Boomtown Rats

[Dr Jekyll]

An averagely interesting documentary on iPlayer:

Citizens of the Boomtown. The story of the Boomtown Rats.

[droopsnoot]

I saw that, it was on the TV a few weeks ago. It did remind me that I quite like some of their stuff, but I'd never thought of them as quite so important as the documentary suggested. That said, I was quite young when they were first around, so I probably just didn't give it any thought.

[vixen1700]

Mary of the Fourth Form was a pretty decent tune.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

droopsnoot said:

I saw that, it was on the TV a few weeks ago. It did remind me that I quite like some of their stuff, but I'd never thought of them as quite so important as the documentary suggested. That said, I was quite young when they were first around, so I probably just didn't give it any thought.

They were an OK band that had 4-5 brilliant songs. Certainly not the messiahs as portrayed in the documentary

[Turn7]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

They were an OK band that had 4-5 brilliant songs. Certainly not the messiahs as portrayed in the documentary

Yeah, I'll agree with that.

I like Rat Trap for its story telling, and a few others, but the likes of The Stranglers put them to shame.....

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

Turn7 said:

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

They were an OK band that had 4-5 brilliant songs. Certainly not the messiahs as portrayed in the documentary

Yeah, I'll agree with that.

I like Rat Trap for its story telling, and a few others, but the likes of The Stranglers put them to shame.....

I can remember the summer/winter of '77

We went to live gigs most Friday Nights and saw

Clash
Jam
Damned
Buzzcocks
Boomtown Rats
Stranglers
Elvis Costello
Ramones
TRB

and a whole bunch of others that I have long forgotten. Happy days

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

Just checked my memory. We didn't go to Judas Priest or AC/DC, but nearly all the rest of these:

https://rocktourdatabase.com/venues/cambridge-corn...

Proper happy days

[monty999]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

I can remember the summer/winter of '77

We went to live gigs most Friday Nights and saw

Clash
Jam
Damned
Buzzcocks
Boomtown Rats
Stranglers
Elvis Costello
Ramones
TRB

and a whole bunch of others that I have long forgotten. Happy days

And they usually cost less than 3 quid a ticket..... happy days indeed !!

[ajprice]

I didn't see the documentary so this may have been part of it. The only thing that really stuck with me about Boomtown Rats was the story behind 'I Don't Like Mondays' of the school shooting in 1979 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Elementary.... She was 16 at the time, her dad bought her a gun for Christmas and she sat in the house shooting at the school across the road. She's still in prison.

[dandarez]

monty999 said:

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

I can remember the summer/winter of '77

We went to live gigs most Friday Nights and saw

Clash
Jam
Damned
Buzzcocks
Boomtown Rats
Stranglers
Elvis Costello
Ramones
TRB

and a whole bunch of others that I have long forgotten. Happy days

And they usually cost less than 3 quid a ticket..... happy days indeed !!

A few years earlier in Aug 1970 you could have gone the Isle of Wight Festival for all weekend Fri, Sat and Sun for 3 quid!
Wed and Thurs were free!
Groups from all round the world inc the Doors, Hendrix, Free, Moody Blues, too many to list.



Today? (well, when concerts start up again) they just, well, let's be blunt, fking rip everyone off.
Last concert I went to at Wembley last year, my ticket cost me £165. Five of us went so total of £825.

Somebody is making a f. mint!

EDIT
Oh, nearly forgot, re Boomtown Rats - can't stand Geldof, but who can? And the mention of The Clash above reminded me of this:

A good number of years back I was reading a book by Andy Kershaw.
I think Geldof's biggest enemy was Kershaw (don't really like him either, but if something looks interesting I'll read it).
The amusing section was about Geldof ripping down The Clash posters at Leeds Uni - where Kershaw was entertainments officer or something similar.

The posters described the Clash as the world's greatest rock and roll band.
The Boomtown Rats were to appear that night and Geldof was having a right altercation with Kershaw, whose fave band was the Clash, and Geldof strode up and down the corridors ripping the posters to shreds. What an arse!

Lots of 'Focken, focken, fock!'
'World's focken greatest focken rocken and roll band, my focken arse!'
(that's Geldof if you didn't guess!)

Edited by dandarez on Wednesday 8th July 22:38

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

monty999 said:

And they usually cost less than 3 quid a ticket..... happy days indeed !!

Can't recall...but if so £3 was a whole day's wages, so still quite expensive!

(or have 15 pints less that day )

[monty999]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

Can't recall...but if so £3 was a whole day's wages, so still quite expensive!

(or have 15 pints less that day )

Might have been if you were a paperboy, I think I was on about 70 quid a week as a 18 year old college holiday job in a warehouse, so not quite a days wage.

[Dr Jekyll]

monty999 said:

Might have been if you were a paperboy, I think I was on about 70 quid a week as a 18 year old college holiday job in a warehouse, so not quite a days wage.

70 quid a week for an 18 year old in a warehouse was very good for 1970, not bad for 1980

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

monty999 said:

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

Can't recall...but if so £3 was a whole day's wages, so still quite expensive!

(or have 15 pints less that day )

Might have been if you were a paperboy, I think I was on about 70 quid a week as a 18 year old college holiday job in a warehouse, so not quite a days wage.

Pump attendant, 45p an hour (but all the Walnut Whips you could eat )

[monty999]

Dr Jekyll said:

70 quid a week for an 18 year old in a warehouse was very good for 1970, not bad for 1980

Would have been around '79 - '80ish as all them bands were playing about then. If it had been '70 then wages would have been considerably less and we might have been talking about T-rex, Bay City Rollers or The Wombles gigs !! way before the punk revolution !

Edited by monty999 on Thursday 9th July 21:27

[lockhart flawse]

Funny band the Rats. Without Geldof they woiuld have been nothing; with him they were something but they were still crap. Saw them play in Leeds and then stood next to them in a pub the next night watching Dire Straits. I lit a cigarette for Pete Briquette.

They are probably a pretty important band in Ireland though and I enjoyed the documentary.

On the other hand was Fatima Mansions - they also had a charismatic singer with a harder edge and one of the best unknown riffs in Blues For Ceaucescu. Blinding song to be payed at maximum volume.

[l354uge]

I went to school with the drummers son.

Boom.

Minds blown.

I still only know one of their songs, though

[anonymous-user]

dandarez said:

Andy Kershaw.
Geldof

A pair of shysters.

[Penelope Stopit]

Raygun said:

dandarez said:

Andy Kershaw.
Geldof

A pair of shysters.

Me too, horrible people

I'm Adam ant about it

[Penelope Stopit]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

I can remember the summer/winter of '77

We went to live gigs most Friday Nights and saw

Clash
Jam
Damned
Buzzcocks
Boomtown Rats
Stranglers
Elvis Costello
Ramones
TRB

and a whole bunch of others that I have long forgotten. Happy days

Please tell me something anything about the Ramones