SEX, Age & Death is Bob Geldof's latest album which has been a lifetime and five years in the making.

There aren't many things the former Boomtown Rat has not achieved during a spectacular career that has seen him raise tens of millions of pounds for famine-ravaged countries, galvanised countries into action against war and poverty as well as conduct an often painfully public affair with the tragic Paula Yates.

He is pop star, poet, politician, the establishment's natural irritant and ubiquitous celebrity.

This is a rare chance to see a musician whose busy lifestyle in trying to maintain the many irons in his multitude of fires prevents him from performing as often as he would like.

"Sex, Age & Death are always in my head," said Bob Geldof. "Music is what I do. I'm sure that millions of people will be surprised by that. "In fact, certain generations will probably be shocked that I make music at all, but music is central to who I am. I physically need to do it."

Sir Bob Geldof admits that if his life story - punk rock, The Boomtown Rats, Paula Yates, Michael Hutchence, I Don't Like Mondays, Africa, Do They Know It's Christmas?, Live Aid, squaring up to Thatcher, befriending Mother Teresa, the knighthood, Is That It?, the dot.com millions - had been written as a film it would have been rejected by editors as unbelievable.

Pacing the floor of his Battersea apartment in London where the majority of Sex, Age & Death was written, Sir Bob ponders why he carries on.

"Plenty of guys join bands but they don't have Number One records. Plenty of guys do a charity gig but the whole world doesn't watch it and then they don't get knighted and put up for the Nobel Peace Prize.

"I can only ever write about that which happens to me or my response to situations and this is the latest instalment of my diary."

But he refuses to discuss Michael Hutchence: "I don't discuss these things because I literally can't.

"I can't show you my soul. Some things are unsayable. But maybe you try to articulate the unspeakable in music."

Sir Bob plays at The Beaufort Theatre, Ebbw Vale on Friday, April 19. Box Office Tel 01495 302112.