Geldof reckons Rats deserve top billing

Boomtown Rats singer Bob Geldof is bringing the band back to Cork, and feels their music deserves more respect, writes Marc O’Sullivan

AGE has not withered him. In Cork to talk up the newly reformed Boomtown Rats’ appearance at Live at the Marquee on Jul 5, Geldof is in particularly ebullient form. His band-mate, guitarist Gary Roberts, barely gets a word in as the singer expounds on their band and its legacy.

Geldof cannot quite remember when the Rats last played Cork — it was 1985, when they performed at City Hall — but he is as vocal as ever about their accomplishments, recalling a time when they sold “gazillions of records” and a poll in NME listed the No 1 male singer as David Bowie, “and the No 2 as me”.