The Boomtown Rats

It seems like such a long time ago that the Golden Anniversary Tour was announced, and if you were like me, you will have jumped instantly onto the web to buy your tickets.  The opening gig in Nottingham was a must, so was the actual anniversary gig in London, one of my more local gigs in Manchester and my home gig in Liverpool, which would close the UK tour.  And then the wait began.  Time passed so slowly from February when the tickets were secured, to the opening chapter in Nottingham, in October.  I had the Music in the Park festival in Leyland to break up the long wait before, eventually, the 10^th October arrived, and I headed cross-country to the opener in Nottingham. 

Wow, meeting up in a pub in Market Square, there was a palpable sense of excitement in the air – denied a tour in 2020 because of Covid, this was well overdue.  The Nottingham gig was powerful, a slightly longer set than any of the others I saw, later on the tour.  Opening with Rat Trap was a bit of a surprise but a brilliant move because it set a high bar for everything that was to follow – though the crowd in the venue clearly hadn’t got the memo, with many of them staying seated until well into the set.  Eva Brown, Like Clockwork ... the roll-call of megahits from our mis-spent youth rollocked off the stage like they were being delivered by a group of kids – it was hard to imagine that these awesome musicians had been plying their trade for fifty years!  A personal high-point of the Nottingham gig was the inclusion of ‘When the Night Comes’ – one of my all-time favourite Rat’s tracks.

Then I had to wait a couple of weeks for London, but jeez was it worth the wait.  The pre-gig meet-up was incredible – the biggest collection of devoted Rats’ fans that I have had the pleasure to be among.  Meeting up on Halloween also added an extra frisson.  Like me, some of these fans have followed the band throughout their teens and all through their adult lives, many of them I’d met on the road before, but there were also some new faces that I hope to see again, soon.  To all the fans of The Boomtown Rats wherever you are, may the road always rise to meet you.

Every seat in those hallowed halls at Hammersmith was kitted out with a Rat mask which we were all asked to wear for a mass photo taken from the stage.  When the curtains at long last came back (metaphorically), we were treated to the band’s specially created Anniversary Fillum, a montage of clips and interviews and musical snippets all designed with one thing in mind: to celebrate the anniversary of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band in the world, from Dun Laoghaire (will whoever design the tour T-shirts, please note the right spelling – were those Flexipop discs issued for nothin’ back in the late 70’s?).  After the crowd sent the band their deepest Birthday wishes and a giant rat-infested cake exploded on the screen before us, the band took to the stage with a huge roar, with the fans instantly jumping to their feet…..and never sitting down again all night.  On this occasion, we were blessed with a real saxophone for the intro to Rat Trap, and that set the tone for a matchless night: Simon’s incredible drumming that makes ‘Neon Heart’ one of the greatest songs in the Rat’s entire catalogue of brilliance, ‘She’s Gonna Do You In’ with its extended dream-like middle bit (which Bob called the ‘Pink Floyd bit….goes on for fuckin’ ages’!!!), another of my all-time favourite Rats’ tracks, the awesome ‘Monster Monkeys’ and ‘Someone’s Looking At You’, which led us to the song we’d been collectively holding our breath for…Alan tickled the ivories for the intro of ‘I Don’t Like Mondays’ and the whole auditorium sang along as one, to a song that will always be regarded by Rats’ fans as one of rock music’s all-time classics ‘…..and the lesson today….’ You all know the rest!  What a night!!!

Then for me, it was Manchester and yet another stellar performance from this ‘fuck-off’ band.  After the poignant mass sing-along of ‘Mondays’, Bob asked for audience participation as the Rats struck up ‘Against the World’.  As this was a track that probably only the most-ardent fans would know, this was quickly followed by the huge crowd-pleaser of ‘She’s So Modern’, a hit from 1978 that almost everyone in the auditorium seemed to know and remember and sing along to!!!  Fuckin’ hell that was good!

And then it was on to the final gig of the tour – in my city of Liverpool. Just like in London, the crowd leapt to their feet the moment the band members were seen scurrying to their place on stage, under the subdued lighting.  Once again, it was clear why the band had chosen to open the set with ‘Rat Trap’ – it lit the fuse on the audience, who had gathered in this place of faded glory to hear their heroes play the music that had formed the soundtrack of their lives. Added to the songs we’d relished in Nottingham, London and Manchester, were ‘Banana Republic’, Diamond Smiles and the anthem that had closed every show on the tour, ‘The Boomtown Rats’. 

Whether our heroes had been inspired by the personal homage paid to Liverpool’s Greatest Sons, as they toured the city’s Beatles heritage sites earlier in the day, is something only Bob, Pete, Simon, Alan, Paul, Darren and Steve will know, but the band were on fire in Liverpool that night, and I hope that they had as much fun as they seemed to be having.  After the audience had revelled in the chorus of ‘Against the World’, Bob rightly called Liverpool the musical centre of the universe, and laughed as we sang in Scouse, ‘You, and me, against the whole fuckin’ werld’.  For the three or four minutes of that song, I felt that the glorious noise of The Boomtown Rats had become even more glorious! 

And so it ends, as all great things must.  The Boomtown Rats Golden Anniversary UK tour.  So many great memories, so much fun, and nostalgia, unashamed hero-worship and most importantly, epic music played with skill and integrity and love.  A group of Irish musicians that for me, have changed the world – and I’m sure have changed the lives of many of you reading this.  

All we can do now is plan our next move – the next gig, festival appearance and tour.  I want to end this personal reflection by giving a shout-out to the crew that work so feckin’ hard behind the scenes to make all this possible, to Mark, Kay, Suss, Radar and the rest of the dedicated crew, who plug in all the bits, tweak the knobs and programme the stage lighting – huge thanks guys!

2025 – just wow!!  When can we do it all again?

Coldog