| Ratrospective | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Compilation album by | ||||
| Released | 1983 [1] | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Label | Columbia Records [1] | |||
| The Boomtown Rats chronology | ||||
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Ratrospective is a 1983 EP by The Boomtown Rats. [1] It was designed as a compilation of the singles that had been released to the US market and was released on the Columbia Records label. [2]
Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof is an Irish singer-songwriter, actor and political activist. He rose to prominence in the late 1970s as lead singer of the Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats, who achieved popularity as part of the punk rock movement. The band had UK number one hits with his compositions "Rat Trap" and "I Don't Like Mondays". Geldof starred as "Pink" in Pink Floyd's 1982 film Pink Floyd – The Wall. As a fundraiser, Geldof organised the charity supergroup Band Aid and the concerts Live Aid and Live 8, and co-wrote "Do They Know It's Christmas?", one of the best-selling singles of all time.
The Boomtown Rats are an Irish rock 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 group is led by vocalist Bob Geldof. The original line-up comprised Geldof, Garry Roberts, Johnnie Fingers (keyboards), Pete Briquette (bass), Gerry Cott and Simon Crowe (drums). The Boomtown Rats broke up in 1986, but reformed in 2013, without Fingers or Cott.
The Boomtown Rats is the debut album by Irish rock band The Boomtown Rats, released in September 1977. It included the Rats' first hit single, "Lookin' After No. 1", as well as the subsequent single, "Mary of the 4th Form". The album peaked at No. 18 in the UK Albums Chart in 1977.
A Tonic for the Troops is the second album by Irish rock band The Boomtown Rats, released in June 1978.
The Fine Art of Surfacing is the third album by Irish rock band The Boomtown Rats, released in June 1979. The album peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart in 1979.
V Deep was The Boomtown Rats' fifth album, and the first to be released after guitarist Gerry Cott left the group. It includes the minor hit single "House on Fire".
Mondo Bongo was The Boomtown Rats' fourth album. It peaked at No. 6 in the UK Albums Chart in February 1981, and No. 116 in the US Billboard 200.
"Rat Trap" is a single by The Boomtown Rats which reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart for two weeks in November 1978, the first single by a punk or new wave act to do so. It was written by Bob Geldof, and produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange. It replaced "Summer Nights", a hit single for John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John from the soundtrack of Grease, at number one in the UK chart after the latter's seven-week reign.
"I Don't Like Mondays" is a song by Irish new wave group the Boomtown Rats about the 1979 Cleveland Elementary School shooting in San Diego. It was released in 1979 as the lead single from their third album, The Fine Art of Surfacing. The song was a number one single in the UK Singles Chart for four weeks during the summer of 1979, and ranks as the sixth biggest hit of the UK in 1979. Written by Bob Geldof and Johnnie Fingers, the piano ballad was the band's second single to reach number one on the UK chart.
Loudmouth – The Best of Bob Geldof and the Boomtown Rats is a 1994 greatest hits compilation album from Bob Geldof and the Boomtown Rats, consisting mostly of Boomtown Rats material but also some of Geldof's solo work. It peaked at No. 10 in the UK Albums Chart in July 1994.
In the Long Grass was the sixth studio album by The Boomtown Rats, released in 1984 in the UK and 1985 in the US. It was the band's last studio material until 2020's Citizens of Boomtown.
"Someone's Looking at You" was the third and final single from The Boomtown Rats' album The Fine Art of Surfacing. It peaked at number two on the Irish Singles Chart and number 4 on the UK Singles Chart in February 1980.
Deep in the Heart of Nowhere is the first solo studio album by Bob Geldof, the ex-Boomtown Rats lead singer. It was released in November 1986. The collection reached No. 79 for one week in the UK Albums Chart in December 1986.
"Banana Republic" was the first single from The Boomtown Rats' album Mondo Bongo. It peaked at number three in the UK Singles Chart.
"Like Clockwork" is a single by The Boomtown Rats. It was the band's first to reach the Top Ten in the UK Singles Chart, peaking at No. 6.
"Mary of the 4th Form" is the second single by The Boomtown Rats. It was the first song taken from the band's first album The Boomtown Rats but the single is a different, re-recorded version from that on the album and 19 seconds longer. On French and Dutch releases of the single, "Do the Rat" was the A-side. The song's theme, of a teacher's sexual attraction to a pubescent girl, who behaves in an overtly sexual manner, was resonated in the Police song "Don't Stand So Close to Me".
"Lookin' After No. 1" is the first single by The Boomtown Rats. It appears on their first album The Boomtown Rats. The single was released in August 1977 after the band had performed a five date tour supporting Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. "Lookin' After No. 1" was the first so-called new wave single to be play listed by the BBC and the Boomtown Rats subsequently became the first new wave band to be offered an appearance on Top of the Pops performing the song. The song reached number 2 on the Irish Singles Chart and spent nine weeks in the UK Singles Chart reaching a peak of number 11. Different covers were produced for releases in the Netherlands and Japan. Reviewer David Clancy described the song as having a "breakneck sneering selfishness".
The Vegetarians of Love is the second solo studio album by Bob Geldof, released in July 1990. 'The Vegetarians of Love' was also the name of the band of musicians with whom Geldof recorded the album. It includes Pete Briquette from Geldof's previous band, The Boomtown Rats, who also co-wrote one track. Another notable co-writer was David A. Stewart of Eurythmics. The album was produced by Rupert Hine, who also played on it.
The discography of Irish new wave group The Boomtown Rats consists of seven studio albums, seven compilation albums, 23 singles and three video albums. The Boomtown Rats' debut release was the 1977 single "Lookin' After No. 1" which was originally written by frontman Bob Geldof in 1975 while waiting for his local unemployment office to open in his native Dun Laoghaire then a major port an hour south of central Dublin. The group's next single "Mary of the 4th Form" was released in the same year, along with their self-titled debut album.
Citizens of Boomtown is the seventh studio album by Irish band The Boomtown Rats, released on 13 March 2020 via BMG. It is the band's first album since 1984's In the Long Grass.