The Boomtown Rats
Rock bandWikipedia
59
MENTIONS
37
EPISODES
35
PODCASTS
Search complete. 59 mentions across 37 episodes found for "The Boomtown Rats".
Sep 20, 2026
Dave GwilliamHOST
There are some artists I need help understanding.
Dave GwilliamHOST
I've tried to understand the Boomtown Rats.
Dave GwilliamHOST
I've tried to understand Todd Rundgren.
Dave GwilliamHOST
I've tried to understand Lou Reed and others from the 70s.
Dave GwilliamHOST
This week has been about assumptions, and today the assumption is mine.
Dave GwilliamHOST
Because there are artists I can respect, artists whose importance I understand, artists other people hear very deeply, and I still cannot quite find the doorway.
Dave GwilliamHOST
The Boomtown Rats are one.
Dave GwilliamHOST
Todd Rundgren is another.
MattGUEST
You know, it's just part of me, really, my DNA.
MattGUEST
And I found sort of, you know, once I was able to start buying my own records, it was about the time when It was kind of post-punk, I suppose, when the sort of Skinny Tide, New Wave sort of band started getting in the charts, you know, and punk got commercialized and it was sort of, it was bands like the Boomtown Rats and the Police and, you know, those were, I thought they were really cool.
MattGUEST
I thought the Police and the Boomtown Rats were just as cool as the Clash and the Damned, you know, when you're nine or ten, it's all good, you know, so it's only when you get older you realize there's a bit of bit of difference, but then I was hooked from then and I started buying my own records and never stopped really and going to gigs.
MattGUEST
Again, there was another thing, I was old enough to go to gigs and never stopped really.
MattGUEST
I just can't imagine not doing it.
6 MINS LATER
DubyaHOST
See, and that's the thing.
DubyaHOST
As you share, all of you share these memories of these bands that really struck a chord, no pun intended, inside of you.
DubyaHOST
I know there are people listening that's going, yeah, yeah, I remember Top of the Pops, or I remember prancing around my room listening to Boomtown Rats, Adam and the Ant, Gary Newman, whoever it be.
David QuantickGUEST
That's right.
Mike Fenton StevensHOST
Uh, leading, of course, to the Boomtown Rats and all the hit and everything, and somebody said, "If it had been a Wednesday, would we have had Band Aid?"
David QuantickGUEST
Good Lord.
David QuantickGUEST
That's an incredible, a genuinely incredible thought.
Tim TuckerHOST
[laughs] There aren't many, I mean, if you go back to 1977, you've got, when it enters, um, when it gets to number one, you've got 2-4-6-8 Motorway, which [laughs] I don't think is punk, but people used to wrap it into there.
Tim TuckerHOST
You've got Mary of the Fourth Form by the Boomtown Rats.
Tim TuckerHOST
But the top songs are ABBA's Name of the Game and, of course, your beloved Queen's We Are the Champions-
Eoghan LyngGUEST
Yeah
Mike VanackerHOST
Question one.
Mike VanackerHOST
In 1979, the Boomtown Rats sang that they don't like which day of the week? Who's sitting there right now going, tell me why I don't like...
Mike VanackerHOST
Mondays.
Mike VanackerHOST
No, they did not like Mondays.
Darren LudlowHOST
This is Radio Southland and stand by because we go running.
Darren LudlowHOST
Now formed in Dublin and around until 1985, the Boomtown Rats were actually a late 70s, early 80s crossover band, largely due to the profile of Bob Geldof and his charity work around famine in Africa.
Darren LudlowHOST
So, you know, gets into the early 80s, they fit.
Darren LudlowHOST
I'm making the rules.
7 MINS LATER
speaker_2SOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Oh, a little dude is trying to
Bob GeldofSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
watch Top of the Pop But Mom and Dad are fighting, don't they? He never stops She takes off her coat and walks down to the street It's cold on the road, but it's got that home beat Deep down in her pocket, she finds 50 feet Is there any way for a young girl to be? I'm gonna get out of school, work and sell my back to her Work all the hours God gave me Get myself a little easy moving and na-na-na-na-na And we've been...
Darren LudlowHOST
One from the boomtown rats you may have forgotten, that was Rat Trap.
Darren LudlowHOST
Radio South with Darren Ludlow.
Danny McCrumHOST
Let's see.
Danny McCrumHOST
Um, when we're talking about the Boomtown Rats.
Mike HarringtonHOST
Mm-hmm.
Danny McCrumHOST
Remember that, that band that you hadn't heard of?
Danny McCrumHOST
And behind the scenes, uh, uh, he's done an enormous amount of amazing charitable work.
Danny McCrumHOST
He's a, he's a bit of a hero.
Danny McCrumHOST
And he came from this band called the Boomtown Rats, and on the, on the episode, I can't remember what the question was.
Danny McCrumHOST
It was, uh, something about which British band's-
Rory GallagherSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Well, they're the three main ones.
Rory GallagherSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
You also have Boomtown Rats, who are kind of up and coming, and Thin Lizzy.
Rory GallagherSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
But originally it was just like Van and myself, I guess.
Rory GallagherSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
and then later on the horse lips and so on.
Jim BoageHOST
Who was the first act to perform at the Live Aid concert in London in 1985? The Live
Jimmy GuthrieHOST
Aid concert in London in 1985, organized by Bob Geldof and the Boomtown Rats.
Jim BoageHOST
Remember, you have multiple choice.
Jim BoageHOST
Yeah.
Mary AustinSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
The single had been prompted by the BBC News coverage of the famine in Ethiopia.
Mary AustinSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
However, when the Boomtown Rats frontman Bob Geldof assembled a group of artists to record Do They Know It's Christmas?, Queen were not involved.
Mary AustinSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Their absence was widely noticed.
Mary AustinSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
When Queen were invited to appear at Live Aid that July, Freddie told me he didn't want to do it.
27 more episodes mention The Boomtown Rats.
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