THE BOOMTOWN RATS
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| The Above image - The Boomtown Rats, live Queens University, Belfast 28th Dec 1977 - Photograph © Terrence Bowman
The Boomtown Rats - Ulster Hall, Belfast 28th December 1977.
Review from No Fun Fanzine Issue 3.
And so it came to pass that the Rats came to Belfast and before the gig Bob Geldof provided perhaps 77’s weirdest quote - on seeing the venue he asked ‘Is there air conditioning in here?’ As is now custom, we arrived without tickets but soon bought a couple off a frightened looking peoploid. The scene was too heavy for quite a few of the happy people in the massive queue. Apart from bottle smashing we were let in quickly. They had also given up the ‘leather and metal goods stall’ idea and the weirds with the custom built bondage suits (symbols of the suppression of the masses) were admitted without trouble. When I reached the gig the support band, Pretty Boy Floyd & the Gems seemed to have run out of New Wave numbers, resorting to ‘Honky Tonk Woman’ and ‘Rock ‘New Roll’. They were a very tight band with good instrumentalists, the keyboard adding a lot to ‘Straighten Out’. They warmed the crowd up well. What was the crowd like? The mad eejits at the front of course, the hip New Wave Tahoe people and punkettes in the middle and towards the back the ‘curious onlookers’.
Soon the Bob Geldof show was underway as the Rats rocketed through most of their album with perfect precision. I was amazed at the sound quality, and it was a note perfect set and it is obvious that the wide touring experience has moulded them into a tight unit. ‘Never Bite The Hand That Feeds’, ‘Kicks’, ‘She’s Gonna Do You In’, and the pop Dr Feelgood element came through; and uncle Bob was playing the big showman. He told the gobbers where to go, hit out at the ‘curious onlooker’ section of the crowd and introduced numbers with contrived anecdotes. From him not just the Lee Brilleaux ‘Fankyou’ but more warnings about the press, leading to ‘Lies’ of course. Other songs not on the album (which by the way he urged us to buy with our Xmas tokens) ‘You Make Me Feel Strange’ and ‘20th Century Girl’. None of the rest of the band could get a word in edgeways, but compensated by their ability. The guitars exchanging licks were superb. Highlight of the night of course was the historical ‘Do The Rat’. For this was my initiation in the truly wonderful new sport. If you weren’t there to learn how, they’re coming back and you’ll have to go see them. Bod tried to get the stiffs in the crowd to move but they were obviously at the wrong gig and 4 weirdos demonstrated Ireland’s fastest growing activity on stage. Then there was ‘Joey’ my fave. Ok, so it’s Springsteenish but it provides the epileptic Pete Briquette with a good bass line!!
An incredible ‘Mary of the 4th Form ‘ & ‘Looking After No 1’ and the Rats left the stage, only to reappear for the obligatory encore. Then again for ‘Barefootin’ and ‘Born To Burn’ and ‘Auld Lang Syne’ ( for those of us still standing!!). It was an exhausting gig and with Bob assuring us we were better than Birmingham, Glasgow and the rest, we staggered out into the air!
Let’s face it, the Rats have nowt to do with punk, but they must be the best R ‘n’ B pop rock (well you try and categorize them!) band gigging at the moment. This was more of a show than a gig with Geldof’s incredible stage performance the highlight ( as of course was Pete Briquette’s famous sideways runs across the stage). Rock’s answer to Brian Clough with the 70’s answer to the early Stones left us with just two questions to be answered. We can only wait for their second album or their return to Belfast in March. Whichever comes sooner. In the meantime just stick your thumb in your nostril, stick your........oh well, just keep doing the rat.
Pyjamas Punks November 2020 - Brian O'Donnell from Belfast band Voltage recalls the The Boomtown Rats gig at Queens University 28th December 1977. Standing on the Springfield Road Belfast waiting on the number 9 bus.We were dressed in our pyjamas (over the top of our clothes)! It was 1977. We had tickets to see The Boomtown Rats in concert at the McMordie Hall at Queens University. Eugene had the best looking Blue Striped Pyjamas with a white rope cord tie to secure. Alans and mine were much less striking 'boys' Pyjamas. It didn't matter, we didn't care ,we wore them in homage to Johnny Fingers - Keyboard player with The Boomtown Rats. It was our first gig. The excitement jumping on the bus, the driver looking strangely at us, shaking his head, 'dinging' our tickets in the machine and taking our seats at the back of the bus. A few looks and heads turning went on around the bus. We dandered up Great Victoria Street to Queens. As we got to the side of the students union building, I could feel the tension building in the air. There was a lot of lads wearing leather clad jackets with chains and safety pins attached , ripped jeans and tore T-shirts in the queue. I had never seen anyone like this before. There was a lot of older guys around us. I was nervous. I felt younger. The crowd started to move into the side entrance of the union doors opened.I could see the two bouncers ahead looking at tickets. When it got to my turn, the bouncer took my ticket from me. I said I wanted to keep my ticket. He brushed me on towards concert hall saying "you can get one after the concert is over". It did sicken me a bit, I felt cheated. Next thing, I am in the hall, loud music was booming around my head, I think it was Steely Dan 'Do it again'. The darkness of McMordie Hall, the stage was small and we were close to front. Pretty Boy Floyd and the Gems took to the stage. The lead singer was really good. I focused on the guitarist, he was great, again they looked older than us. 'Rough, Tough, Pretty too' I remember, sound was brilliant, raw, this is what I wanted to play. Suddenly, the lead singer lifts a guitar and starts to smash it up over the front of the stage. The crowd sways back from the stage and then forward again. He breaks the guitar in half. All I remember is a guy beside me with the neck,fretboard and headstock of this guitar in his hand for the rest of the gig. The Boomtown Rats took to the stage. Bob Geldof shouted "the world owes me a living" to the crowd and it was straight into "Looking after number 1". The crowd around me was pogo-ing, we pogo-ed for the first time with the crowd. It was exhilarating. Bob strutted back and forth on this few feet width stage between Pete Bricquitte on bass and Johnny Fingers at front left of stage. He was wearing striped Pyjamas! The first Boomtown Rats Album was all songs I knew, so when " Do the Rat" was launched and crowd seemed to up a gear level of pogo-ing, it was quite frenzy commotion in motion around me. The lights darkened with "Joey's on the street again ", at one point in the middle of song, the spotlight was on Bob's head only as he sang "There's no romance, no romance, for Joey in the city"."She's gonna do you in" a real crowd-pleaser, with "Kicks" ,Gary's on guitar with menacing opening to "Close as you'll ever be", a stand-out for me. "Mm mm Mary" "Mary of the 4th Form" brought the gig to a close. As the lights went up and as we walked out of the hall, in front of me was the guy still holding the smashed-up broken guitar half as I reached down and picked up a ticket from the floor. |
IT’S A CRAP RAT TRAP
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Live review Ulster Hall, Tuesday 13th June 1978 from Alternative Ulster Fanzine No 72 - by Gavin Martin The Mass Psychology of Rattism The queue outside is large, the atmosphere stagnant. It’s more like waiting to get into the flicks than a rock ‘n’ roll gig. Maybe it’s coz the Rats pull people other new wavers leave stranded in the outbacks with Saturday Night Fever discoramalama. And when young Ian* says ‘such a lot of posers’ I’m not about to argue. *Ian Moran, photographer with Gavin. Inside support band The Vipers prove they’re punchy but pedestrian. Treading the vines already covered by Dr Feelgood and indeed The Boomtown Rats in their early days, they deserve to break into the club circuit. All 2nd band Blue Steam deserve to break is their neck, so-oo turgid, mah babe. The Boomtown Rats are not long on stage before I realise that Bob Geldof is a FAT PAIN. He churns out the same script and choreographed stage movements that he’s been using for the past two years. Any illusion that he’s a belligerent upstart and not a shrewd showbiz sharpshooter just has to go, kiddies. This guy makes Dean Martin look like Joe Strummer. The act functions on the idea that we are the kindergarden and Bob is the school teacher. Do this, do that, stand up, sit down and eat chips out of pants and watch the sun shine out of my arse. But the audience is APESHIT bananas, proving that, like new wave blood brothers, in the mass acceptance syndrome - The Stranglers, their popularity runs on the audiences penchant for toying with mild masochism. The Rats act is over rehearsed, clinical, cut ‘n’ dried. Perhaps such military type efficiency is a tonic for the troops but it makes me go AWOL, I prefer my rock ‘n’ roll from Kamikaze pilots. All or nothing. The set is mostly songs from the second album nearly all of which show their pretensions to gaudy sophistication taken to extremes. Despite Phil Lynott’s jamming on bass I reckon ‘Route 66’ to be a terribly unimaginative choice for an encore, it’s like playing ‘The Lords Prayer’, fellas. Nonetheless ‘Joey’ & ‘No 1’ jolt the memory centre back to how they used to be. But even then there’s a solid wall between performers and audience. No empathy and I feel like lot’s knife in the face of seething adulation. The kids don’t seem to mind it’s cattle-pen-rock, just show them the pastures and they’re happy. And Bob Geldof? He’s attained self parody very early in his career. He ponces and preens like a clapped out prima donna. A Mick Jagger or a Bryan Ferry. His act is just that, an act. He probably doesn’t mean or care about all the shit he spews up in-between songs, it’s just his way of turning hot air into money. Oooh for the caviar, Bob - I hope it chokes you. |