Events/Press Releases - Aiken Promotions
The Boomtown Rats,
Live at the Marquee Cork,
5th July 2013.
Once famously described as ‘licentious, festering reprobates’ and ‘leprous anti-establishment scumbags’ and banned from playing in their home country, it’s difficult to overestimate the shock and awe The Boomtown Rats inspired in late 70s Ireland. Fronted by “one of Irelands greatest lyricists" (Niall Stokes, Hot Press), they set out to “disrupt, disturb and question what it meant to be young in the Ireland of the mid-70s”. It is almost inconceivable to imagine the emergence of many an Irish band that followed without The Rats utterly altering the cultural landscape and blasting a way for others to follow.
Some 26 years since their final show in Dublin in May ’86, The Boomtown Rats have re-formed and will be taking to the stage at Live At The Marquee Cork on 5th July ’13. For your chance to witness this landmark concert you can purchase tickets here - www.ticketmaster.ie or call 0818 719 300.
Formed in 1975 in Dun Laoghaire The Boomtown Rats exploded out of Ireland in ’76 and their fast, loud, furious music and their fast loud furious attitude meant they became part of the burgeoning punk scene. Singer Bob Geldof’s defiant motormouth arrogance and flagrant disrespect for authority endeared him and his band to every youth who felt weighed down by the heavy handed blandishments of church and state who did everything in their power to stop them playing their native country. In Britain The Boomtown Rats first toured with the Ramones and Talking Heads rocking and mocking the status quo alongside the Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Jam and The Stranglers. They became one of the biggest bands of the late 70s/80s with a string of top ten hits and platinum albums, earning them Brit Awards, Ivor Novellos and Grammy Awards along the way. Making history as the first Irish band to have a UK no 1 hit with ‘Rat Trap’, they went on to top the charts in 32 Countries with ‘I Don't Like Mondays’ and racked up 6 chart topping albums. In 1984, inspired by a TV report on the famine in Ethiopia, Bob Geldof organized the star-studded Band Aid and co-wrote its "Do They Know It's Christmas," one of the biggest-selling singles in history. The next year he organised Live Aid. Fittingly The Boomtown Rats came home to bow out with their final show at SelfAid, an unemployment benefit in Dublin in 1986. The poignant final song they played was their first big hit ‘Lookin After No.1’.
Bob Geldof says: ““The old town looks the same, as I step down from the train, and there to greet me is"….er....I won’t quote Phillo and say ‘the boys are back in town’ or the Rats are back in Boomtown (but they are!), I’ll just say we fancied getting up there and playing those songs again for the sheer joy of it and we hope some of you would like to hear them from the band that made them. Anyway it'll be good to be back and better to see everyone again!
Tickets on sale NOW priced €35, 45.
TICKETS FOR LIVE AT THE MARQUEE 2013 AVAILABLE FROM:-
Ticketmaster Outlets Nationwide
24hr Credit Card Bookings: 0818 719300 (ROI)
24hr Credit Card Bookings: 0844 277 4455 (NI)
CORK LIVE AT THE MARQUEE 2013 (as of 15 February 2013)
12 June 2013 OLLY MURS
16 June 2013 THE WANTED
23 June 2013 ELTON JOHN
26 June 2013 ELVIS COSTELLO & THE IMPOSTERS
27 June 2013 ZZ TOP
29 June 2013 THE CORONAS
1 July 2013 STING
5 July 2013 THE BOOMTOWN RATS
6 July 2013 CHRISTY MOORE
