BOB GELDOF DROPPED BY COLUMBIA

Is it time for Boomtown Rats-Aid?

BOb Geldof, whose Live Aid pop campaign raised more than $60 million for famine victims in Ethiopia, has been dropped by his U.S. record company, the singer’s attorney, Ina Meibach, confirmed Wednesday.

Meibach said by phone from New York that Columbia Records failed to exercise its option on Geldof’s band, the Boomtown Rats. But she doesn’t expect the group, which still records for Phonogram in Europe, to be without a U.S. label long.

“This isn’t a case of Geldof feeling dejected,” Meibach said. “Several other companies have shown interest in the group and a new deal should be completed by Jan. 1. . . . (Bob’s) excited about the interest (of other labels) and is looking at the whole thing as the beginning of a new chapter in his life.”

Still, the surprise move makes Columbia look like the Scrooge of the record business in view of Geldof’s remarks in recent interviews about how his Live Aid activities have been a drain on his finances.

Ironically, Geldof received a Special Achievement Award of $20,000 Tuesday night in New York in the fourth annual World Hunger Media Awards program sponsored by pop singer Kenny Rogers and his wife, Marianne. (See story on Page 10.)

Columbia representatives refused comment beyond acknowledging that the group is no longer on the roster. But the decision was believed to be based on the band’s lack of sales in this country for its five LPs since 1979. The Rats’ latest album, “In the Long Grass,” reportedly sold fewer than 75,000 copies--far below an acceptable level for a veteran group on a major label.

Yet industry observers were surprised by the Columbia action. “It’s a terrible move from a public-relations sense,” said a Los Angeles record company vice president, who asked not to be identified. “How much could they be losing on the band?

“If they were on our label and some accountant said we should drop them, I would go to the wall and say, ‘Keep them.’ I don’t care what their sales were. It just seems like bad vibes. I’m sure you’ll see them picked up immediately by another company which will put a big push behind them.”

Another local executive expressed some sympathy with the Columbia decision. “As a humanitarian, Geldof is unparalleled, but as a rock band, they didn’t cut it--and, after all, we are in a business.” he said. But he also doubted that his company would have dropped the Rats at this time. “Certain people are good to have just for your label’s image.”

Meibach said Columbia did make the group an offer after letting the option period pass, but that it wasn’t deemed “sufficient” when measured against the interest being shown by other labels. The contract she is now putting together calls for both solo Geldof albums and group LPs.

In a cover story in the Dec. 5 issue of Rolling Stone magazine, Geldof spoke about the Rats’ problems with building an audience in this country. “We had done very well, thank you, around the rest of the world, and in my youthful arrogance I assumed America would fall,” he said. “But I was stupid!”

Geldof also made it clear that cooperating with the pop music businessmen isn’t high on his list of priorities. “The inanities of rock music . . . irritate me,” he says. “The political posturing, the radio programming, the vanity of critics and so on.

“I enjoy pop music . . . But when I came to America and came to a system that forced me to bend down a little . . . to get radio play, I could not abide that. It’s a red rag to a bull to tell me someone is really important to my career. I would sooner go wreck that career than be dependent.”

The most dramatic events in the yearlong famine campaign, which led to suggestions in Europe that Geldof be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, were the joint London and Philadelphia rock concerts July 13. The shows, featuring such pop-rock stars as Paul McCartney, David Bowie and Mick Jagger, were seen by a worldwide television audience estimated at more than 1.5 billion.