After last year’s storming of the Isle of Wight Festival stage an exhilarated Bob Geldof said “It’s weird. I’d forgotten how powerful a band The Rats are!”
Others hadn’t. What was only meant to be a brief “re-grouping” turned into a triumphant sell out U.K. tour, a block-booked 2014 Festival season and now the announcement of ‘Ratlife’ the second half of The Boomtown Rats’ second coming. Taking in the towns missed out on their first jaunt and returning – literally by public demand – to the country’s major cities so thoroughly re-Ratted six months ago. Beyond nostalgia both press and audience agreed that those many classic Ratsongs had indeed stood the test of time morphing from the radical, upstart transgressive rage of the mid-70’s into tunes for the ages with a tragic contemporary resonance.
The audience, ranging from the Rats’ contemporaries to the newer, younger curious crowd wondering what the fuss had been about, immediately recognised the timeless frustrations and rage of the Now embodied in the Rats’ tunes and performance. Age had indeed not withered them, but made them more potent. At a time of cookie cutter anodyne musical drivel the visceral Shock of the Old from its original purveyors is one of contemporary music’s great treats and revelations.
Formed in 1975 in Dublin The Boomtown Rats exploded out of Ireland in ’76 and their fast, loud, furious music and their fast, loud, furious attitude meant they became part of the burgeoning punk scene. Singer Bob Geldof’s defiant motormouth arrogance and flagrant disrespect for authority endeared him and his band to every youth who felt weighed down by the heavy handed blandishments of church and state. In the U.K. The Boomtown Rats first toured with the Ramones and Talking Heads rocking and mocking the status quo alongside the Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Jam and The Stranglers.
Accompanying the Live Nation promoted tour the Rats will release Ratlife – a hits compilation of classic Rats tracks with previously unheard additions.
They became one of the biggest bands of the late 70s/80s with a string of top ten hits and platinum albums, earning them Brit Awards, Ivor Novellos and Grammy Awards. Making history as the first Irish band to have a U.K. no 1 hit with Rat Trap, they went on to top the charts in 32 Countries with I Don’t Like Mondays and racked up six era-defining albums including the seminal The Fine Art of Surfacing.
As part of this tour The Boomtown Rats will visit Liverpool, a scene of great triumphs in the early days of the band when they entertained Eric’s incredible crowd, the gig will be at the 02 Academy on October 23rd.
Tickets for gig at the 02 Liverpool Academy go on sale from Friday 4th July and are priced at £25. Tickets can be purchased from the o2 Academy on Hotham Street.
For a review of The Boomtown Rats gig in Newcastle during 2013 go to http://www.liverpoolsoundandvision.co.uk/2013/11/05/the-boomtown