
In the rush to condemn people are overlooking a lot of hidden gems and this box set of the 6 Boomtown Rats albums is a reminder that, especially. The notion that they were somehow bandwagon jumpers is somewhat laughable when you consider that all of us, from me, to you the reader to dear old Joe Strummer jumped the very attractive bandwagon at some point in those glorious mid to the late seventies. Their debut single was one of those singles that was played on the right radio shows and caused excited scrapping on the dance floors when it came out. Their debut album went round the classroom as school and people did like it although they were loathe to admit it. They were definitely in the middle of all the punk lunacy but have somehow been removed from the narrative to a point where every time this site mentions them there is a lot of angry shouting about their name on the internet. It obviously rankles with frontman Bob Geldof who seems to be prepared to swop his world fame as the famine busting guy for some acknowledgement of his band. The Boomtown Rats occupy a strange place in the punk terrain.ĭespite having massive hits they are glossed over, despite being fast and exciting in their early days they are considered ‘not punk’, despite having great clever lyrics they are looked on as being a punk band for kids.
