|
Rat Trap
"Rat Trap" is a song by the Boomtown Rats, released in October 1978 as the third and final single from the band's second album '' A Tonic for the Troops''. It reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart for two weeks in November 1978, the first single by a punk or new wave act to do so. The song was written by Bob Geldof, and produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange. It replaced " Summer Nights", a hit single for John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John from the soundtrack of '' Grease'', at number one on the UK chart after the latter's seven-week reign. Song "Rat Trap" is a rock song, telling the tale of a boy called Billy who feels the depressing town he lives in is a "rat trap". When the band performed the song on ''Top of the Pops'' (which is also mentioned in the song) as the UK new number one, the band members began by tearing up pictures of Travolta and Newton-John to emphasise the fact that the pair - who had spent a total of 16 weeks out of the preceding 22 at the top of the char ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Boomtown Rats
The Boomtown Rats are an Irish rock/ new wave band originally formed in Dublin in 1975. Between 1977 and 1985, they had a series of Irish and UK hits including " Like Clockwork", " Rat Trap", " I Don't Like Mondays" and " Banana Republic". The original line-up comprised six musicians; five from Dún Laoghaire in County Dublin; Gerry Cott (rhythm guitar), Simon Crowe (drums), Johnnie Fingers (keyboards), Bob Geldof (vocals) and Garry Roberts (lead guitar), plus Fingers' cousin Pete Briquette (bass). The Boomtown Rats broke up in 1986, but reformed in 2013, without Fingers or Cott. Garry Roberts died in 2022. The band's fame and notability have been overshadowed by the charity work of frontman Bob Geldof. History Beginnings The band was formed in 1975 with five of the six members having come from Dún Laoghaire, while Pete Briquette was originally from Ballyjamesduff, County Cavan, Ireland. Geldof initially managed the band but took over the lead vocals from Garry Robe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grease (film)
''Grease'' is a 1978 American musical romantic comedy film directed by Randal Kleiser (in his feature directorial debut) from a screenplay by Bronté Woodard and an adaptation by co-producer Allan Carr, based on the 1972 stage musical of the same name by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. The film depicts the lives of greaser Danny Zuko (John Travolta) and Australian transfer student Sandy Olsson (Olivia Newton-John), who develop an attraction for each other during a summer romance. ''Grease'' was released in the United States on June 16, 1978, by Paramount Pictures. The film was successful both critically and commercially, becoming the highest-grossing musical film at the time. Its soundtrack album ended 1978 as the second-best-selling album of the year in the United States, only behind the soundtrack of the 1977 film '' Saturday Night Fever'', which also starred Travolta, and the song " Hopelessly Devoted to You" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song at t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Garry Roberts
Garrick Roberts (16 June 1950 – 9 November 2022) was an Irish musician best known as the lead guitarist with The Boomtown Rats, a band which came into being in 1976. He and Johnnie Fingers (Moylett) had decided to put a band together and, between them, they recruited the other four members, Pete Briquette (bass), Gerry Cott (guitar), Simon Crowe (drums), and singer Bob Geldof. Career Roberts was a founder and the lead guitarist of the band The Boomtown Rats, which came into being in 1976. After The Boomtown Rats disbanded in 1986, Roberts worked as a live sound engineer with a number of bands, including Simply Red, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and Flesh For Lulu. After having worked successfully as an Independent Financial Adviser for fifteen years, he had become disillusioned with the life insurance industry and became a central heating engineer to keep himself occupied between gigs. He avoided playing the guitar in public for ten years, after which he and Simon Crow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simon Crowe
Simon Crowe (born , Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish musician, best known as the drummer and backing vocalist of the Irish new wave band The Boomtown Rats. The Boomtown Rats, originally known as the "Nightlife Thugs", was formed in 1975. The band had eighteen hit singles in the UK in the 1970s and early 1980s. After the Boomtown Rats broke up, in 1986, Crowe lived in Devon for several years. While in Devon, he played with the Exeter-based folk group Jiggerypipery. Crowe was also part of The Velcro Flies (with ex-Boomtown Rat Garry Roberts) and Gung~Ho (with ex-Boomtown Rat Johnny Fingers). He subsequently formed a group, The Rats, with Roberts. As of 2009, The Rats featured Roberts on guitar and Crowe on drums, with Pete Briquette on bass and Darren Beale on lead guitar. Bob Geldof Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof (; born 5 October 1951) is an Irish singer-songwriter and political activist. He rose to prominence in the late 1970s as the lead singer of the Irish rock band the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnnie Fingers
John Peter Moylett (born 10 September 1956), known professionally as Johnnie Fingers, is an Irish keyboardist and co-founding member of the new wave band the Boomtown Rats. He was notable for his attire of striped pyjamas on stage and his melodic piano style. Though uncredited as such for decades, Fingers was the co-author of Boomtown Rats' 1979 hit "I Don't Like Mondays"; in 2019 (after legal action) Fingers received a financial settlement and credit for having co-written the song. Background Fingers came from a large family of actors, artists and musicians. His cousin is his fellow Boomtown Rat Pete Briquette, as their mothers, Margaret "Peggy" (Bowles) Cusack and Cecilia "Sheila" (Bowles) Moylett, were sisters. They are nephews of Irish conductor and composer Michael Bowles. He learned the piano from a young age from "Miss Grist" who he claims "stole his youth". After the demise of the Boomtown Rats in 1986, he founded Gung~Ho with his fellow Boomtown Rats member Simon Crowe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gerry Cott
Gerry Cott (born 15 October 1954, in Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish guitarist and songwriter, who was a co-founder of the Irish new wave band The Boomtown Rats. He started playing flamenco guitar when he was 11 years old. In 1966 he saw Bob Dylan performing live in Dublin and the experience influenced him radically. Cott left The Boomtown Rats in 1982, prior to the recording of the band's fifth album ''V Deep''. In 1984 he released the five-song album ''I Left My Hat in Haiti'' that included the single "Alphabet Town". "Alphabet Town" hit the Canadian charts, peaking at #90 during a 9-week run near the end of 1984. As of 2008, Cott was working as an animal trainer and animal action supervisor in films and television with his company A-Z Animals. He was also, reportedly, writing a book. In 2010, Cott released a solo acoustic guitar album ''Urban Soundscapes'' On 20 September 2011, Cott performed live on stage with Bob Geldof Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof (; born 5 Octobe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pete Briquette
Patrick Martin Cusack (born 2 July 1954), known by the stage name Pete Briquette, is an Irish bassist, record producer and composer. He is a member of the Boomtown Rats and has also played in Bob Geldof's band. Boomtown Rats He was born in Ballyjamesduff, County Cavan, Ireland. His father ran a solicitor's practice in the town. His stage name refers to his upbringing in Ireland where peat briquettes were burned for heat instead of coal. He is the bass guitarist, backing vocalist, occasional songwriter, and sometime keyboardist for The Boomtown Rats, a band that reached worldwide popularity in the late 1970s. His bass lines are evident on such Boomtown Rats songs as " Rat Trap", " Banana Republic" and " Like Clockwork", the last two of which he co-wrote with Bob Geldof. Briquette was the only Rats member who frequently collaborated with Geldof as a solo artist, playing on some of his biggest hits such as "Great Song of Indifference" and "Love or Something". Record producer B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dustin The Turkey
Dustin the Turkey, a character performed by John Morrison is a former star of RTÉ television's '' The Den'' between 1989 and 2010 and from 2020. He has been described as "the most subversive comedy force on Irish television". A turkey vulture with a strong Dublin accent hailing from Sallynoggin, Dustin first appeared on ''The Den'' with Zig and Zag in December 1989, but remained there after their 1993 departure to Channel 4. He also outlasted four human co-hosts, all of whom moved to radio: Ian Dempsey, Ray D'Arcy, Damien McCaul and Francis Boylan Jr. Dustin has also had a successful music career with chart-topping singles in his native land. At one stage he even managed an Irish dance/pop group, Silvor. He won the public vote to represent Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 with the song " Irelande Douze Pointe", though he did not progress past the first semi-final stage. Music Dustin released his ''Greatest Hits'' album in 2001. On 4 November 2005, he releas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Live Aid
Live Aid was a two-venue benefit concert and music-based fundraising initiative held on Saturday, 13 July 1985. The event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise further funds for relief of the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia, a movement that started with the release of the successful charity single " Do They Know It's Christmas?" in December 1984. Billed as the "global jukebox", Live Aid was held simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia. On the same day, concerts inspired by the initiative were held in other countries, such as the Soviet Union, Canada, Japan, Yugoslavia, Austria, Australia, and West Germany. It was one of the largest satellite link-ups and television broadcasts of all time. An estimated audience of 1.9 billion people in 150 nations watched the live broadcast, nearly 40 percent of the world population. The impact of Live Aid on famine relief has been debated for years. One aid relief worker stated th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Craig Thomas (author)
Craig Thomas (1942 – 4 April 2011) was a Welsh author of thrillers, most notably the Mitchell Gant and Kenneth Aubrey series of novels. Background Thomas was the son of the '' Western Mail'' rugby union writer JBG Thomas. He was educated at Cardiff High School. He graduated from University College, Cardiff in 1967, obtaining his M.A. after completing a thesis on Thomas Hardy. Thomas became an English teacher, working at Stafford Girl’s High School, Shire Oak Grammar School in Walsall Wood, where he was Head of the English Department, as well as King Edward VI Grammar School in Lichfield and other grammar schools in the West Midlands. Writing career After unsuccessfully trying script writing for radio, Thomas wrote part-time, with his wife as editor, in two fields: philosophical thoughts in books of essays; and techno-thrillers, a genre whose invention is often attributed to the better-known Tom Clancy, though many fans feel that Thomas was its true originator. M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Mallet (director)
David Victor Mark Mallet (born 17 December 1945) is a British director of music videos and concert films. He was one of the most prolific directors of music videos in the 1980s. Career Mallet rose to prominence in the late 1970s as a director of the then new format of music videos with the hugely successful enterprise MGMM, which he co-founded with Scott Millaney, Brian Grant and Russell Mulcahy. He is noted for his innovative work on hugely popular music videos in the 1980s, becoming one of the decade's most sought-after directors for this format. His work includes Iron Maiden's " Run to the Hills", David Bowie's " Ashes to Ashes" and " Let's Dance", Rush's " Distant Early Warning", and Queen's " Radio Ga Ga" and " I Want to Break Free" videos. He has directed numerous videos for AC/DC since the 1980s. He has also served as a producer on television programmes including '' The Kenny Everett Video Show''. He is also known for directing some concert recordings of soprano Sara ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Music Video
A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. These videos are typically shown on music television and on streaming video sites like YouTube, or more rarely shown theatrically. They can be commercially issued on home video, either as video albums or video singles. The format has been described by various terms including "illustrated song", "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional clip", "promotional video", "song video", "song clip", "film clip", "video clip", or simply "video". While musical short, musical short films were popular as soon as recorded sound was introduced to theatrical film screenings in the 1920s, the music video rose to prominence in the 1980s when American TV channel MTV based its format around the medium. Mus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
