The Boomtown Rats will reunite for a set at this year’s Isle of Wight Festival, it’s been confirmed.
Bob Geldof and co split in 1986 after six albums plus memorable hit singles I Don’t Like Mondays and Rat Trap.
Now the frontman has lined up with original members Pete Briquette, Simon Crowe and Garry Roberts. Geldof says: “I’ve always fancied playing the Isle of Wight Festival, ever since I hitched there in the good/bad days when I was a kid.”
Promoter John Giddings believes the Rats will fit perfectly in a bill that includes Bon Jovi, Little Angels, Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel, Hugh Cornwell, The Blockheads and more.
“Our audience will love them,” Giddings says. “Their catalogue is classic.”
In 2005 Geldof told Classic Rock the band’s music remained “dynamic, exciting and radical,” adding: “The coolest thing about being in the Rats is that we were one of about 10 bands at the time who did actually change things.
“At the time, you were openly contemptuous of the system and yet you were blatantly using it. I was contemptuous of the alternative system as well as the establishment, and I was using both.”
The Rats have not revealed whether any further reunion activity is planned.
-Classic Rock Magazine
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