A lavishly packaged 4cd set contains singles and Peel session recordings by some of John’s favourite artists including The Boomtown Rats, he was a fan in the early days, but I think he changed his mind about the Rats as time went on....
"We keep getting sessions planned with them, new sessions for us which, for one reason or another, they don't seem to be able to do. Perhaps we've got one lined up for early in the new year, perhaps they'll do one. It would be very nice if they did anyway because, although they're famous and so on, it would still be nice to get a session out of them."
Anyway, they did a couple and Looking After No. 1 does feature on disc 1 of Kats Karavan. If you don't have the Crazy single, here's your chance to grab it. (Available for single download at Amazon) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kats-Karavan-History-John-Radio/dp/B002N1BNXC
Friday 30th April 2010, Pokey Hole, Netherseal near Derby.With special guest John Williamson (from Animals and Friends) and Mike Bowdens http://www.thepokeyhole.com
Saturday 12th June 2010, The Regent Centre, Christchurch. With special guest China Crisis http://www.regentcentre.co.uk
July 2010
Sunday 18th Dordrecht- Big River Festival Holland.
August 2010
Sunday 1st New Quay Festival. South Wales, Featuring Dave Sharpe The Alarm
Saturday 14th Reepham 10 Summer Festival.Norfolk
Saturday 28th Upton Town Festival. with special guests The Blockheads and Ex Simple Minds.
Sunday 29th Mathew Street Festival Liverpool. 12.00 on stage
September 2010
Saturday 11th Kamenz, Hutbergbuhne, Germany
November 2010
Saturday 13th Essen Grugahalle, Germany
Wednesday 24th The Pavillion, Rhyll, as special guests to The Blockheads.
Thursday 25th Walkabout Barnsley
Friday 26th The Paladium Club, Bideford.
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January 2011
Friday 21st Tivoli Theatre,Wimborne. as special guests to The Blockheads.
May 2011 Friday 27th Halle, Peiznitzinsel, Germany
Wednesday 2nd December 2009 Cleethorps Beachcomber with local support Thursday 3rd December 2009 Homfirth Picture Dome with local support Friday 4th December 2009 DNE Club Wakefield with special guests China Crisis Saturday 5th December 2009 The Mick Jagger Centre, Dartford. with special guests Eddie and the Hot Rods Sunday 6th December 2009 Whithaven Civic Hall, with special guest, Dave Sharp from The Alarm Wednesday 9th December 2009 Key Street, Clitheroe. with special guest, Dave Sharp from The Alarm Tuesday 8th Thursday 10th December 2009 The New Tavern, Wigan, with special guest, Dave Sharp from The Alarm Thursday 10th December 2009 Rock City, Nottingham. with special guests China Crisis Friday 11th December 2009 Victoria Hotel, Largs Saturday 12th December 2009 The Roadhouse Birmingham, with special guest, Dave Sharp from The Alarm Sunday 13th December 2009 Ropetackle Centre. Shoreham with special guest, Dave Sharp from The Alarm Wednesday 16th December 2009 Norwich Waterfront as special guests of The Blockheads also featuring Dave Sharp from The Alarm Thursday 17th December 2009 Electric Ballroom, London as special guests of The Blockheads and Eddie and The Hot Rods Friday 18th December 2009 TJ's Newport with local support Saturday 19th December 2009 The Lights. Andover with special guest, Dave Sharp from The Alarm Saturday 19th December 2009 Pigs Nose Inn, East Prawl. Devon with local support Sunday 20th December 2009 Mr Kyps. Poole, with special guest, Dave Sharp from The Alarm Monday 21st December 2009 The Tunnels, Bristol as special guests of The Blockheads also featuring Dave Sharp from The Alarm Tuesday 22nd December 2009 Oran Mor, Glasgow. Scotland. With Special Guests Eddie and The Hot Rods Wednesday 23rd December 2009 Move Music Venue, Galashiels. Scotland. With Special Guests Eddie and The Hot Rods Sham 69
Summer Tour 2008
Saturday 26th July2008- Pigs Nose Inn, East Prawl, Devon Monday 4th August 2008 - Key Street Music Bar, Clitheroe Wednesday 6th August 2008- The Robin, Bilston, Wolverhampton, WV14 7LJ Thursday 7th August 2008 (+ THE VIBRATORS) 100 Club, 100 Oxford Street, London W1 Friday 8th August 2008-Rebellion Festival, Empress Ballroom, The Winter Gardens, Church Street, Blackpool. On stage 10.20pm Saturday 9th August 2008-The M Club, Crewe. POSTPONED to Friday 23rd January Saturday 15th November 2008 Charter Hall, Market Street, Okehampton. with special guest Andy Watts from The Seahorses Wednesday 17th December 2008 Swansea Sin City with Eddie and The Hot Rods RESCHEDULED to 3rd February 2008
January 2009
Thursday 15th Key Street, Clitheroe TBC Friday 16th The Cluney Newcastle with special guest Andy Watts from The Seahorses Saturday 17th Theatre Royal Wakefield with special guest Blackheart Andy Watts from The Seahorses Wednesday 21st Leeds Irish Centrewith special guest Andy Watts from The Seahorses Thursday 22nd Corn Exchange, Bedford. with special guest Andy Watts from The Seahorses Friday 23rd M Club Crewe with special guest Andy Watts from The Seahorses Saturday 24th Corn Exchange, Newbury. with special guest Andy Watts from The Seahorses Sunday 25th Rock n Blues Festival, Skegness with Eddie and The Hot Rods, Dr Feelgood, Wilko Johnson,The Hamsters etc
Strictly speaking the year of the Rat ended on 25th January 2009
Monday 26th Exmouth Pavillion with special guest Andy Watts from The Seahorses Tuesday 27th The Musician, Leicester with special guest Andy Watts from The Seahorses Wednesday 28th The Arts Complex, Solihull with special guest Andy Watts from The Seahorses. Thursday 29th The Playhouse Alnwick with special guest Andy Watts from The Seahorses Friday 30th The Buccleuch Centre, Langholm, with special guest Andy Watts from The Seahorses Saturday 31st The Platform Morcambe with special guest Andy Watts from The Seahorses
February 2009
Sunday 1st Martletts Hall, Burgess Hill. with special guest Dave Sharp from The Alarm Tuesday 3rd Swansea Sin City with Eddie and The Hot Rods Wednesday 4th Huntingdon Hall Worcester with special guest Dave Sharp from The Alarm Thursday 5th The Castle Wellinborough with special guest Dave Sharp from The Alarm Tuesday 10th Baby Blue Club, The Albert Dock, Liverpool with special guest Dave Sharp from The Alarm Thursday 12th Ashcroft Theatre, Croydon with special guest Dave Sharp from The Alarm. Friday 13th The Brook Southampton with special guest Dave Sharp from The Alarm Saturday 14th The Playhouse, Harlow with special guest Dave Sharp from The Alarm Sunday 15th The Robin Bilston with special guest Dave Sharp from The Alarm
Friday 17th April 2009 SPIRIT OF 77 FESTIVAL West Coast Bar, King Street, Margate. £13.50 http://www.westcoastlive.co.uk/ Saturday 18th April 2009 Hailsham Pavilion with support Thursday 23rdApril 2009 Rothes Hall, Glenrothes. Fife. Scotland with support tba Friday 24thApril 2009 Motor Cycle News (MCN) Festival. Skegness Saturday 25thApril 2009 Didcot Arts Centre Monday 25th May 2009 Darwen Town Festival (Free Festival) Saturday 13th June 2009 South Shields Ampitheatre (Free Festival)
Wednesday 30th September 2009 Monte Carlo, Monaco Le Moods with special guests The Damned From The Jam Thursday 1st October 2009 Paris with special guests The Damned From The Jam
I just read about a demo tape from the Rats pre-record contract. Interesting that the only songs to ever make it to record were Neon Heart and Born to Burn. Menage A Trois did get an airing on BBC Radio 1 back in 1979, but there are few unknown Rats songs. It is also possible that these tracks changed names and are familiar. However, I don't have any idea on that.
I guess no one has this. Do they? You know it's Christmas soon? Should you have it or a copy, let me know. But don't expect me to pay for it, I've given out plenty of rare MP3s/videos so I'm due some payback!
You can get a flavour of the tape from the originals. Use Spotify to construct a playlist, unless you happen to have all the tracks. I bought Burnin' by the Wailers yesterday, so bar a couple of tracks I have most of them somewhere.
There are 22 tracks on the tape with seven Rats originals. Dave Moloney (of Vipers fame) plays drums on the first 10 tracks, Simon Crowe on the rest.
In general, I have gone for the version The Rats are most likely to have copied rather than the true original.
And he can see no reasons 'Cos there are no reasons What reason do you need to be shown?
Tell me why I don’t like Mondays I wanna shoot the whole day down
I Don't Like Mondays is the most famous Rats song vying with Do They Know It's Christmas? as Geldof's most well known composition. The story behind the song is pretty well known. On the morning of Monday 29th January 1979 in San Diego, a 16-year-old schoolgirl, Brenda Spencer, took the .22 calibre gun her father had given her as a Christmas present and aimed it at the school playground directly opposite her family home. She killed two men and injured eight children.
Her explanation for doing this was "I don't like Mondays, it livens up the day."
The silicon chip inside her head Gets switched to overload And nobody’s gonna go to school today She’s gonna make them stay at home And daddy doesn’t understand it He always said she was good as gold
Geldof claims he was doing an interview in Atlanta with Johnnie Fingers when the news story came through on the telex and started writing the song the same day. However when Mondays was performed for the first time in San Diego itself on 27th February 1979, he claimed to have read about the incident in the newspapers and saw it on the televison in London. The first rendition
To quote Geldof from the San Diego concerts....
San Diego 27th Feb 1979 - ."..about a month ago we read in the paper in England about Debbie Spencer...."
San Diego 28th Feb 1979 - "...what happened was we were watching the box in London and next minute san diego came on the tv screen and there was a picture of this girl I think Brenda Spencer....."
http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/boomtown-rats/
This is a more likely, if less interesting, explanation, especially as Geldof was probably not in the US at the time. Geldof and Fingers did tour the US in January 1979 and visited a number of radio stations but at the time of the incident it is likely they had returned to London.
The alternative account from Is That is? is littered with inconsistencies such as the incident happening four months previous rather than just one month. This is Paul Vallely, his ghost writer, using his creative licence.
The Telex machine is kept so clean And it types to a waiting world
The most famous rendition of the song was at Live Aid in 1985 when Geldof paused to dramatic effect on the snippet -
And the lesson today is how to die
Which was an apt statement for the day, albeit in the context of a song about a spree killer. Interestingly, this was the first school shooting of its kind, a phenomenon that culminated in the infamous Columbine tragedy.
The song entered the UK charts at number 15 and reached number one the following week and stayed there for four weeks. It didn't fare so well in the United States thanks to the song being more or less banned from the radio, and peaked at number 73.
It also represented the commercial peak of The Boomtown Rats, A Tonic for the Troops re-entered the UK album charts on the back of the success of I Don't Like Mondays. For a short period they were arguably the biggest band in the British Isles.
Cover of "Chicago/Change the world" by Crosby Stills and Nash sung by David Gimour, Chrissie Hynde and Bob Geldof in support of "Pentagon Hacker" Gary Mckinnon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Mckinnon
Dave McHale, 58, died in late May 2009 in Frankfurt after losing his battle with cancer.
Dave played on Mondo Bongo and V Deep and toured with the band in the early eighties. He was thought of as the unofficial seventh member of The Boomtown Rats. Dave played keyboards and saxophone and was a session musician of some repute.
The Midsummer’s Gig for Dave aimed to raise funds to erect a bench in his home town of Monkstown, County Dublin in his memory.
Garrick Roberts, Pete Briquette and Bob Geldof took part in a one-off musical tribute at Blackrock Rugby Club and sung Dave, from the In The Long Grass LP, the song that he wrote about his friend's plight .
Geldof was inspired to write 'Dave' after McHale's girlfriend died suddenly. "We had dropped Dave off in London after a tour," he explained. "He had a row with his girlfriend and she took off. Then he found her dead from a five-pound bag of heroin. I wrote this song the next day."
Geldof certainly seems to like it out there. His annual St. Patrick's date at the Dubai Irish Village takes place on Friday March 13th. Tickets available from www.itp.net/tickets
Entry Charges: Dhs100 Opening hours: Door open 7pm show stars 9pm
This is a great streaming service along with www.we7.com that will allow you to listen to a vast back catalogue of music including ALL the Boomtown Rats albums, among many others. Pretty much everything from Bob Dylan to Pulp (well except The Beatles). There are some advertisements but other than that it's all FREE!!!
Starting today people in the UK will no longer need an invitation to join Spotify, you can register for the free streaming service directly from the website.
Toni Weekes presents... Original Boomtown Rats Garry Roberts and Simon Crowe with Peter Barton and Darren Beale present The Rats In Concert Sat 14th February 2009 - 7.30pm Main Auditorium Featuring Special Guest Dave Sharp from The Alarm.
