Rumblings of Boomtown Rats

While members of Ireland’s Boomtown Rats have been touring for the past few years, 2013 marks the return of Bob Geldof to the group. So far, one show with “Saint Bob” has been announced – the Isle Of Wight Festival in June.

Photo: AP Photo / MTI

Hay Festival, Budapest, Hungary

The band’s website shows the band playing occasional dates before and after summer with a lineup featuring Rats vets Garry Roberts and Simon Crowe.

However, it’s the lineup and date at the top of the page that caught our eye – Roberts and Crowe along with Pete Briquette and Bob Geldof – performing at the U.K.’s Isle Of Wight Festival June 16.

During the 1980s, The Boomtown Rats achieved U.K. chart success with songs such as “Like Clockwork,” “Rat Trap” and “Someone’s Looking At You.”

While the band’s best known song, “I Don’t Like Mondays,” hit No. 1 in the U.K., many U.S. radio stations refused to play the single. That’s because the song was inspired by a real-life incident in which a 16-year-old girl fired at children on a San Diego elementary school playground, killing two people and injuring others.

As it turned out, Geldof became known for more than The Boomtown Rats. Having starred in the 1982 film “Pink Floyd The Wall,” Geldof co-wrote with Midge Ure “Do They Know It’s Christmas,” to raise money for victims of an early 1980s famine in Ethiopia. Recorded by “Band Aid” – an all-star collection of singers that included Phil Collins, Sting, George Michael, Paul McCartney, Boy George and members of Big Country – “Do They Know It’s Christmas” paved the way for other charity recordings by star performers as well as the 1985 Live Aid charity event.

And now we have a reconstituted Boomtown Rats playing Isle of Wight. Expect more dates to be announced. Click here for more info.