Rats sue Geldof

Bob Geldof is to face a legal challenge from four former members of the Boomtown Rats who claim he owes them unpaid royalties.

The dispute came to light in a statement issued by Gerry Cott, who quit the band in 1981, John Moylett, the pyjama-clad pianist who performed under the name Johnny Fingers, Simon Crowe, and Garrick Roberts.

"We jointly confirm that with the utmost regret we are pressing ahead with our claims against Bob Geldof and others for our rightful entitlement to a proper share of recording, publishing and merchandising income," the statement said.

''We have retained the London solicitor Angel and Co to act on our behalf and anticipate that proceedings will have to be issued shortly. We have no further comment at this stage."

The four musicians have listed their grievances in letters to the Performing Right Society (PRS), which collects licence fees for the public performance and broadcast of music, and the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS), which collects and distributes royalties.

They have also asked for financial information from Universal Music, who released re-mastered versions of the Boomtown Rats' six albums in February.

Geldof is credited as the sole writer on many of the songs. However, the other band members claim that their input into the records has not been recognised. They also claim it was agreed that all band members should benefit from record sales. Under this arrangement, the principal writer (or writers) receive half the proceeds from individual songs while the remaining 50 per cent is shared amongst the rest.

Rats are 26th in People's Choice Top 100 Irish albums...

What an injustice!

http://www.hotpress.com/top100albums/

The Boomtown Rats
Tonic For the Troops
(26/100 The People's Choice)
(Mulligan)

E O'Connor, hotpress.com:

"My older brother got A Tonic For The Troops free with a hotpress subscription back in 1978 and we just played it like crazy. This was the sound of Ireland and the world as we knew it in ‘78. I still play it today – the songs are great and it brings back memories of a simpler time. Walk, don’t walk, Talk, don’t talk!"

Ja Walsh, hotpress.com:

"When you’re young, innocent and naive, you have to look to your elders to see what’s really going on, and in 1978, A Tonic For The Troops was it. For a wet-behind-the-ears pre-teen (even before the term existed!) these songs were all classics. Every word was learnt off and every copybook was adorned with a picture to represent each song. But best of all was that, in singing these songs, you could say things that you would never get away with in normal conversation. God bless Sir Bob and the Rats for this gem. For a record of its time, it's now timeless."

Live At Hammersmith Odeon, 1978 DVD

Though this has been released in a variety of guises on VHS down the years (mono/stereo with a variety of covers and titles) now it is finally released on DVD. It differs from the original VHS video, in the visual mixing, but the original concert is pretty much intact, and that's what matters.

The one thing that strikes you is how good the Rats were live at that time. In many cases, the live versions are better than the studio versions. She's Gonna Do You In and Kicks are just stupendous live.

Essentially this concert is Tonic for the Troops live. It's a shame the Surfacing tour was never recorded for posterity.

Reminise on Pete Briquette's Wilco Johnson impressions, and how cool Gerry Cott was. Fag hanging out the side of his mouth while he reels off a fantastic guitar solo. And as for Geldof's red trousers. Was that a sock in his pocket or was he just pleased to see the cameras? His flies even burst open at one point; there wasn't much room in there.

A rare chance to see the Boomtown Rats at what was more or less their peak. Cherish it!

Tracklist:

1. Blind Date
2. I Never Loved Eva Braun
3. Me And Howard Hughes
4. She's Gonna Do You In
5. Rat Trap
6. Kicks
7. Joey's On The Street Again
8. She's So Modern
9. Don't Believe What You Read
10. Like Clockwork
11. Do The Rat
12. Looking After No.1

'Neon Heart' - bonus audio track
'Living On An Island' - bonus audio track
'Mary Of The Fourth Form' - bonus audio track
Promo videos for Pale White Girls and One For Me from Bob Geldof's solo album Sex, Age And Death

Rats Albums in the US/UK Charts

Today saw the re-entry of the Best of in the UK charts at number 46. None of the re-releases made the official top 200, despite all making a good showing on the Amazon Hot 100. Though of course they all did chart on their original release.

UK ALBUMS

BOOMTOWN RATS

• Date: 17/09/1977
• Run: 53-31-*18*-23-23-19-27-41-46-49-58 (11 wks)

TONIC FOR THE TROOPS

• Date: 08/07/1978 -
• Run: 21- *8*-10-8-12-16-17-24-24-30-34-38-42-0-40-43-24-16-13-14-12- 9-10-12-13-13- 11-17-13-22-21-33-44-37-41-59-68-0-71
• (37 weeks)
• Re-entry: 18/08/1979
• Run: 70-57-47-54-56-70-0-70 (7 wks)
• Total # of weeks: 44 (Top 10: 5, Top 20: 18 Top 40: 30)

THE FINE ART OF SURFACING

• Date: 03/11/1979
• Run: *7*-9-14-22-28-27-28-32-32-35-30-28-35-34-28-22-26-24-30-38-50-70-62-66-68-66
• (26 wks)

MONDO BONGO

• Date: 24/01/1981 -
• Run: 9-11- *6*-11-31-58-74 (7/2-1c wks) US:#116/8

V DEEP

• Date: 03/04/1982 -
• Run: 65-66-70-*63*-95 (5 wks)

LOUDMOUTH - THE BEST OF

• Date: 09/07/1994 -
• Run: *10*-21-42 (3/1 wks)

BEST OF

• Date: 08-05-2004
• Run *44*-59
• (2 wks)
• Re-entry: 19-02-2005
• Run 46
• (1 wk)

US ALBUMS

TONIC FOR THE TROOPS

• Date: 03/03/1979 -
• Run: 128-118-116-120-116-115-113-*112*-122-129-135-155-156
• (13 wks)

THE FINE ART OF SURFACING

• Date: 01/12/1979 -
• Run: 132-124-113-113-113-108-130-126-124-130-110-*103*-103-104-162-177
• (16 wks)

MONDO BONGO

• Date: 21/02/1981
• Run: 168-152-137-126-*116*-116-141-181
• (8 wks)

IN THE LONG GRASS

• Date: 25/05/1985 -
• Run: 194-189-189-*188*
• (4 wks)

Geldof on Parkinson - ITV

Great Interview! Full transcript here.... http://www.bobgeldof.info/Articles/parkinson.html

Rat Trap was very good! Far better than Brits. More rock 'n' roll (no orchestra).
Diamond smiles was abridged (the Barbara Cartland & the low voltage noise verses were not there, but seemed a better song without the over fussy keyboards and a shortened wind up.

But how can a man with four daughters get away with hair like that? I only have a mum, sisters, a wife and a 7-month old daughter and they won't accept me having the odd grey hair! (to be fair, my daughter just wants to pull all my hair out!)

On Film 1976-1986 - Someone's Looking At You DVD

1. Looking After No.1
2. She's So Modern
3. Like Clockwork
4. Rat Trap
5. I Don't Like Mondays
6. Diamond Smiles
7. Someone's Looking At You
8. Banana Republic
9. The Elephant's Garveyard
10. Never In A Million Years
11. House On Fire
12. Dave
13. Tonight
14. Drag Me Down
15. A Hold Of Me



One Night Like This - Live from the Hammersmith Apollo:


1. Intro
2. The Elephant's Graveyard
3. Charmed Lives
4. Lucky
5. Neon Heart
6. Someone's Looking At You
7. Dave
8. A Hold Of Me
9. I Don't Like Mondays
10. Talk In Code
11. Rat Trap
12. Drag Me Down
13. Looking After No.1
14. Credits

The Music Machine - 1977
Looking After No.1 - 1977
Mary Of The 4th Form - TOTP 1977
News Flash - 1980
Arnold Layne - 6.55 Special 1982
Do They Know Its Xmas - The Tube 1985
Keep It Up - Live
Like Clockwork - Live
Joey's On The Street Again - Self Aid 1986

Dwnload-only Single - Rat Trap: Live At The Dominion Theatre 1985

The Boomtown Rats embrace the digital age with their debut download-only single.

Available at all good download stores near you!

iTunes and http://www.hmvdigital.com/

Fingers Speaks!

http://www.metro.co.uk/metro/interviews/interview.html?in_page_id=8&in _interview_id=1016



Johnny Fingers

by James Ellis, February 7th, 2005

Famous for wearing his pyjamas on stage, Johnnie Fingers was keyboard player in Irish rock band, The Boomtown Rats. Formed in 1975 the Rats - whose lead singer was Sir Bob Geldof - were together for a decade. After they disbanded Fingers moved to Japan where he works as a DJ and A&R for a dance label. All six Rats albums are re-released on Monday.



Does listening to old Boomtown Rats albums bring back good or bad memories?
I haven't heard any of them for years. I have no idea, but a friend of mine who works for Universal sent me a DVD of Live Aid. It was quite fun, actually. I was surprised. It sounded quite good.



Despite your commercial success, the Rats seemed to be critically underrated. Would you agree with that analysis?
Never thought about it. Didn't care. I think, as a live band, we were the best that was around because we had a lot more experience than the new age punk bands. Most of them had only played three or four gigs - ten at the max. But we'd actually played for about a year and a half before, or something like 150 gigs, and so we were very full on.


You were incredibly tight for a band at that time and very good at playing your instruments.
Yeah. Because we were very energetic, people used to say: 'Take a load of speed and go see the Rats.' I remember our sound guy saying: 'A lot of people at the back are on speed.'


What was the drug de jour for the band at the time?
We used to smoke dope, like everyone else. I wasn't a drinker really.


So you guys were really laid back at the front while they were all speeding at the back?
We thought we were laid back.


What was your best memory of life in the band?
I have loads of different memories. The most obvious are of myself and Bob touring America together, doing promotional trips. The rest is a blur - touring, playing live, recording. We had a funny, strange lifestyle - doing a 30-day promotional trip across the States or two weeks across Europe.



Why was it just you and Bob doing those promotional trips across America? Did the rest of the band not fancy coming along?
Because Bob is very good at interviews, and I was the visual look of the band, it was the obvious thing to do. You can't bring the whole band out on a promotional trip.


Some of the themes - the loneliness of being in a big city as described in Rat Trap - may have been similar to the London punk themes.
Maybe lyrically, yes, but musically, no. It was quite different.


You were famous for wearing your pyjamas. How did that visual look come about? It came about because I wanted to be recognised more than anything and a band that was very visual had the same kind of kink like Boy George had when he appeared on the scene.


Did you ever feel left out of the London scene when you first moved over from Ireland?
We weren't part of the London scene at all. We came over when the punk thing had just hit big and we were in this kind of hippy house in Surrey. It was owned by Virgin Records, although we didn't sign with them. Henry VIII had built it for his mistresses and it was a strange place. Living there we felt quite separate from the rest of London. The first band we went on tour with was the Ramones, who didn't feel part of the London scene either. In fact they quite hated it.


Whose idea was it to rip up the poster of Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta on Top Of The Pops?
Mine. I think I put a hanger on my head on the next programme and people used to come to the gigs with hangers on their heads thinking that was quite relevant and important.


Do you still see any other members of the band?
When I go over for business in London I will probably go and see Gerry [Cott, Rats guitarist].


Is Bob the saint he's made out to be?
Certainly not. I don't think anyone believes that for a minute.


What do you think about him getting a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Brits this year?
Good for him.


How much money would they have to throw at the Rats to get them back on tour again?
It wouldn't be to do with money really. It sounds like a cliché but it's to do with whether we'd all like to play together again. It would have to be the right moment and everyone would feel right about it.


Could you see it happening at all or is it a definite no-no?
I don't think it's a definite no-no.


Would you get the pyjamas back out if you did do the tour?
That's where the money would come in. I often think when I see bands like The Beach Boys and they don't wear those stripy shirts that I feel ripped off.

Geldof gets his Brit!

Geldof collected his Outstanding Contribution to Music award tonight. Sadly, his performance was a little wanting. It was like a cabaret act with all the strings and horns. And he wore a suit! Came across as a pretty cool guy though. Pete Briquette played and was thanked between songs. Really good to do that.

I heard Rat Trap in HMV the other day and it sounded great, but at the Brits it wasn't. Mondays sounded dull and lifeless as well. The audience looked underwhelmed as well, given the sparkling performances from Franz Fredinand, Scissors Sisters and Green Day earlier on. OK, I don't expect Geldof to be like he was 25 years ago, but the songs lacked any sense of excitement. Geldof looked a bit bored by them. If I were say 16 and never heard of the Boomtown Rats, the performances wouldn't have made me want to find out much more about them.

He got quarter of an hour and two songs (no one else got that time). Jools Holland gave him the award, and lots of oldies praised him (Bono, Sting, Annie Lennox, Pete T, Elton...). Even his acceptance of the award was unusually modest!

Not the first Brit for Geldof either, he picked up a special award in 1985 along with Midge Ure for teh Band Aid single.

Past winners

2004 Duran Duran
2003 Tom Jones
2002 Sting
2001 U2
2000 Spice Girls
1999 Eurythmics
1998 Fleetwood Mac
1997 Bee Gees
1996 David Bowie
1995 Elton John
1994 Van Morrison
1993 Rod Stewart
1992 Freddie Mercury
1991 Status Quo
1990 Queen
1989 Cliff Richard
1988 The Who
1987 Eric Clapton
1986 Wham & Elton John
1985 The Police
1984 George Martin
1983 The Beatles
1982 John Lennon
1977 L.G. Wood/The Beatles (Joint )

John Peel Radio Sessions

Gerry Cott - UK - Thursday, 28th October 2004
When we started the Boomtown Rats, John, as he did with lots of other bands before and since, gave us a helping hand. It's still hard to believe he's gone. I loved listening to him on the radio. I will miss him very much.

Recorded - 26th July 1977
Transmission - 3rd August 1977
Producer - Jeff Griffin
Engineer - Mike Robinson
Studio - Maida Vale 4

TRACKLIST

1. Joey's on the Street Again
2. Mary of the Fourth Form
3. Looking After Number One
4. Neon Heart

LINE UP
Simon Crowe (Drums, Backing Vocals)
Bob Geldof (Lead Vocals)
Johnny Fingers (Keyboards, Backing Vocals)
Garry Roberts (Guitar, Backing Vocals)
Gerry Cott (Guitar)
Pete Briquette (Bass)

• This session has been released on CD. The first three tracks were b-sides on the Geldof single Crazy, and Neon Heart appeared on the recent re-issue of A Tonic for the Troops

Recorded - 15th May 1978
Transmission - 26th May 1978
Producer - Tony Wilson
Engineer - Neil Burn
Studio - Maida Vale 5

TRACKLIST

1. Like Clockwork
2. Me And Howard Hughes
3. Living In An Island
4. (Watch Out For) The Normal People

LINE UP
Simon Crowe (Drums, Backing Vocals)
Bob Geldof (Lead Vocals)
Johnny Fingers (Keyboards, Backing Vocals)
Garry Roberts (Guitar, Backing Vocals)
Gerry Cott (Guitar)
Pete Briquette (Bass)
Neil Burn (Backing Vocals (Track 4 Only))

• Broadcast on BBC Radio 6 Monday 23 January 2006 in three parts. Living in an Island also contained a blast of DUN LOAGHAIRE on the fade out.

46664

CDs

46664: The Mandela Concerts Part 1 - African Prayer
Label: Warners
ASIN: B0001MXPHW

2. Bob Geldof - Speech
3. Bob Geldof - Redemption Song

46664: The Mandela Concerts Part 3 - Amandla
Label: Warners
ASIN: B0001MXPIG

7. Bob Geldof - The Great Song Of Indifference
8. Bob Geldof - (What So Funny ‘bout) Peace, Love and Understanding

DVD

46664 - Nelson Mandela Concert [2003]

Classification: Exempt
Studio: Warner Music Vision
Run Time: 377 minutes
DVD Features:
Main Language: English
Available Audio Tracks: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Sub Titles: Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
Disc Format: DVD 9
Jukebox 5 Track Selection Feature
Behind The Scenes Documentary
Press Conference
Artist Interviews
Photo Gallery Slideshow
Freedoms Coming Track
A Minute For Aids 12 Short Films
ASIN: B0001DI51M


Book

46664 The Concert (Hardcover)

Language English
ISBN-10: 0316730173
ISBN-13: 978-0316730174

http://46664.tiscali.com/

The Best of the Boomtown Rats

The Ultimate Rats Compilation!

• UK Highest Chart Position: 44
• Total number of weeks on chart : 3
• Entry (Umtv 9819145): 8th May 2004
• Run: 44-59 (2 wks)
• Re-entry (Mercury 9870227): 19th February 2005
• Run: 46 (1 wk)
  
  
  
  
  Mercury 9870227 / Umtv 9819145 / Eagle EAGCD202

1. She's So Modern
2. Mary Of The 4th Form
3. Rat Trap
4. Lookin' After No. 1
5. When The Night Comes
6. Someone's Looking At You
7. Joey's On The Streets Again
8. Banana Republic
9. Dave
10. I Don't Like Mondays
11. Like Clockwork
12. (I Never Loved) Eva Braun
13. Neon Heart
14. Never In A Million Years
15. Diamond Smiles
16. Drag Me Down
17. I Can Make It If You Can
18. The Elephants Graveyard
19. Fall Down

After twenty years in the making, The Boomtown Rats finally got the retrospective they deserved.

The two most familiar tracks are Rat Trap and I Don't Like Mondays, from the Boomtown Rats heyday in 1978-1979. The two number one singles that were sandwiched between the Grease phenomenon and the advent of the Police. For a short period, The Boomtown Rats, and in particular, Geldof and Paula Yates, were foremost in the nation's consciousness.

Before this thought, the Rats made some great songs including Joey's on the Street Again, Looking after Number One, Mary of the Fourth Form, She's So Modern and Like Clockwork; these tracks gave the Rats their early chart success. Neon Heart, I Never Loved Eva Braun, and I Can Make It If You Can also come from that prolific period. It is worth noting the version of I Can Make It If You Can on this CD is a live version rather than the studio version from their eponymous debut album.

Post I Don't like Mondays, the band started to lose affection from the public mainly, but unfairly, due to Geldof's celebrity. Diamond Smiles was released to indifference (it is possibly the weakest track on this collection), but there were further top five hits with the marvellous Someone's Looking at You and Banana Republic (Geldof's description of Ireland pre Celtic Tiger), before the Rats chart success went on the wane.

The melancholic Fall Down would make this CD worth the purchase price on its own had it not being abridged and sumptuous woodwind solo removed (Fortunately, the full version was latterly on the re-released Mondo Bongo) .

Nevertheless, the Rats continued to plug away and make some great music, including the fantastic House on Fire, one of their greatest moments, which is omitted from this collection.

In their last days, the Rats showed an impressive return to form with a great triumvirate of singles including Dave, a masterpiece that deserved a bigger audience.

Like any retrospective, it lacks some of the better album tracks (Howard Hughes, Kicks, Go Man Go), at the expense of some weak singles (Diamond Smiles, Never In a Million Years and Elephant's Graveyard), but that does not detract from the overall quality of this release.

All the tracks bar the live version of I Can Make It If You Can are on available on the remastered albums. It is probably only essential for less commited admirers who wouldn't consider obtaining all the remastered albums or for newer fans who want to delve beyond I Don't Like Monday and Rat Trap. A fantastic retrospective of what was acknowledged at the time to be the best new wave band.

Geldof Solo - UK Single Discography

Essentially this is the UK single discography. Please note that this merely lists all the tracks on the various singles and doesn't delve into the the particular format (7"/12"/CD) the tracks appear on. Please email with any known omissions.

1986
BOB101
This Is The World Calling(Extended Version)/Talk Me Up/This Is The World Calling
BOB102
Love Like A Rocket/Pulled Apart By Horses/This Is The World Calling 7"/Truly, True Blue/Love Like A Rocket(Extended 12" Mix)
BOB103
I Cry Too/Let`s Go
1990
BOB(CD/X)104
The Great Song Of Indifference/Hotel 75/In The Pouring Rain
BOB(CD/X)105
Love Or Something/Out Of Order/Friends For Life/One Of The Girls/The Great Song Of Indifference (Barmitzvah Wedding & Party Mix)
BOB(CD/X)106
A Gospel Song/Vegetarians Of Love/The Warmest Fire
1992
BOB(CD/X)107
Room 19 (Sha La La La Lee)/Huge Birdless Silence/The Great Song Of Indifference/Swear For You
BOB(CD/X)108
My Hippy Angel (Edited Version)/My Hippy Angel(Full Length Version)/Maybe Heaven/Love Or Something
1993
VERTIGO 864 907-2
The Happy Club/The Great Song Of Indifference/This Is The World Calling/Roads of Germany (after BD)
1994
VERCX85 [Note : Tracks 2-4 are credited to The Boomtown Rats]
Crazy/Mary Of The 4th Form (Live)/Looking After Number 1 (Live)/Joey's On The Street(Live)
VERCD85
Crazy/Room 19 (Live)/The Beat Of The Night (Live)/Rat Trap (Live)
2003
EAGXS220
Pale White Girls(New Mood mix)/Pale White Girls(New Moodier mix)/Pale White Girls(Original album version)

Songbook - Loudmouth. The Best of Bob Geldof and the Boomtown Rats

One of two sheet music books of Rats songs. On the spine the title is given as Loudmoth(sic).

1. I Don't Like Mondays
2. This is the World Calling
3. Rat Trap
4. The Great Song of Indifference
5. Love Or Something
6. Banana Republic
7. Crazy
8. The Elephant's Graveyard
9. Someone's Looking at You
10. She's So Modern
11. House On Fire
12. The Beat of the Night
13. Diamond Smiles
14. Like Clockwork
15. Room 19 (Sha La La La Lee)
16. Mary of the Fourth Form
17. Looking After Number One

The songs listed correspond directly to the UK release, and there is the odd picture within the book.

Have a look at the book here! Use CTRL-Print Screen to get the pages off. And you too can play Banana Republic.

http://my.linkbaton.com/get?lbCC=q&nC=q&genre=book&item=0825614295

Publisher: Music Sales Corporation (April, 1999)
Language: English
ISBN: 0825614295

Rat Trap makes number one in Ireland with Dustin the Turkey!

Rat Trap topped the Irish Charts on this day. Oddly enough, it failed to do so back in 1978 with the Rats but this frivolus version did! Dustin the Turkey sings with Bob Geldof, and makes fun of Geldof throughout.

Also Geldof collaborated with Dustin on a version of Walk This Way which appears on Dustin's Unplucked

More on Dustin if you can bear it.

Loudmouth - The Best of The Boomtown Rats & Bob Geldof

UK Highest Chart Position: 10
Total number of weeks on chart : 3
Entry: 9th July 1994
Run: 10-21-42 (3 wks)


Vertigo 522 283-2

1. I Don't Like Mondays - Boomtown Rats
2. This Is The World Calling - Bob Geldof
3. Rat Trap - Boomtown Rats
4. The Great Song Of Indifference - Bob Geldof
5. Love Or Something - Bob Geldof
6. Banana Republic - Boomtown Rats
7. Crazy - Bob Geldof
8. Elephant's Graveyard - Boomtown Rats
9. Someone's Looking At You - Boomtown Rats
10. She's So Modern - Boomtown Rats
11. House On Fire - Boomtown Rats
12. The Beat Of The Night - Bob Geldof
13. Diamond Smiles - Boomtown Rats
14. Like Clockwork - Boomtown Rats
15. Room 19 (Sha La La La Lee) - Bob Geldof
16. Mary Of The 4th Form - Boomtown Rats
17. Looking After No 1 - Boomtown Rats

The original greatest hits collection which is spoiled somewhat by Geldof's inferior solo material, The Great Song of Indifference excepted, and the total neglect of In The Long Grass. Still you can always program your CD player or just exclude them from your iPod.

The original release was subtitled The Best of The Boomtown Rats & Bob Geldof, whereas a later version (18th March 1996) was subtitled The Best of Bob Geldof & The Boomtown Rats with a new cover with just Geldof on. A strange emphasis, given that the Geldof solo tracks take up just a third of the album.

Probably more of a curiousity than an essential purchase given the release of the superior Best of the Boomtown Rats . All the Boomtown Rats tacks here are also present there, bar the excellent House On Fire. There is no review of this album as all the individual tracks are covered in the album reviews.

Listen to excerpts here http://www.hmv.co.uk/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=280;-1;-1;-1&sku=597849

This album has been released in a variety of guises, and was re-titled as Great Songs of Indifference - The Best of Bob Geldof & The Boomtown Rats in other countries.

The most notable of these are -

Canada - Vertigo 314 522 822 2 - Great Songs of Indifference - The Best of Bob Geldof & The Boomtown Rats

Never In a Million Years, Up All Night and Rain replace Love Or Something, House On Fire and The Beat Of The Night. This is also the only known appearance of Rain on CD.

US - CK 64999 Columbia/Legacy - Great Songs of Indifference - The Best of Bob Geldof & The Boomtown Rats - April 22 1977

Crazy is excluded from this US release, otherwise the track listing is as the UK version.

There is also an unconfirmed accompanying video release. I have never seen this on sale anywhere, so I can't confirm the track listing or any details. Please email with details if you have a copy.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004S0J9/026-0303171-8537248

Boomtown Rats - Greatest Hits

Columbia 40615

Track Listings

1. I Don't Like Mondays
2. Rat Trap
3. She's So Modern
4. Banana Republic
5. Skin on Skin
6. Up All Night
7. Joey's on the Street Again
8. Elephant's Graveyard
9. House on Fire
10. Never in a Million Years

Interestingly enough, this was the first ever Rats compilation. Released in the US in 1987 (and on CD in 1990), it gathers together ten songs, of which only three or four could truly be considered to be hits, never mind greatest hits. It is skewed towards the latter years, six of the tracks coming from the weaker albums Mondo Bongo/V Deep, with only four from the preceding albums.

Avoid, unless you really have to have everything!

Gung~Ho

Simon Crowe and Johnny Fingers formed Gung~Ho featuring Simon on lead vocals in 1987.
They released a single, Play To Win, which was pretty good though it failed to have any impact on the charts.

And followed it up with Remember, which was less than memorable! (couldn't resist)

An album called 10 was d recorded and ready for release, but Magnet, their record company, went bust and the album disappeared bar a few demos that made their way into collector's hands (not mine, I hasten to add).








However, many years later the album appeared on mp3.com with extra tracks on a CD with both the audio and the mp3 version of the album. Frankly, they should have stopped with the Play To Win single. The abum was very insipid and maybe it was a good thing Magnet went bust.

Obviously for Boomtown Rats completists, this was a very important release, but for me it would rank even lower than Deep in the Heart of Nowhere in the post-Rats repertoire that I have heard.

It was a collection of unmemorable songs with very simplistic arrangements.

It's more or less impossible to get hold of this these days, Gung~Ho having disappeared from mp3.com.

Simon and I had a lot of good times making this album. It was fun. The song writing came effortlessly. It was a great relief not to have to rehearse songs at a band practice, which can be brain damage at the best of times. Also, Yoko had never been in a studio and so she created a lot of extra energy. Bob Clearmountain called and said he loved the songs and could mix some tracks between Bruce Springstein's album and David Bowie's new record. This made Simon and myself feel a little embarrassed, as we had decided to produce the album ourselves and being scheduled between two musical icons didn't boost our egos but worked in reverse, making us feel a little shy and nervous.We hopped around various cheap studios in London. We were mobile, just the three of us. Yoko seemed to always find a cheap Japanese restaurant nearby. By the time we started mixing the album at The Right Track Studios in New York with Bob Clearmountain, we were very proud of the album. Clearmountain fortified this confidence, I must add. Chuck New mixed the remaining tracts at Battery Studios.A week later , we went to Thailand to do " THE VIDEO" , convincing the director it was the only place in the world where the lighting was right. Mind you it didn't take him long to agree. About one millisecond...... I think.

Kind regards,

Johnnie

The Last Live Performance

The last time the Boomtown Rats played live was at Self Aid at the RDS Showgrounds, Simmonscourt, Dublin, Ireland on May 17th 1986.

Set List

• Someone's Looking At You
• Joey's On The Street Again
• Looking After #1

This was broadcast on RTÉ Television, and on the Best of DVD, you can see the Rats perfoming Joey's On The Street Again with a verse or two of an old union-organizing song, "I Don't Want Your Millions Mister" thrown in for good measure.

The concert itself was followed by the release of Live for Ireland. Both Joey's On The Street Again and Looking After #1 appear on this, however there are a myriad of formats

MCA MCA-42113 1988 LP has Joey's On The Street Again

http://www.music.com/release/live_for_ireland/1/ - For an audio clip of Joey's on the Street

MCD06027 / DMCG6027 / WMCG6027 has Looking After No. 1

There is also a bootleg with the whole set on!

Ireland & Dubliners(bootleg vinyl LP) Bandito Records - B005

http://www.harbour.sfu.ca/~hayward/van/discography/v_dubliners.html

'The Day Rock and Roll Changed the World'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/thelive8event/liveaid/history.shtml

The Boomtown Rats were the third band to appear after Status Quo and The Style Council. Apparently they were due to appear further down the bill, but Geldof switched the order so they could perform to Prince Charles & Princess Diana! They played I Don't Like Mondays, Rat Trap (which was plauged by sound issues) and Drag Me Down. Geldof provided one of the most memorable moments of the whole day with his pause midway through Mondays on the completion of the line "The lesson today is how to die".

Artists who performed at Wembley (in order of appearance):

Status Quo
Style Council
Boomtown Rats
Adam Ant
Ultravox
Spandau Ballet
Elvis Costello
Nik Kershaw
Sade
Sting
Phil Collins (also with Sting)
Howard Jones
Bryan Ferry
Paul Young (also with Alison Moyet)
U2
Dire Straits (also with Sting)
Queen
David Bowie
The Who
Elton John (also with Kiki Dee and Wham)
Freddie Mercury with Brian May
Paul McCartney

Rats at Glastonbury CND Festival

The Boomtown Rats played the Glastonbury Festival along with Aswad,Clannad, The Colour Field, Ian Dury, King, The Pogues, Midnight Oil, Thompson Twins, Misty In Roots and Maria Muldaur. The Boomtown Rats were pelted with mud by an unappreciative audience! Worthy farm was considered too small to accommodate the Festival so the neighbouring Cockmill farm land was purchased to enlarge the site by a further 100 acres. The sheer size of the newly enlarged site meant that communications were stretched to the limit - the ultimate test for any organisation. With tractors the only possible means of towing people off the site in seriously bad weather. Michael Eavis was pleased that, “we have had the mud bath and proved we can still cope with the conditions”. £100,000 was raised for CND and local charities. Attendance: 40,000.Tickets: £16. Programme: 90p.

http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/aboutus/index.asp?id=38

3 day tickets for just £16!!

Set List included

• Charmed Lives
• Neon Heart
• Wind Chill Factor
• Dave
• I Don't Like Mondays
• Talking In Code #
• Hurt Hurts
• Rat Trap
• Drag Me Down
• Looking After Number 1

Just a comment / observation. I was at Glastonbury in 1985 (in the mud!) when the Boomtown Rats played. (Saturday afternoon, I think!) - the second time I'd seen them, the first being at the White Rock, Hastings, about 1982. Glastonbury was one month before Live Aid and they performed 'Mondays' JUST like they did at Wembley - the big pause. That pause blew my socks off then, without the power of the message that came across at Live Aid. I've often said that Bob was rehearsing it when he did it at Glastonbury; we'll never know, but it was a blinding song when I was 14 at school - and still makes my hairs stand on end now!- Gary, Saffron Walden, England

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=698

A BBC Transcription of this does exist. (I don't have it before you ask!)

Record Label:
BBC TS
Catalogue No:
CN4658/S
Country of Origin:
UK

In The Long Grass

What's the story?

UK Highest Chart Position: n/a
US Highest Chart Position: 188
Total number of weeks on chart : 4
Entry: 25th May 1985
Run: 194-189-189-188

1. Dave
2. Over And Over
3. Drag Me Down
4. A Hold Of Me
5. Another Sad Story
6. Tonight
7. Hard Times
8. Lucky
9. An Icicle In The Sun
10. Up Or Down
11. Dave (Single Version)
12. Walking Downtown
13. Precious Time
14. She's Not The Best

Just when you least expected it, The Boomtown Rats returned with another great album! With barely enough money to make the album, and following the less than wonderful Mondo Bongo and V Deep, In the Long Grass marked a return to form. Though not commercially successful, it spawned some great singles (none of them were hits), and was the most consistent album from the Rats since the Fine Art of Surfacing.

The first single off the album, Tonight has a reggae beat, some lower key vocals and a sassier attitude than would have been expected from the Rats. Not as overt as say Banana Republic or House on Fire, it promised a lot from the forthcoming album. Horns dominate the music, showing the Rats with just a single guitarist had other means of filling out their songs. Of course, no one bought it!

Drag Me Down was another great single. Geldof and Crowe exchange vocals in the introduction before a swirling keyboard kicks the song into life. Some great horns kick in at the end of the verses. One of the most driving songs from the Rats, with really good guitar work for Garry Roberts. The horns that play out at the end are similar to those on House on Fire.

Dave was one of the best singles the Rats ever made. It plays as a plea to a suicidal friend to reconsider, and implores him to keep going. That it never troubled the charts is purely down to low regard the Rats were held in by the press & public, and a shambolic re-release involving singles with embedded tickets! In America, they had to rewrite the lyrics, as the notion of a man singing about another man was deemed as faggy by the record company, and turned it into a song about Rain. Oh dear!

There are two tracks penned by Johnnie Fingers. A wistful sax and tinkling piano begin Another Sad Story, before the sax blasts in. A story about Johnnie and Susan, though not of the ilk of Geldof’s earlier Dublin trilogy, but much more generic. The middle eight is from Bowie’s Let’s Dance period, Geldof affecting his best Anthony Newley voice. The sax solos break up this song, and provide a link back to Joey and Billy of yesteryear.

Also from Fingers and starting off with a guitar from Atomic.Lucky has Geldof telling you how lucky you are if time remembers you. The song namechecks JFK, and tells you what went wrong for him! This isn’t an Eva Braun, as the song is more personal than that addressed directly to the listener. The ‘work’ chants remind you of Chain Gang, and the song finishes with some dubbed horns.

Aaaaah, not Chic’s Good Times, but The Rats’ Hard Times! There are some yeah yeahs from the Beatles in there, and a simple little Depeche Mode little keyboard (think Just Can’t Get Enough, not Personal Jesus!). The songs builds and builds and then bursts into life with Geldof singing over some female oriental backing vocals (Molly & Polly!). Hard Times sound good with The Boomtown Rats!

Pete Briquette and Simon Crowe contribute the wonderful Up and Down. The Chic guitar is there, and the vocals are urgent, and it even gets ska-like at points, probably more Police (Material World) than Specials but it’s certainly there. Twice it breaks into the glorious ‘lying in the sun’ with the horns blasting out. The song comes down when nothing seems to changes, but only to get on with some urgent ad-libbing.

There is a low key start to Over and Over with Geldof mumbling before it breaks into a joyous chorus with some great tenor harmonies. A lovely flamenco interlude reminds you of Zorro! A shimmering low key fade outs the song. Another gem!

With its Latin intro, Icicle in the Sun starts off as if it dares to take us back to Please Don’t Go from Mondo Bongo. It turns out to be a far more pleasant experience. Possibly the most eighties sounding track on here with its funky guitars and keyboards interjecting throughout. At one point, the song threatens to break into a good old pub sing song, but keeps on track.

But the last word on this album is A Hold of Me. The song fades in gently and builds to Geldof cutting in with "What’s the Story?…" The song builds and builds with a series of questions, layering the sound until the chorus arrives and then the song dips again. In many ways this is the song that Never in the Million Years should have been. As Geldof implores "I’m for people, I’m for life!" it’s the perfect bookend to the Rats’ singles career. This song marks the arrival of selfless crusader who has long left his selfish youth behind.

Garry Roberts now had a guitar sound for the band, and the songs were all well written, performed and produced. More ideas than narrative in the songs, but there isn’t a bad track to be found. This was the realisation of the experimentation of Mondo Bongo and V Deep. The sound was less produced but no worse for that, and this was a more mature album than any that had gone before.

Sadly, this album was also the last The Boomtown Rats recorded. A great swan song, but lack of commercial success and the aftermath of Band Aid and Live Aid, led to Geldof striking out as a solo artist.

CD Review

The single version of Dave is the original album version! I’m pretty sure it is, as it sounds the same as my vinyl version. The album version is the version from the Best of. Add in Rain,which is not here, and there are a few versions of this track knocking around. However, for all that, the single version is the best! The album version is a more drawn out affair and doesn’t flow as well as the single version. Both versions here are well worth listening to, whereas you’d not miss anything by never hearing Rain!

Walking Downtown returns to the jazz-by-numbers of The Little Death, and is little better. Part Mood Mambo, part jazz, there is the gnawing feeling that this was another attempt at something that was beyond the Rats. The piano in the song puts me in mind of Singing in the Rain! I have never really liked jazz anyway, and this song is of little appeal. P

recious Time is a track that would have been a great addition to In the Long Grass. Doo do dos courtesy of the Rolling Stones and a Pete Briquette bass line get the song going along with Chic-like guitars are also there. On the two middle eights, Geldof drifts into a Bowie tribute again, aping China girl. The instrumental gets funky, so much so it does sound like Nile Rodgers & Bernard Edwards had a hand in the production. The guitars that play out as from the Let’s Dance Bowie period as well.

There’s not a great deal to She's Not The Best (Home Demo). It sounds like an idea for a song with Geldof playing acoustic guitar and sounding like Bob Dylan. A nice curiosity, and more like something from Geldof’s recent past than a Rats song. Perhaps the seed of the solo career!

Just to complete the story, alternative versions of Drag Me Down and Lucky exist. Fortunately, they aren’t here. This is good news as they sound like Huey Lewis & the News! The production was changed for the US, but the originals which appear on this re-release are far superior.

This is Your Life

Broadcast on ITV and hosted by Eammon Andrews with his requisite red book, this show chronicled the life of Geldof post Band Aid/pre Live Aid. An entertaining show the memory of which has diminished with time. Towards the end there is a very awkward moment when an ex-school colleague of Geldof turns up for whom Geldof evidently has no time for. Geldof acts all sullen and effectively blanks him.

Hamburg, Germany

Hamburg - (venue not known)

Rats Played here

Live At Hammersmith Odeon

A Bank holiday Monday treat! This was a 30 minute broadcast on BBC RADIO 6 on 3rd May 2004 on the Dream Ticket, hosted by Janice Long. Obviously, not the whole gig, but a nice slice of the Boomtown Rats touring with V Deep. Available on mp3, if you know who to ask!

1. Wind Chill Factor
2. Up All Night
3. House On Fire
4. I Don't Like Mondays
5. Like Clockwork
6. Having My Picture Taken
7. Nothing Happened Today

Newcastle - City Hall

Rats played here on V Deep tour

V Deep

And Then There Was Five.....

UK Highest Chart Position: 63
US Highest Chart Position: n/a
Total number of weeks on chart : 5
Entry: 3rd April 1982
Run: 65-66-70-*63*-95 (5 wks)

1. He Watches It All
2. Never In A Million Years
3. Talking In Code
4. The Bitter End
5. The Little Death
6. A Storm Breaks
7. Up All Night
8. House On Fire
9. Charmed Lives
10. Skin On Skin
11. Say Hi To Mick
12. No Hiding Place (B-Side)
13. House On Fire (12" Dub Version)
14. Up All Night (Long Version)

The musical landscape has moved on by the time of the release of V Deep. V Deep refers to a Japanese style of love making, "four shallow, five deep", but with it being the fifth album and the Rats only having five members it can be interpreted in many ways. It was an era of Bananarama, The Fun Boy Three, Haircut 100, Duran Duran and ABC dominating the singles charts. Peers like The Jam and The Stranglers were around but sounding very different. The album pretty much takes up where Mondo Bongo left off, continuing the experiments in sound. Gerry Cott had left the Rats by the time they came to record this album. This was not a great surprise given that he had been under utilised on Mondo Bongo. Godley & Creme were initially down to produce the album, but in the end Tony Visconti once more took the helm.

Based on an obsession with celebrity and the tabloids, He Watches It All is an outstanding track. The keyboards are alive and there is a sense of foreboding as we are drawn into the lonely viewer’s world. And then we get the sense of loss as it is all taken away. Then we get the "Did you read it in the Sunday papers?" break bursting the song into life with its vocal harmonies from A Day In The Life. As this dies down we get the pay off of having bought and sold the video and somehow made a fortune in between. Without saying a lot, the song conveys many moods and colours, without being too radical a departure. If only the Boomtown Rats had made more tracks like this. Outstanding.

The first single off the album, Never in a Million Years, failed to make the top 30 (in fact, it only reached 62!). One of Bob Geldof's weaknesses in his lyrics has been their mawkishness, and this song was one of the worst offenders (Another Piece of Red was far worse though). The lyrics included a lot of lazy clichés (including the title) and said nothing of any worth. Sonically it was fine, a re-creation of Spector's wall of sound, it sounded great on the stereo, but lacked real presence on the radio.

The only hit single from the album was House on Fire. This was a return to the reggae tinged sound that made Banana Republic a massive hit. Far lighter and daffier than Banana Republic, the feel and vibe of this track worked really well with Geldof's voice. There is some great lyrical dexterity shown. It sounds loose and free-form, but most crucially it sounds great! The album version is extended and all the better for it. ...House Burned Down is essentially just an instrumental reprise.

Musically outstanding, A Storm Breaks is another good track. It starts of with a beat not unlike Blind Date, and then kicks it with a guitar riff before some ghostly vocals over a funky guitar. Then brash horns come throughout sounding as if they came from Haircut 100. The percussion is African/Latin in the style of much of Mondo Bongo. Towards the ends, it’s as if the Rats have transplanted themselves into the midst of the Rio carnival with whistles blowing, bongos and a driving bass from Pete Briquette. An instrumental version appeared on the B-side of Charmed Lives and was even better!

Starting off almost like Antmusic with clicking drumsticks, The Bitter End then layers sound with guitars and organs and sounds Asian, almost like a Bollywood track. Only the sitars are missing. One of those tracks where the full gamut of the Rats’ arsenal is used, including some great guitar work from Garry Robberts.

Up All Night is decent, though repetitive, incredible how many times "Up All Night, ooh za za" is repeated. A rip of Drive my Car from The Beatles in its adaptation of the "beep beep yeah" refrain, and the break reminds you of Bowie. Very sparse as far as the music is concerned, with a dominating drum beat, and lots of hand claps, as well as some overdone backing vocals.

The Little Death is a brave departure into jazz. Making heroin analogous with the female orgasm is a strange idea. Jazz-by-numbers, at times coming across as Stray Cat Strut, it is a sinister sounding track. Would have worked well in the quieter moments of a musical like Chicago!

Epitomising the very worst of the Boomtown Rats, Charmed Lives is not only lyrically poor, it sounds out of tune! Horns blast in all over the place, keyboards waft around, drum beats are randomly inserted and harmonies interject when least expected. When Geldof goes on about doing his hair tonight, you know it’s all wrong. The infernal "we’re OK, they’re OK", get progressively annoying as does the na-na-nas. It was even released as a single. Mercifully, it did not appear on the recent Best Of.

Geldof talks dirty in Skin on Skin but who cares? In the midst of the song, Geldof returns to the free form lyrical indulgences of Mood Mambo, but a quiet night time London is dull, and it ambles along. Overall the track is shrill, and for a track about sex, is very sterile and lacking in any passion. More like a visit to a sperm bank than a night of hot passion between velvet sheets.

Talking in Code starts with the sounds of tuning in the radio, and turns into a science lecture on body language! The high-pitched vocals in the chorus have to be heard to be believed. It’s as if someone grabbed Simon Crowe in the nuts! Had the Buggles or Thomas Dolby made it, it would have been crass; but this is the Boomtown Rats, who once looked to get their kicks from smokes and drinks and you!

When V Deep is good it is very good, but some of the efforts to find something new flounder on the rocks. Horns, keyboards, drum and bass are to the fore, the previously guitar led new wave sound long gone. Had the best parts of V Deep been combined with the best parts of Mondo Bongo, the combined effort would have been the Rats finest hour. As it stands, it is a brave album which sounds great, but three or four bad tracks let the album down badly.

CD Review

...House Burned Down has disappeared! OK, it was little more than a reprise of House on Fire, but with Mondo Bongo retaining Cheerio, and Surfacing listing Episode #3 as a track, it's amazing it doesn't appear.

The running order has changed but to the overall benefit! He Watches It All is a great start, and although it descends from there, it is far less jarring than the original release.

One of the really worthwhile extras on all the CDs is House On Fire (12" Dub Version). Essentially, it is the original 7" single until it suddenly breaks into an extended dub mix which enhances the vibe of the song. It would have been good to have had the original 7" version as well. Can never get enough of a good song!

Say Hi To Mick is a semi-acoustic song about dreaming about retiring to New York City from some cold outpost and listening to channel KGB on the Radio. Hard to describe, but if anything it sounds like Geldof’s bash at Simon and Garfunkel!

The b-side of Charmed Lives, No Hiding Place was a far superior track. Sounds like a theme from a Gerry Anderson puppet series with its Hank Marvin guitar and driving bass line.

Up All Night (Long Version) is just an extended version of the album track, as the mumbled introduction tells you "extremely long"! The sound isn’t quite as full as the LP version, as if some keyboards and guitars were removed. Unlike House on Fire, the extended version doesn’t add a great deal to the song.

Incredibly, V Deep was (and still is) the only UK album to have been released on CD with its original track listing. The latest release is mainly worthwhile in providing the extras on CD for the first time and the fact it sounds a lot better thanks to the re-mastering. However none of these tracks are new as they have all been available on vinyl.

Personally, I find that I rarely listen to V Deep as an album which is a shame as there are some very good tracks on it, but tracks like Skin on Skin, Charmed Lives and Talking in Code really turn me off it.

But there you go, you can’t be all things to all men, and any band worth its salt will always disappoint now and again. As ever with the Boomtown Rats, there is always plenty of good, and there are some gems on V Deep that are well worth sticking on your iPod!

Gerry Cott walks out on The Boomtown Rats

Gerry Cott walks out on The Boomtown Rats

Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto

Toronto - Maple Leaf Gardens

Rats Played here

Mondo Bongo

Bongo Crazy.....

UK Highest Chart Position: 6
Total number of weeks on UK chart : 7
UK Entry: 24th January 1981
UK Run: 9-11- *6*-11-31-58-74 (7/2-1c wks)

US Highest Chart Position: 116
Total number of weeks on US chart : 8
US Entry: 21st February 1981
US Run: 168-152-137-126-*116*-116-141-181 (8 wks) UK:#6/7/2#116/8

1. Straight Up
2. The Elephants Graveyard
3. This Is My Room
4. Another Piece Of Red
5. Hurts Hurts
6. Please Don't Go
7. Fall Down
8. Go Man Go!
9. Under Their Thumb Is Under My Thumb
10. Banana Republic
11. Whitehall 1212
12. Mood Mambo
13. Cheerio
14. Don't Talk To Me
15. Arnold Layne
16. Another Piece Of Red (Live In Portsmouth)

Mondo Bongo was highly anticipated. The early signs were very encouraging. Banana Republic was a smash hit single usurping the heavily hyped Spandau Ballet. The reggae sound seemed to suit the Rats, and the album promised a very new sound. Mondo Bongo was a very strange brew in contrast to the three previous albums. It turned out to be a more experimental album than expected. Having lined up Tony Visconti as a new producer, The Rats were breaking away from the sound of Tonic for the Troops and Fine Art of Surfacing that had been so successful.

With a sassy burst Mood Mambo kicks off the LP. Geldof raps about a black snake with slicked back hair looking for someone else, and being in the mood to mambo! The raised expectations are then dashed by the repetitive crazy bongo chant, every time we're in the mood to mambo. The song is very camp with it's yoo-hoos and references to ballroom dancing. Very Latin influenced driven by the rhythm section rather than the guitars of previous albums. It is a dark hint of things to come.

It is a great relief to hear the guitars that kick off Straight Up. Less of a departure from the traditional Rats sound, but a departure in song writing. Less story, more ideas. The guitar exaggerates the Breaking Glass riff to good effect. A departure from the norm, but a good one.

Then we have the sleigh bells! This is My Room starts off as if written to corner the Christmas market, but slowly develops into a great track. There is no urgency to get to the lyrics, and there is time to appreciate the music, before Geldof booms "This is my Room' to a peak. The songs fades out far too soon, but always better to go too early than overstay your welcome!

The mawkish, Another Piece of Red is a lament on the demise of the British Empire. It seemed particularly hollow being sung by an Irishman. Toe curlingly embarrassing at points with its tinkling piano refrain of Rule Britannia throughout and some of the crassest lyrics you would hear anywhere ("hungry for India" , yuck!, "vive le Canada", come on!)

After that comes Go Man Go which is one of the highlights on the album. There is a sense of drama from the drums and keyboards in the intro. The first verse describes a day at the seaside, and the second relates to Japanese culture, even down to some cod-Japanese. The sax solo breaks up the song and fades it out.

Under Their Thumb showcases various instruments in the break. The sort of device used live to thank the various members of the band. Otherwise the song is a re-imagined version of the Stones hit referring to us all being under the thumb of government rather than a girl under Jagger’s thumb! Pete Briquette’s bass drives the song along really well.

Following the same groove as Mood Mambo, Please Don't Go, also has a marked Latino influence. Inane lyrics, and the dreary Please Don't Go refrain. Geldof's scat is mercifully drowned out by the horns.

Elephant's Graveyard was released as a single, and only reached the lower reaches of the top thirty. It's not a bad track, though maybe not ideal single material. The song is a traditional Geldof tale, this time of riots in Miami, of what it must be like to be a pensioner when all hell breaks loose. The wordplay reminds you of Elvis Costello, and the ‘Guilty til proven Guilty’ is a great line and pervades the song. The ‘shame shame shimmy shame’ fade out is a bit crass! Lots of really good keyboards throughout, but like office boys, pensioners ain’t rock ‘n’ roll!

Banana Republic was written in the aftermath of the Rats being banned from playing in Dublin. Police and priests rule ( a take on Police and Thieves from Junior Murvin & Lee Perry), and hypocrisy abounds. There are even references to the IRA, "Price. a bullet in the head". The final line of "it’s a pity nothing’s changed’ sums up the continued intolerance of a notion dominated by the Church. The most venomous lyrics and the great vibe of the song make you wonder how the Rats were dismissed as lightweights. It is to Ireland what God Save the Queen was to Britain.

The jewel in the crown of the album is Fall Down, to be appreciated in all it's glory. It is probably the most stunning Rats song ever. Sung by Simon Crowe, it is a beautiful song expressing how hurtful love can be. Maybe it was too personal for Geldof to sing but it really suits the choir boy vocals of Simon Crowe. Criminally, the clarinet solo was not on the recent best of, and even worse the song was omitted from the US version of the album.

Starting off like That’s Entertainment, Hurt Hurts recalls Can't Stop from Tonic from the Troops. No story, just the expression of agony, and some catchy lines, "Hard side, Tough inside, She cut you with stiletto style", not unlike Straight Up. The instrumental break has echoed drums and church organ keyboards before it breaks into one of the few lyrical guitar solos on the album. Use of acoustic and electic guitars like Someone’s Looking. Another nice track that would have been right at home in Kill Bill.

The Shadows-esque instrumental Whitehall 1212 pretty much wraps things up. Starts with a phone call to Blake of the yard, recalls Apache, and winds up like Night Boat to Cairo from Madness. And then leads into a hidden track (titled Cheerio on the CD release). Quite amusing little Dylan-style ditty of no substance.

Mondo Bongo is a roller coaster of an album with some good highs, and some pitiful lows. Sonically it is an improvement, but the calibre of some of the songs leaves a lot to be desired.

The rhythm section dominates the album throughout and there are precious few guitar led tracks. Banana Republic aside, there were no other great singles on the album. Whereas Tonic for the Troops could probably have had another couple, and even Fine Art of Surfacing may have yielded another, it was hard to see a sure fire follow up single, though Go Man Go may have troubled the top twenty. Fall Down, great as it is, would have been a big risk as a single, but it could have been a number one (or number 100!).

There are at least half-a-dozen very good tracks on this album, and had the Rats come in with more material like that (probably some of the stuff used on V Deep) it could have been their finest hour (well, forty minutes!). There is enough to make this worthwhile, but new listeners will require patience.

CD Review

It is important to note Fall Down is free of the echo you get on the groove crammed LPs. At last, I can hear it properly! And it is the full version, not the edited version on the Best of.

Whitehall 1212 is also on CD for the first time, but that's not so essential.

The gaps in Cheerio are also shortened. ("...or else, I'm Gonna Go" is too hastily followed by "OK, That's fine by me...)

As far as the extras are concerned if one version of Another Piece of Red isn't enough there is also a live version provided as an extra. When the piano starts the song, the crowd cheer, no doubt anticipating I Don't Like Mondays! Needless to say the live version is no better, a bad song is a bad song.

There is also the Buddy Holly tribute Don't Talk To Me, uh-oh-ho! It was included on the US version of Mondo Bongo. It’s OK, fairly inoffensive, and my dad would love it being a big Buddy Holly fan!

There is also a cover of Arnold Layne. It's fair to say that the Rats don't do this song justice. They murdered it! It sounds out of tune with lots of synths crashing it. You’ve got to hear it though!

Up All Night did appear on the US version, but as far as the UK is concerned was on V Deep. Man at the Top, the b-side of Banana Republic, would have been a good extra.

The fade out of Banana Republic is extended from the single and in all honesty doesn't enhance the song.

With a jumbling of the track sequence, and some less than inspiring extras the CD re-release of this album is mainly worthwhile in obtaining the UK track listing, and especially the unabridged Fall Down, on CD for the first time.

Personally, though not my favourite Rats album (not the worst either!), it has some inspired tracks and is well worth a listen.

Newcastle - City Hall

Rats played here in Bongos over Britain tour

De Montfort Hall Leicester

King Biscuit Flower Hour

The King Biscuit Flower Hour
THE BOOMTOWN RATS & THE SPECIALS
3-sided LP, USA 1980

• I Don´t Like Mondays
• Like Clockwork
• Nothing Happened Today
• Keep It Up
• Nice And Neat
• Having My Picture Taken
• Rat Trap
• Kicks
• Someone Looking At You

Anyone out there got this gem?

Toronto - Seneca College Gymnasium

Rats Played here

Leixlip Castle, Dublin, Ireland

http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/the-boomtown-rats-play-the-racecourse-at-long-last-1.2751655


The Boomtown Rats play the racecourse – at long last

They were the shows that never happened. Now, nearly 40 years after Bob Geldof’s band were meant to play at Leopardstown, the group are finally taking to its stage
When Bob Geldof flies into Dublin for the Boomtown Rats’ show at Leopardstown today he will have strong memories of the last time he arrived in the city for a Boomtown Rats concert at the racecourse.
It was February 20th, 1980, when, as RTÉ reported, “hundreds of fans mobbed the band” as they walked from the tarmac to the airport terminal. Such was the clamour around “King Rat” that Geldof became “isolated for a while from his chauffeur- driven Mercedes”.
At the time the Rats were a very big deal indeed. They had become the first Irish band to have a UK No 1. Rat Trap was also the first UK “new wave music” No 1. The subsequent single I Don’t Like Mondays had become a global hit, and for their glorious homecoming the Rats had sold all 7,500 tickets for two shows at Leopardstown, to take place on February 22nd and 23rd.
Whereas these days Geldof happily describes himself as a “private-equity whore”, back in 1980 – when he was 29 and could still fit into his snakeskin stage suits – he was the gobby punk rocker who had disgraced himself and his family in front of the nation when he appeared on The Late Late Show denouncing Ireland as clergy-ridden and politically corrupt.
And he announced that he had helped form The Boomtown Rats only in order to get rich, get famous and get laid.
As he had done more than his share of annoying, criticising and provoking the great and good of the land, it perhaps came as no surprise that the District Court refused to grant a licence for the Rats’ homecoming shows. There were loudly voiced concerns that bishops and Fianna Fáil ministers were behind it all.
Geldof readily accepted his martyrdom, later writing that official Ireland was punishing the Rats for his scabrous pronouncements from the Late Late pulpit. As he faced the press at Dublin Airport two days before the now-cancelled gigs, an unlikely ally leaped to his defence: the RUC.

The Rats had just played two sold-out shows at the Ulster Hall, and so impeccably behaved were band and audience that the RUC, according to Geldof, “rang up Dublin . . . and said the two Rats shows were the best ever conducted in Belfast”.
At the same airport press conference he added that, because of Leopardstown being cancelled, “It’s now quite clear that we are not welcome in Dublin. We are not welcome in the city where we were born, where we lived and where we started as a band. We have been rejected on a grand scale. We will now sadly have to regard our gigs in Belfast as our true homecoming. We don’t need to prove ourselves to anybody; we have proved ourselves to the world. We can play in Bangkok, we can play in London, play in Paris, but we can’t play in Dublin.”
The band retired to Blooms Hotel, in Temple Bar, to try to figure out an alternative venue for a big homecoming show. This was the country’s rehearsal for Saipan. While the “young people” just wanted to enjoy themselves at a music concert, others regarded the filth and fury of these self-styled new-wave musicians as inappropriate in a country still coming down from the religious high of Pope John Paul II’s visit, five tremulous months earlier.
But far from being degenerate punks, the six-piece Rats were all nice middle-class boys from Glenageary, in south Co Dublin, and it was at Blackrock College, not CBGB, that some of them were educated.
But when news emerged, to consternation, that the marquee in which the Rats had planned to perform at Leopardstown was the same tent that the pope had used as his disrobing marquee in the Phoenix Park, the will-they-won’t-they saga took a twist. People wondered whether the pope’s tent had been deconsecrated.
While Geldof held court in Blooms Hotel, telling journalists that he had been “vilified” and “banned” from playing in his own “shoddy” and “second-rate” country, it became clear that the siege of Anglesea Street wouldn’t be lifted until the Rats were allowed to play.
If the RUC were an unlikely ally, the man who stepped in to keep Ireland safe for rock’n’roll was an equally strange bedfellow. Desmond Guinness, owner of Leixlip Castle, would allow his substantial back garden to be overrun by punk ruffians – for a fee. Guinness said that although this wasn’t quite his type of music, he wanted to see people enjoying themselves.
On March 2nd, 1980, Geldof strode on to a hastily erected stage at the castle and waited for the screams of 10,000 fans to abate. He grabbed the mic and said just two words: “Who won?”
That morning at Blooms Geldof had been woken by the sound of traffic on the Liffey quays. He went to the window and looked down approvingly as throngs of people clambered aboard a fleet of buses that CIÉ had laid on to transport the thousands to Leixlip.
An up-and-coming local music journalist called Niall Stokes reviewed the Leixlip show for New Musical Express. “After weeks of legal wrangling and public confusion, the Boomtown Rats finally found a home for their return . . . The band had taken on the combined forces of ignorance and prejudice, finally coming out on top . . . Throughout the sorry mess the band had been cast in the role of flag-bearers for a culture so obviously seen as a threat by the local establishment . . . The Boomtown Rats are a potentially powerful vehicle for influencing teenage sons and daughters.”
Johnnie Fingers – aka John Moylett – the band’s keyboardist, remembers the media outcry the most. “We were holed up in Blooms Hotel, waiting for the gig to be rearranged, and because we were very much in the public eye at the time, a big thing was made of the Dublin heroes coming home. The headlines had it that the Rats were banned from playing in their own hometown – and I remember Reuters picked up on the story and it became big international news . . . The story really got out of control, and we were front-page news every day.”

Contrary to what is still believed, Moylett says the band were extraordinarily relieved when the Leopardstown show was cancelled. “The ticket sales weren’t doing great at all; it would have been a complete disaster. I distinctly recall us feeling very lucky that the council did refuse us a licence. By the time Leixlip happened we had been front-page news for 10 days, so we had a 10,000-strong sell-out.”
The Boomtown Rats’ then manager, Fachtna O’Ceallaigh, remembers the “cabin fever” of 10 days in Blooms Hotel with the international press waiting outside. “I went out with Geldof, and the media posse, to Leopardstown racecourse, and I remember him standing on a wall and stating that The Boomtown Rats would not leave Dublin until they had played their homecoming show.”
O’Ceallaigh recalls the suggestion at the time that “people would go crazy and lose their heads” if the Rats were allowed to play. As for the eventual Leixlip show, he found Guinness “to be very accommodating”, but the performance itself was marred by poor security arrangements and an audience being pumped up by “bad cider and cheap speed”.
“It was the only show we ever did where it was a case of the band leaving the stage and getting straight into a waiting van and going direct to the airport,” O’Ceallaigh says. “There was no sense of triumph at all, just a sense of relief. The expression I heard most in the van out of Leixlip was, ‘Jesus Christ. Thank God it’s over.’ ”
Moylett, who now lives in Tokyo, where he runs the Fuji Rock Festival – Asia’s Glastonbury – agrees.
“It was a mad show: the crowd was completely wild and out of control. During our first song I jumped up, in wild pogo style, and when I came down I went halfway through the stage. I had to get pulled back up by the road crew. The hole got covered up with a sheet of chipboard, and we continued.”

Book : Having Their Picture Taken

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Star (Oct 1980)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 0352307684
• ISBN-13: 978-0352307682

Basically it's a collection of black & white photgraphs covering 1979. Nothing too interesting and certainly nothing insightful!

Songbook : The Boomtown Rats

The way I learnt to play guitar! Pretty much the whole of Tonic for the Troops is here along with Looking After Number One, Mary of the 4th Form and even Do The Rat are all here for Guitar Tab/Piano/Vocals.

Colston Hall, Bristol

The Fine Art of Surfacing

This art of Surfacing is all but dead….

UK Highest Chart Position: 7
Total number of weeks on chart : 26
Entry (ENVY3/ENCAS3): 3rd November 1979
Run: 7-9-14-22-28-27-28-32-32-35-30-28-35-34-28-22-26-24-30-38-50-70-62-66-68-66 (26 weeks)

US Highest Chart Position: 103
Total number of weeks on US chart : 16
Entry : 1st December 1979
Run: 132-124-113-113-113-108-130-126-124-130-110-103-103-104-162-177 (16 wks)

1. Someone's Looking At You
2. Diamond Smiles
3. Wind Chill Factor (Minus Zero)
4. Having My Picture
5. Sleep (Fingers Lullaby)
6. I Don't Like Mondays
7. Nothing Happened Today
8. Keep It Up
9. Nice 'n' Neat
10. When The Night Comes
11. Episode #3
12. Real Different
13. How Do You Do?
14. Late Last Night
15. Nothing Happened Today (Live In Cardiff)

Prior to the release of the Fine Art of Surfacing, The Boomtown Rats were arguably the biggest band in Britain. In the wake of the chart-topping Rat Trap and I Don't Like Mondays, only The Police and Blondie were close in terms of stature, but The Rats were seemingly on top. The Fine Art of Surfacing was very eagerly awaited.

I Don't Like Mondays is the best known Boomtown Rats song. With Fingers' piano taking centre stage, it sounded nothing like the Rats had ever done before. This was produced by Phil Wainman of Sweet fame unlike all the other tracks produced by Mutt Lange. A heightened sense of drama pervades the song, rising to the "Tell me why?" chorus and the come down when the playing stops in the playground as the lesson today is how to die. No other band of the punk/new wave era could have made a song like this. Brilliant.

The second single off the album was Diamond Smiles. The song is about a débutante killing herself and only being remembered for her smile. Like I Don't Like Mondays another story about death (suicide this time), it’s more repetitive, and takes a while to get to its short chorus. Lots of quirky keyboards and the never ending la la las evoke memories of Hot Love and Hey Jude. It wasn’t the song to consolidate the Rats domination of the singles chart, but a good track nonetheless.

In contrast, Someone's Looking at You was a great single, and a pretty personal statement for Geldof on fame. The song starts with a gentle rhythmic acoustic guitar, built on by organ keyboard sounds, then breaking into a crash of electric guitars. The keyboard and guitar solos rock, and there is a great climatic build to the last uh-oh-oh-ohs. The song fades to a chorus of someone’s looking with Geldof ad-libbing before the final pay off of Geldof deserving to get kissed once or twice!

A train whistle and a crash of drums introduce Nothing Happened Today. For the Rats, this is familiar territory, with its singing and sing backs throughout. Keyboards and guitars duel with each other vying to set the tone. Watching TV news and looking out the windows in the wake of a hangover there is a urgency to discover what is happening on March 28th , not that there is any significance in the date at all. In the midst of this, there’s the greatly inventive and seamless vaudeville-style break where Harry Hooper’s toupee is discussed at length. The break could be said to be akin to Mr. Kite, of Sgt. Pepper fame.

How about a song on impotency? Keep it Up! Geldof looks to Elvis Costello for lyrical influence, with some nice couplets. The joint song writing effort with Gerry Cott showcases another great guitar solo, The song resurrects the ghost of Howard Hughes in many ways, with the repetition of the ‘Does it Feel Right?..." throughout. Just as the song ends, with an exhausted organ, it burst back into life with some blistering drums, and again Geldof ad-libs all over the Rats chorus of Keep It Up!

Geldof gets personal in Wind Chill Factor, returning to the paranoia hinted at in Can't Stop & So Strange. With a shrill of keyboards, Simon Crowe’s drums break it up and create a stark atmosphere. Then some oh-ho-hos before the now familiar reggae drum break has Geldof coming in after a night of coping. The chorus is almost sinister, and with its whoops and hollers, a disturbing mood prevails. The song revs up into its question and answer session, before Geldof crawls into a corner looking for relief. At the end, the song gives the impression of wind howling beneath high-rise blocks before the drums bring it to an abrupt finish.

After that the mood lightens, with Having My Picture Taken. Essentially the song is a trivial look at the world of celebrity and stardom. Reggae drum breaks punctuate the song and it all jaunts along to the "so fantastic!" middle eight. This song was always marked in its live performance by a thousand instamatics clicking as the band posed for pictures. The song echoes Don’t Believe What You Read from Tonic, this time focusing on the photographers rather than the journalists.

Written by Johnnie Fingers, Sleep (Finger's Lullaby) explores insomnia, and replicates the confused state of mind that ensues. The song is almost epic, with Supertramp pianos in the middle eight, and lots of differing vocal effects. However nothing works, not only wired and tired, and with lights and noise all around. no amount of pills or sheep counting seems to work, but finally the songs drifts off. ....but then comes the nightmarish reprise, with ghostly voices chanting ‘that’s not funny, I’m not laughing, that’s not funny…’. Considering the quality for song writing either via partial or full credits, it is a shame that the other Rats did not contribute more.

In Nice 'n' Neat, it’s Geldof vs. God, and Geldof wins! A really great track inspired by a clerical friend. From the moment the guitar bursts in through to the "final truth is there is no truth", it is a blistering attack on belief. It also hosts one of the greatest guitar solos heard on a Rats song, almost as if Gerry Cott was signing off. However, the unnecessary bop-shoo-wop fade out detracts from such a cutting song. Strange that a song that finishes with "that's all" should be followed by another!

When The Night Comes is another mini-Dublin epic. Frankie instead of Joey or Billy time, but office boys ain’t rock ‘n’ roll and the lyrics lack the flow of Joey or Rat Trap. The flamenco guitar throughout is absolutely wonderful and makes this track well worth listening to.
The un-credited Episode #3 is tacked onto the track after it fades out, to sum it up voice says “That concludes Episode 3, we will return shortly", door slams and washer woman sings. That’s all. (well, it used to be).

The Fine Art of Surfacing though a great album does not quite have the magic of the first two albums. It was another well-produced album; there are no bad tracks, but possibly not enough great tracks. I Don’t like Mondays did overpower the rest of the album being revolutionary as far as the Boomtown Rats were concerned, whilst the rest of the album much more of an evolution of what had take place on Tonic for the Troops.

The Fine Art of Surfacing did not top the charts (unlike its rivals Eat To The Beat or Regatta de Blanc), and was, as far as the UK was concerned, done with in a matter of weeks, whereas Tonic for the Troops spent a year in the charts. At the time there was also a backlash to Geldof in the music press and, to an lesser extent, the popular press. No doubt this affected the album's popularity. Nevertheless The Fine Art of Surfacing is an album that more than matched much of what was happening back in 1979.

In retrospect, this album completed a trilogy of albums all marked by predominately guitar led story telling songs. With later albums bringing the rhythm section to the fore, the Boomtown Rats would never sound the same again or, in my opinion, as consistently good.

CD Review

The CD re-release contains three B-sides and a live track. It is arguable that the b-sides truly relate to the same period. One is from Clockwork, whilst the other is from Elephant’s Graveyard. And It’s All The Rage which was the b-side from Mondays is omitted entirely.
Late Last Night which is the only track from the era and would have easily fitted onto Surfacing, and enhanced the album. It's a shame LPs only lasted for 40 minutes! The B-side of Diamond Smiles, it starts off with a clockwork introduction, and sounds like a troubled night for Geldof, possibly caused by something he ate. The song is very typical of the Rats of that era with the lyrical guitar solo.

Real Different appears to draw inspiration from Elvis Costello, even down to the Oliver’s Army style piano. It may have been a Surfacing leftover, appearing of the B-side of Elephant’s graveyard. It does sound as if it pre-dates Mondo Bongo and belongs more with this disc. It’s interesting that of all his peers, Geldof seemed to look to Costello more than most, obviously recognising his cleverness, but never quite satisfactorily matching it with the Rats.

From the flip side of Like Clockwork, How Do You Do? appears to have started as a tirade on the record industry, but ultimately descends into Bon Jovi territory saying as long as the band play well on a Saturday night it'll all be OK! Musically the song is good with a great guitar solo, and a crescendo of an ending. Maybe with better developed lyrics this would have been a great song, instead of been merely good to listen to.

The live version of Nothing Happened Today gives a good insight on why the Boomtown Rats were a great live band. Geldof milks the pauses, and the drums are more manic than the recording. The vaudeville break doesn’t sound as good, but remember this is live, and that sort of thing is always easier to mix in the studio.

Beware Episode #3 isn’t what you expect! Now I expected "That conclude Episode #3, we will return shortly", door slams and washer woman sings. END.But no! That's not the end suddenly there is some cackling, and some voices saying "that's not funny, I'm not laughing, that's not funny".... For some unknown reason, the spooky reprise on Sleep has transferred itself to the end of episode #3!!!! This means that despite the running order being as the original album you are required to splice episode #3 and burn it to get the album back as it should be. Grrrrr!!!!

This CD is less essential than either of the first two albums as a re-release as a CD version did previously exist with the correct running order. The album finds the Boomtown Rats at their commercial-peak, with an album that sold right across the world and put itself into more homes than any of its predecessors or successors. To many people, this album epitomises the Boomtown Rats.

Personally, I prefer the first two albums, but I would wholeheartedly recommend this as essential listening as far as the Boomtown Rats are concerned.

The Brighton Centre

Rats played here on Surfacing tour

Carlisle - Market Hall

Rats played here on Surfacing tour.

Roxy Theater, Los Angeles, Hollywood, CA

http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/boomtown-rats/concerts/roxy-may-25-1980.html

Austin, Texas