Bob Geldof couldn’t help but tease Sting over his ‘tantric sex sessions’ as he presented his friend with the Ivors Academy Fellowship on Thursday.
The Boomtown Rats singer, 71, stepped on stage at this year’s Ivor Novello Awards with Amazon Music – which was held at the Grosvenor House hotel in London – to present Sting, 71, with the accolade.
Taking the opportunity to gently mock his life-long friend, Geldof brought up the former Police frontman’s 1990 confession that he and wife Trudie Styler, 69, engaged in marathon seven-hour bedroom sessions.
Joking with his pal, Bob insisted the act was ‘pointless’ and that the couple would be better off ‘getting it over with.’
Addressing the guests, Bob said: ‘He has been internationally acclaimed for 40 years with questions about tantric sex. Which, let me explain it in a nutshell, involves thinking about cricket scores for f*****g hours whilst you’re on the job. Why? What’s the point? Get it over with, it only has one end.’
He then went on to explain how he was behind Sting being questioned about tantric in the first place, as the husband and wife could be seen laughing at their table.
‘That exact same question I innocently put to him during a joint Sting and Bob Q magazine interview many years ago which sent the tantric hares running.
‘I pointed out that I was a solid Irish three-minute man myself, and Geordie b*****d over there starts cracking on about holding it in, discipline yourself. Really? Why? Surely three minutes of skillful, considerate, gentle, Irish lovemaking beats hours of Geordie grunting and heaving.’
He ended the embarrassing anecdote by saying why he decided to tell it, saying ‘I bring this up again merely to illustrate the grim determination of a Geordie on the run. To keep running from that past you keep needing to leave behind forever and endlessly.’
But in his hilarious and lengthy induction speech, Geldof also paid tribute to Sting’s musical talents, and ‘celebrate’ their ‘lifetime of friendship.’
The Band Aid founder continued: ‘Look, he’s really, really, really good. I will give him awards every day of the week. I so admire and envy, but not jealous of, no it’s a different thing.’
Bob went on to dub his friend the ‘greatest songwriter of [his generation], stressing the importance of that statement by saying ‘ladies and gentlemen that really is saying something.’
He ended his speech with a touching reflection on friendship, saying: ‘We both like similar poets, I love WB Yeats, Sting loves WB Yeats.
‘Yeats in Ireland around 1920 visited the Municipal Gallery, which he in fact helped set up, and he looked around at all the portraits of his friends.
‘The revolutionaries, the rebels, the playwrights, the poets, the businessmen, the theatre people all around him and he was looking and he was about our age and he was musing upon the idea of friendship and while he’s getting the Ivor Novello Fellowship, which is wonderful.
‘What I’ve come to celebrate is a lifetime of friendship. And Yeats wrote with regards to that “Think where man’s glory most begins and ends, And say my glory was I had such friends.”‘
Among the other winners at the awards were Charli XCX, who went home with the Visionary Award, Rising Star Award recipient Victoria Canal and indie band James who were presented with the PRS for Music Icon Award.
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