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Garry Roberts, guitarist with The 1980s phenomenum that was The Boomtown Rats is now gnawing back into the music scene with his new band The Rats.
"I missed playing with Simon but it wasnt until I met Peter Barton, (lead singer with The Animals and now lead singer with The Rats) that the idea came about.
Pete, who I met through selling an amp on ebay, said why not play Boomtown Rats songs.
I put on our first album and it was as if I was listening to another artists record, even though I remember being in the studio recording it. It was really good and I am very self critical. Our early stuff was really energetic and had edge. "
Garry and Simon recruited Pete as lead singer and Darren Beale as the second guitarist. Garry played with his father, David Beale, in a band called The Fab Four.
"We dont feel like the poor relation, nor are we trying to disinter a corpse but we feel there is a market for Boomtown Rats music, said Garry. We did The Rebellion punk festival in Blackpool and while we were never part of the punk brotherhood the old punks really enjoyed it and encouraged us. "
"There is no need to jazz it up. I like to strip it down to two guitars, bass and drum line-up. I think sax and keyboards etc just clutters it up. "
... all this could have come to nothing as Garrys first acoustic guitar, which actually belonged to his father who played in a dance band in the 1940s, was burned in a fire.
I was sent off to boarding school and in the middle of the night we were roused to grab our clothes and get out of the school becomes the dormitory roof was on fire. It fell in on top of my bed. said Garry. And that was the end of his dads guitar.
We had to stay with local Quaker families while the roof was repaired. Fortunately his father bought him a new electric guitar so he could go on to become one of the founder members of the band.
When a band that was one of the biggest in Britain at the time calls it a day it can be as devastating as a marriage break-up and Garry found it hard to adjust.
I had post traumatic syndrome disease, he said. It felt the same as a marriage break-up.
In fact the guitarist gave up music for a while but now the rocking rodent is back on track. When I am on stage I feel as if I have 20 years knocked off my age and I like that feeling.
"We are thinking of releasing our own version of I Dont Like Mondays as a single." he said.