t make the scene as well . . .
While we’re on the subject of awards, we hear that Bono will get another one this week. The singer, who’ll be in NYC to attend the Grammys, is the honoree at Friday night’s Musicares Person of the Year dinner at the Marriott Marquis.