Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof is an Irish singer-songwriter and political activist. He rose to prominence in the late 1970s as the 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 co-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 to date.
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, Simon Crowe (drums), Johnnie Fingers (keyboards), Bob Geldof (vocals) and Garry Roberts, plus Fingers' 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, a former journalist with the New Musical Express.
John Peter Moylett, known professionally as Johnnie Fingers, is an Irish keyboardist and co-founding member of the new wave band The Boomtown Rats. He was notable for his attire of striped pyjamas on stage and his melodic piano style.
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 on 5 October 1979. The album peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart in 1979.
V Deep is the Boomtown Rats's fifth album, and the first to be released as a five-piece band, following the departure of guitarist Gerry Cott. 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. This is the band's last album to be recorded as six-piece band, as the guitarist Gerry Cott left the band shortly after the album's release.
Garrick Roberts was an Irish musician best known as the lead guitarist with The Boomtown Rats, a band which came into being in 1976. He and Johnnie Fingers (Moylett) had decided to put a band together and, between them, they recruited the other four members, Pete Briquette (bass), Gerry Cott (guitar), Simon Crowe (drums), and singer Bob Geldof.
Patrick Martin Cusack, known by the stage name Pete Briquette, is an Irish bassist, record producer and composer. He is a member of the Boomtown Rats and has also played in Bob Geldof's band.
"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 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 for well over three decades until 2020's Citizens of Boomtown.
"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.
"She's So Modern" is a song by The Boomtown Rats. It was the first single taken from the band's second album A Tonic for the Troops, whose title comes from a line in this song: "Charlie ain't no Nazi, she just likes to wear her leather boots, 'cos it's exciting for the veterans and it's a tonic for the troops". The single continued the Rats' high-energy post-punk/new wave sound that had typified earlier releases, but its fame would later be eclipsed by that of the band's more ballad-like global hit "I Don't Like Mondays". It has been described as "harmlessly smirking bubblegum a la The Knack".
"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 playlisted 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".
Back to Boomtown: Classic Rats Hits is the fifth greatest hits album by Irish band The Boomtown Rats. It was released by Virgin EMI on 9 September 2013. The album was announced in June 2013 along with news of the band's UK and Ireland tour. Back to Boomtown: Classic Rats Hits is the first album to be released since The Boomtown Rats reunited and the band's first greatest hits album since 2003's The Best of The Boomtown Rats. The album contains fourteen of the group's singles, as well as two new tracks, "The Boomtown Rats" and "Back To Boomtown". The digital version of the album features two additional songs. Following its release, Back to Boomtown: Classic Rats Hits debuted at number thirty-five on the Irish Albums Chart.
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, and the first album to be recorded as four-piece band, as the keyboardist Johnnie Fingers didn't return when the band was reunited in 2013. It is also the last album to feature longtime guitarist Garry Roberts who died on November 8, 2022.
