The Boomtown Rats

The Boomtown Rats are an Irish rock/new wave band originally formed in Dublin in 1975. Between 1977 and 1985, they had a series of Irish and UK hits including "Like Clockwork", "Rat Trap", "I Don't Like Mondays" and "Banana Republic". The original line-up comprised six musicians; five from Dún Laoghaire in County Dublin; Gerry Cott (rhythm guitar), Simon Crowe (drums), Johnnie Fingers (keyboards), Bob Geldof (vocals) and Garry Roberts (lead guitar), plus Fingers's cousin Pete Briquette (bass). The Boomtown Rats broke up in 1986, but reformed in 2013, without Fingers or Cott. Garry Roberts died in 2022. The band's fame and notability have been overshadowed by the charity work of frontman Bob Geldof.

The band was formed in 1975 with five of the six members having come from Dún Laoghaire, while Pete Briquette was originally from Ballyjamesduff, County Cavan, Ireland. Geldof initially managed the band but took over the lead vocals from Garry Roberts. Initially known as The Nightlife Thugs, the group changed their name to The Boomtown Rats, which Geldof had taken from the name of Woody Guthrie's boyhood gang mentioned in Guthrie's autobiography Bound for Glory. The name change came during their first gig on Halloween Night, which took place at Bolton St College of Technology, Dublin (known now as TU Dublin Bolton Street). At the break in the middle of that first gig, Bob Geldof scrubbed The Nightlife Thugs from the blackboard beside the stage where their name was displayed and replaced it with ‘The Boomtown Rats’.

In the summer of 1976, the group played their first UK gig as well as gigs in Amsterdam, and Groningen in The Netherlands before moving to London where they signed with Ensign Records later that year. Their first single, "Lookin' After No. 1", released in August 1977 after a year of touring, including a support slot with Tom Petty. It reached the Top 40 of the UK singles chart at No. 11. Their first album The Boomtown Rats was released the following month and included another single, "Mary of the 4th Form" reached No. 15 in December. Music journalist Martin C. Strong commented, "Geldof's moody charisma helped to give the band a distinct identity".

The band together with producer Mutt Lange embarked on recording their next album, A Tonic for the Troops (1978). In May, the first single "She's So Modern" reached No. 12 in UK charts. A headlining tour around the UK culminated in a show filmed at the Hammersmith Odeon. The second single "Like Clockwork" reached the UK Top Ten at No. 6 in July. The album was released shortly after, while in early November, the third single "Rat Trap" became the first rock song by an Irish band to reach No. 1 in the UK. In addition, "Rat Trap" was also the first new wave song to claim the number one spot. The U.S. version of the album (with a slightly different selection of tracks) came out the next year on Columbia Records.

The band returned to the recording studio with Lange to produce a follow-up in 1979, while they embarked on a U.S. tour in support of the album with moderate success. The single "I Don't Like Mondays" was released in July, also reached No. 1 in the UK. The song was written in response to a school shooting in California, and became a worldwide Top Ten hit, except for the United States. It was the band's only song to reach the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and was included in the band's third album, The Fine Art of Surfacing released in November of that year. The album also contained "Diamond Smiles" and their next Top 10 hit in the UK, "Someone's Looking at You".

In December 1980, "Banana Republic" was released, which was their last Top 10 hit, reaching No. 3. In the following year, the Boomtown Rats' next studio album Mondo Bongo produced by Tony Visconti appeared. A second single, 'Elephant's Graveyard (Guilty)', charted at 26, while the title track appears in the U.S. without much success. During the subsequent tour, Gerry Cott decided to depart the band that continues as a quintet. In December 1981 the single 'Never in a Million Years' stalled at No. 62 in the UK charts.

The band's fifth album, V Deep, again produced by Visconti, was released in February 1982. A second single from the album "House on Fire" made number 24 in the UK singles chart. A third, 'Charmed Lives' failed to chart however. In the U.S., the album was initially rejected by their American label, which instead issued a four-song EP called The Boomtown Rats, featuring four selections from V Deep. The full album was eventually issued in the U.S. in late 1982. The same year Geldof appeared in the film Pink Floyd – The Wall directed by Alan Parker.

A follow-up album entitled In The Long Grass was recorded in 1983, but was initially rejected by the group's label. By 1984, the band was touring universities after becoming unable to fund the "guarantee" required to book mainstream concert halls. In The Long Grass was finally issued in the UK in May 1984, but failed to chart. Two singles, "Tonight" and "Drag Me Down", were taken from the album; these reached the lower rungs of the UK singles chart, but two further singles, "Dave" and "A Hold of Me", failed to register.