Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 11:20:18 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Citizens of Boomtown: The Story of The Boomtown Rats

Started by Ballad of Ballard Berkley, May 24, 2020, 06:19:29 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

the science eel

Just that he was going for a DOCTOR SEX pose on the front cover. Denim shirt, I think. Soft focus

Egyptian Feast

I seem to recall a bit where a posh guy brought Bob home to fuck his wife while he watched.

Jockice

#62
Quote from: gib on May 27, 2020, 12:20:13 AM
years ago i read geldof's autobiography and it was alright. The only bit i remember is where he lost his virginity to a mature lady in his street. She lived in his street, she didn't do him there. She didn't actually live in the street, before anyone thinks of doing a reply based on that.

do any other posters have vague memories of bob geldof's autobiography?

I do. I borrowed it from my mate Richard's elder sister Judy. All I can really remember is a bit about him bashing his head into a nail in a wall.

And talking of Elvis Costello, I've always thought his best album was Punch The Clock, although that may be due to the fact I got it for my 18th birthday, well I bought it with money I'd got on that day. I own several others but I think it's the only one I've bought on vinyl then repurchased on CD.

Anyway, it also reminds me of a drunken argument with another friend's elder brother when I happened to mention it in the pub once. He was jabbing his finger almost in my face going: "It's a pop album! A BLOODY POP ALBUM! You should listen to This Year's Model. Quality songwriting!" Which of course made me love PTC even more.  TYM is good too but it ain't that good.

I've always been ambivalent on Elvis C anyway. He's seen as an awfully important significant artist (unlike say the Boomtown Rats) but I think the best stuff he's done has been the most commercial. I have no interest at all into his soujourns into classical or whatever. Plus the one time I ever saw him live I managed to break a little finger getting out of my seat at the end. I hold him personally responsible for that.


gilbertharding

Think it's a bit silly to argue (if anyone is) that the Rats weren't good and important and big at the time, no matter how awful they clearly are in objective retrospect.

Looking After Number One was brilliant.

gilbertharding

Quote from: Egyptian Feast on May 27, 2020, 12:07:36 AM
He's usually worth a watch even (especially?) if he's talking shite, which is more than you can say for professional docshitter Bono.

Word to the wise: this documentary contains toxic amounts of Bongo Vox.

Oh my god, just watching the start of it now. Fucking Yentob.

alan nagsworth

Quote from: the science eel on May 24, 2020, 02:23:00 PM
They've a new album out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or8dD5VYk_4

It's not even worth my while pointing out what's wrong with this because there's nothing at all right with it. You'll see for yourself.

WHY IS NO ONE TALKING ABOUT THIS NEW SONG/VIDEO, IT'S FUCKING ATROCIOUS BEYOND BELIEF

Quote from: gib on May 27, 2020, 12:20:13 AM
years ago i read geldof's autobiography and it was alright. The only bit i remember is where he lost his virginity to a mature lady in his street. She lived in his street, she didn't do him there. She didn't actually live in the street, before anyone thinks of doing a reply based on that.

do any other posters have vague memories of bob geldof's autobiography?

There's a bit where a Vietnamese sex worker opens a (presumably old fashioned ring pull) can of coke with her labia. That's lingered in the memory.

batwings

Quote from: gib on May 27, 2020, 12:20:13 AM
years ago i read geldof's autobiography and it was alright. The only bit i remember is where he lost his virginity to a mature lady in his street. She lived in his street, she didn't do him there. She didn't actually live in the street, before anyone thinks of doing a reply based on that.

do any other posters have vague memories of bob geldof's autobiography?

I seem to remember a bit where as a boy, Geldof witnesses an old man getting killed by a train and the man's dog proceeding to eat his liver off the tracks.

jobotic

Quote from: alan nagsworth on May 27, 2020, 06:58:41 PM
WHY IS NO ONE TALKING ABOUT THIS NEW SONG/VIDEO, IT'S FUCKING ATROCIOUS BEYOND BELIEF

Spectacularly bad

rue the polywhirl

Quote from: alan nagsworth on May 27, 2020, 06:58:41 PM
WHY IS NO ONE TALKING ABOUT THIS NEW SONG/VIDEO, IT'S FUCKING ATROCIOUS BEYOND BELIEF

Because they watch it and prefer to repress it out of existence. I did.  'Nope... nope. Never was a new Boomtown Rats single and video. Ever. Not since 1980s'.

pigamus

Quote from: batwings on May 27, 2020, 11:28:34 PM
I seem to remember a bit where as a boy, Geldof witnesses an old man getting killed by a train and the man's dog proceeding to eat his liver off the tracks.

Yeah, and the liver went to another school

famethrowa

Quote from: alan nagsworth on May 27, 2020, 06:58:41 PM
WHY IS NO ONE TALKING ABOUT THIS NEW SONG/VIDEO, IT'S FUCKING ATROCIOUS BEYOND BELIEF

Wow Bob really can't sing, even more so now. It was better when the girl got to sing instead.

What melody/song is it ripped off from? It's so familiar, going to the 5 chord at the end of the line.... I'm thinking Zappa's Bobby Brown, but there's others too, right?

Dropshadow

Quote from: gib on May 27, 2020, 12:20:13 AM
do any other posters have vague memories of bob geldof's autobiography?

My main memory of it is his recounting of his navvie days, and one of his older, fatter comrades who, on hot days, would work while wearing only his underpants. I distinctly remember the words "...... his huge, filthy underpants". Great image.

An "external" memory: Helping the local milkman one Saturday, delivering to a retired English couple (this is in Scotland) who were devout Baptists, apparently. They knew I was a reader and they asked what I was reading, and I said Bob Geldof's autobiography ("you know, the Band-Aid guy that helped the starving in Africa", I explained). They then proceeded to rage at me for reading a book written by "an Irish catholic" who gave money to "black savages". I'd never really encountered this level of sheer bigoted ignorance before. I got out of there and never went back. The book, the "underpants" bit and that couple are entwined in my mind. Happy days!

Egyptian Feast

I tried watching this, but I groaned on seeing Alan Yentob's face and bailed during his comedic intro with Geldof. Nope. I could die tomorrow and that would have been the last thing I watched.

I love Yentob stories in Popbitch, like the one where someone would enter his office and he'd immediately get his secretary to patch him through to Bono or some other celebrity chum, have a brief conversation with them, then say to his visitor "That was Bono". Or the one about him getting the nickname 'Yummy' because he'd take food off people's plates at functions and eat it in front of them, saying 'Yummy'. I don't care if they're untrue or misremembered. I enjoy imagining them and hope he gets a Hollywood biopic.

Custard

The video for the new song really made me laugh, so thanks for that

Though by the end I was sort of singing along and enjoying it

Worlds gone mad mate

gilbertharding

All the moody shots in the documentary of Geldof and the boys really remind me of my own dear mother's warnings to me that 'the wind will change and you'll be stuck like that'.

There ought to be a blanket ban on wrinkly white haired old men appearing on TV trying to convince us and themselves how *clever* punk rock is or was. I mean, for their own sakes, as much as anything. I mean that.

gilbertharding

Quote from: gib on May 27, 2020, 12:20:13 AMdo any other posters have vague memories of bob geldof's autobiography?

I got it from the library and remember the bit where he saw a porn star (check name: Fiona Richmond) in her E type while he was building the M25.

jobotic


massive bereavement

Quote from: gilbertharding on May 28, 2020, 09:14:12 AM


There ought to be a blanket ban on wrinkly white haired old men appearing on TV trying to convince us and themselves how *clever* punk rock is or was. I mean, for their own sakes, as much as anything. I mean that.

100%

Keep meaning to watch it though, if only to put my mind to rest that I'm able to remember more than two BR songs (Rat Trap & Mondays). From the same era, I can recall four B.A. Robertson songs for fuck's sake! Somebody mentioned "Looking After Number One" up the thread, the title rings a bell but nothing else. Could YT it but I'm determined to go through with this doc.


The Culture Bunker

Quote from: gilbertharding on May 28, 2020, 09:14:12 AMThere ought to be a blanket ban on wrinkly white haired old men appearing on TV trying to convince us and themselves how *clever* punk rock is or was. I mean, for their own sakes, as much as anything. I mean that.
I remember enjoying that documentary about the Damned as it pretty much avoided this. Mind, I suppose when you have a rhythm section called Captain Sensible and Rat Scabies, you were never really aiming at "clever".

Might also be why they're one of the very few punk bands whose albums I return to. I've not listened to the Clash and Jam's debuts or the Pistols album for about 20 years now, since I was 19.

Jockice

Quote from: The Culture Bunker on May 28, 2020, 01:24:51 PM
I remember enjoying that documentary about the Damned as it pretty much avoided this. Mind, I suppose when you have a rhythm section called Captain Sensible and Rat Scabies, you were never really aiming at "clever".

Might also be why they're one of the very few punk bands whose albums I return to. I've not listened to the Clash and Jam's debuts or the Pistols album for about 20 years now, since I was 19.

Mind you it also features Dave Vanian moaning about how their songs are never used on adverts. I love The Damned but hmmm.

Retinend

Quote from: gilbertharding on May 28, 2020, 09:14:12 AM
There ought to be a blanket ban on wrinkly white haired old men appearing on TV trying to convince us and themselves how *clever* punk rock is or was. I mean, for their own sakes, as much as anything. I mean that.

00:50:31
"The way they presented themselves on the rear cover of the first album you had the band all smothered in plastic. You had that sense of - like James Joyce and Samuel Beckett  - that these guys had to go in exile. They were being smothered by Irish society."

"Eoin Devereux
Sociologist and Writer"

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Quote from: massive bereavement on May 28, 2020, 01:04:15 PM
100%

Keep meaning to watch it though, if only to put my mind to rest that I'm able to remember more than two BR songs (Rat Trap & Mondays). From the same era, I can recall four B.A. Robertson songs for fuck's sake! Somebody mentioned "Looking After Number One" up the thread, the title rings a bell but nothing else. Could YT it but I'm determined to go through with this doc.
My non- googled recollections:
- Bang Bang
- Knocked It Off
- Cool ( Kool?) In The Kaftan
-To Be Or Not To Be
Even at the time, I was annoyed at The cool in the kaftan song and its namechecking T- Rex, as it seemed to be having a go at hippies, many years after their legit pop- culture reference value had peaked. Like releasing a pop song what savagely satirized Britpop ( called " Union Jack It In" or something) in 2010. My best friend at the time was a big B.A. Robertson fan, and we would have many a heated debate about this. B.A.Robertson was quite a strange looking fellow too, like a Mort Drucker caricature come to life. I wonder how much mileage could be had from a B A Robertson thread?
Anyway , another B. Rats song from the time was " She's So Modern", which I kept erroneously thinking was called " Modern Girl" a perky, poppy little number. Do you not remember that 'un?

alan nagsworth

Quote from: Jockice on May 28, 2020, 01:28:52 PM
Mind you it also features Dave Vanian moaning about how their songs are never used on adverts. I love The Damned but hmmm.

Buzzcocks' "What Do I Get?" was used to sell McDonald's luvly luvly chicken wraps with luvly lumpy chicken so it's not all too far out of the realms of whatever this fucking mental post-reality that we exist in.

massive bereavement

Quote from: Lisa Jesusandmarychain on May 28, 2020, 04:55:40 PM
My non- googled recollections:
- Bang Bang
- Knocked It Off
- Cool ( Kool?) In The Kaftan
-To Be Or Not To Be
Even at the time, I was annoyed at The cool in the kaftan song and its namechecking T- Rex, as it seemed to be having a go at hippies, many years after their legit pop- culture reference value had peaked. Like releasing a pop song what savagely satirized Britpop ( called " Union Jack It In" or something) in 2010. My best friend at the time was a big B.A. Robertson fan, and we would have many a heated debate about this. B.A.Robertson was quite a strange looking fellow too, like a Mort Drucker caricature come to life. I wonder how much mileage could be had from a B A Robertson thread?
Anyway , another B. Rats song from the time was " She's So Modern", which I kept erroneously thinking was called " Modern Girl" a perky, poppy little number. Do you not remember that 'un?

Just finished watching the doc, "Banana Republic" was the one that made me go "Oh god yeah, of course", vaguely remember "Like Clockwork" and "She's So Modern". Still feel indifferent to the music but I enjoyed the doc as a story worth telling, easy to overlook how much these lesser bands mean to people in the areas they sprung from.

Your B.A.Robertson list are the same four I remember. Everybody at school liked at least one of his tunes but I could never work out what type of person he was appealing to enough to keep him on the charts beyond one novelty hit. The idea that anybody could be a big fan of his is hard to get my head around. Of all the acts coming and going at any given time, B.A. Robertson?

SteveDave

Quote from: the science eel on May 24, 2020, 02:23:00 PM
They've a new album out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or8dD5VYk_4

It's not even worth my while pointing out what's wrong with this because there's nothing at all right with it. You'll see for yourself.

Christmas Day! I was already laughing but then your dad's friend turns up at 1:13 in his leather jacket and I almost shat. Mentioning the Moth Club is it?

SteveDave

Quote from: famethrowa on May 28, 2020, 12:49:48 AM
Wow Bob really can't sing, even more so now. It was better when the girl got to sing instead.

What melody/song is it ripped off from? It's so familiar, going to the 5 chord at the end of the line.... I'm thinking Zappa's Bobby Brown, but there's others too, right?

I'm getting "Please Mr Postman" from it.

the science eel

Quote from: massive bereavement on May 28, 2020, 08:33:27 PM
Just finished watching the doc, "Banana Republic" was the one that made me go "Oh god yeah, of course", vaguely remember "Like Clockwork" and "She's So Modern". Still feel indifferent to the music but I enjoyed the doc as a story worth telling, easy to overlook how much these lesser bands mean to people in the areas they sprung from.

Your B.A.Robertson list are the same four I remember. Everybody at school liked at least one of his tunes but I could never work out what type of person he was appealing to enough to keep him on the charts beyond one novelty hit. The idea that anybody could be a big fan of his is hard to get my head around. Of all the acts coming and going at any given time, B.A. Robertson?


Categorically the worst shit ever to 'grace' the UK singles charts. And an absolute cunt, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lElu9SVrcSs