The reunited Boomtown Rats have announced their first Dublin shows in 26 years.
You’ll be able to see the band variously described as “licentious, festering reprobates” and “leprous anti-establishment scumbags” during the ‘70s in Vicar St. on October 12 and 13 with tickets priced €39 available on Friday July 12.
Ahead of that comes the August 2 release here of Back To Boomtown: Classic Rats’ Hits, a 15-track run through of their back catalogue which also includes a couple of newly recorded tunes.
“Age, curiosity and cash prompted our interest in getting together again,” says Bob Geldof of their reconvening. “Age and cash are self-evident. Curiosity about each other and what we did together in the '70' and 80's. Curiosity about those songs that seem to have endured and the music and band that powered them. When I sang ‘Rat Trap’, ‘Looking After No 1’, ‘… Mondays’, ‘Someone's Looking At You’, ‘Banana Republic’, ‘She's So Modern’ etc. again, there was nothing I would change. On re-hearing, on re-singing them I understood that they could have been written yesterday. The circumstances within which they were written hadn't changed. Tragically and unfortunately I could sing those words with utter conviction. This isn't nostalgia, rather perhaps a time to be angry again. Time to go back to Boomtown. If only for a short while...”