Used to be in a band called The Boomtown Rats and be famous for not owning a hairbrush until he decided his talents were better spent fundraising for the starving Ethiopians and generally making sure the world and its leaders knew his very important thoughts about everything. He married Paula Yates, had three improbably-named daughters, then she left him for Michael Hutchence. A horrible custody battle ensued, the whole circus turning tragic when Michael then Paula both died of drugs-related misadventures. At an NME Awards ceremony once, Bob Geldof called Russell Brand a very rude word, to which Russell responded that he wasn’t surprised Geldof did so much work for the starving cos he’d been dining out on I Don’t Like Mondays for 30 years.