SIR Bob Geldof says the rock and roll age is dead.

The Boomtown Rats star and Live Aid icon said: "The central problem is, for us, rock and roll was a social medium.

"That period has passed because now there are many alternative social mediums. Rock and roll needs a context in which to exist.

"It doesn't exist anymore. It's ceased to be culturally relevant.

"The rock and roll age is dead, in my view.

He added: "I'm amazed it died. No-one expected that, but I'm lucky I jumped in halfway through it.''

And Sir Bob, 61, is about to leap into the fray again.

He dropped into the Celtic Club in Melbourne yesterday to announce reunion shows with the Rats.

They have reformed after 28 years apart.

Sir Bob smiled: "When we started playing ... it was immediate, powerful, and I'd forgotten how good a band the Rats are, including myself, I have to say.

"But I'm not into nostalgia. If this doesn't work in here,'' he said, tapping on his heart, "I'm not doing it.

"I'm not doing pantomime. If I don't feel the words in the songs I'm not doing it.''

Sir Bob hopes songs like Rat Trap and Looking After No.1, written during economic despair 30 years ago, still resonate.

But he added: "I don't people expect to pore over the lyrics. What I'm more interested in is the suggestion of the song. "Beyond the surface of the lyrics is the push and pull of psychology scansion, rhythm, metre, and melody. "People confuse poetry with lyrics. I don't think Bob

Dylan's lyrics bear scrutiny as poetry. I don't think Leonard Cohen's poems make good songs.

Citing Little Richard's 1955 hit, Tutti Frutti, Sir Bob said: "The greatest rock and roll lyric of all time is: `A-wop-bom-a-loo-mop-a-lomp-bom-bom!'

"It's a scream of inarticulate rage from the 1950s _ I'm black, f--- you, I want in on the American Dream.''

But Sir Bob revealed he tried to sabotage his own dream when the Boomtown Rats scored their first show, at a Halloween party, in 1975.

Sir Bob wasn't performance fit.

He laughed: "I couldn't sing a note. I was just bollocking along into a bingo mic which we hung from the rafter and put through the bass amp. I was crap.''

When they were offered 30 quid to do the show, Sir Bob demanded double, hoping the organisers would scrap the Rats.

But they agreed.

"I was doomed,'' Sir Bob said. "I did my best to stop the whole thing.

"A hundred years later, I pitch up at the Irish Club in Melbourne!''

Boomtown Rats perform at Brisbane Entertainment Centre on May 20, Sydney Entertainment Centre on May 21, Hisense Arena, Melbourne on May 23, Adelaide Entertainment Centre on May 27, and Challenge Staidum, Perth, on May 28.