http://concerts.wolfgangsvault.com/Concerts.aspx?stype=artist&id=896
- Blind Date
- (I Never Loved) Eva Brown (sic)
- Neon Heart
- Me And Howard Hughes
- Like Clockwork
- Medley: Rat Trap / Kicks / Joey
- Living On An Island
- (She's Gonna) Do You In
- She's So Modern
- Lookin' After No. 1
- Mary Of The 4th Form
- Do The Rat
- I Don't Like Mondays
- Never Bite The Hand That Feeds
Bob Geldof - lead vocals
Pete Briquette - bass, vocals
Gerry Cott - guitar
Simon Crowe - drums, vocals
Johnnie fingers - keyboards
Garry Roberts - guitar, vocals
“Space” Jenner - sax
from the Wolfgang's Vaults
Despite hitting the top of the charts several times in their native UK, the Boomtown Rats never really caught on in America. Their label, Columbia Records, had hyped them as the next big punk band saying they would be in the same league as the Clash and the Pretenders. It didn’t happen. This was mostly because they never had the material to win over radio programmers, despite having a hit with “I Don’t Like Mondays.” Also an early promotion by the label involved sending actual dead rats in plastic bags (purchased from the New York City Sewer Department) to DJs across the country. The publicity stunt backfired and caused the media to react with such disgust that many of these radio personalities, programmers and journalists wrote off the band forever.Led by the charismatic lead vocalist, Bob Geldof, the group certainly had a great showman as their front man on stage. The band, assisted by former Graham Parker reed man, Space Jenner, was certainly comprised of strong musicians. Their two studio albums produced by the future Mr. Shaina Twain, Robert John Mutt Lange (who also produced some of the best records ever made by Foreigner, Huey Lewis, and AC/DC) should have propelled them into stardom, but didn’t.So, why didn’t they take off? Who knows, but some rock historians feel the material simply wasn’t strong enough to cross over from the UK to American play lists.
Some comments from the Wolfgang's Vaults forum
There is a real gem in the Boomtown Rats San Diego concert that was just added: Their piano-and- vocal-only rendition of "I Don't Like Mondays," which was inspired by the tragic school shooting that occurred in San Diego just a month before the show. Here's hoping you can find a Boomtown Rats concert from their subsequent U.S. tour (there was a great one at Santa Monica Civic in 1981 or 82) that includes the finished version of that song along with other songs from their "Fine Art of Surfacing" album. The Rats may not have made it big in the U.S., but those few of us who saw their shows and bought their records knew we were onto something that a lot of other people would regret missing if only they had discovered it.
I was reading the information regarding the Rats on the Concerts page and was surprised at the poor quality of the information. 1. The Boomtown Rats are not a UK band, They come from Ireland, Yes it is a small place, however as most peple know it is not the UK. 2. The problems with the US DJ's did not really have anything to do with their marketing plan or their lack of quality songs, but had more to do with the US DJ's not wanting to play anything that was vaguely controversial.(for more evidence I dont believe that the Pistols were a huge hit either). 3. Rat trap and I dont like mondays are 2 songs that will be around long after many of the US hits from the same era(Air Supply etc)are well and truly consigned to who cares basket?
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