Bob Geldof's African Journey

By organizing 1985's Live Aid and last year's Live 8 concerts, Bob Geldof has drawn worldwide attention to the poverty that haunts Africa and its citizens -- and generated more than $200 million for the fight. For his new BBC documentary, Geldof in Africa (out now on DVD), the musician-activist traveled through Somalia, Mali, Ghana, Ethiopia, Uganda and the Congo.

"I went to Africa for four months," says Geldof, who focused on trying to understand the experiences of ordinary Africans. "Within this immense continent are more peoples, more languages, more cultures, more animals than anywhere else in the world. It is quite simply the most extraordinary, beautiful and luminous place on the planet."

Geldof, who has actively devoted much of the past twenty-five years to shining a light on the crises in Africa, says he's always made a conscious effort not to conflate his music with his politics. A new, four-disc box set of solo material, Great Songs of Indifference: The Anthology 1986-2001, is now available. The set includes: 1986's Deep in the Heart of Nowhere, 1990's The Vegetarians of Love, 1993's The Happy Club and 2001's Sex, Age and Death.

In the months to come, the former Boomtown Rats frontman is hoping to get back on the road. "My music is the only thing I think I'm good at," he says. "What I want to do is fuckin' go out gigging and make another record."