I guess you could get a flavour of it from the originals. It is also possible some of the tracks from the Rats themselves changed names and are familiar. In general, I have gone for the version The Rats are most likely to have copied rather than the true original.

Re Rats tape if you're serious about it one lead is to email Factna O Ceallaigh (O kelly) who was the Rats manager during their heyday and now manages Sinead O Connor.

I'm sure he would be informative and helpful about any aspect of the Rats career. I have heard him interviewed about his days managing the Boomtown Rats and he comes across as a really thoughtful, interesting guy with a wide knowledge of the music scene. He actually worked as a music journalist for one of the Dublin evening papers and went to see the Rats as part of his job and was so impressed that he ditched the security of a newspaper job to undertake managing the Rats. His part in their success is underplayed and shouldn't be dismissed as unimportant.  O kelly was the exact opposite of the archetypal sharp practicing stereotypical music manager. If I hadn't heard him in a detailed interview on RTE radio a long time ago I might have no realisation of how a manager can affect a band- and the whole background effort that goes into management.

Perhaps he may have a copy of that very tape or some other recordings of the Rats from back when. He is even on Twitter as I found out doing some research!

met Dave Moloney at pub meetup on Saturday. He says that two c90 tapes s Home &Away were copied onto CD.He thinks they are somewhere in his attic.He will have a look for them.   

He remembered playing Jessie James at Moran's.

I sent him an email today so should hear back from him presently.Again stress it might take a bit of digging but he seemed glad that anyone would care.

ArrGee wrote:

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Noel wrote:

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met Dave Moloney at pub meetup on Saturday. He says that two c90 tapes s Home &Away were copied onto CD.He thinks they are somewhere in his attic.He will have a look for them.   

He remembered playing Jessie James at Moran's.

I sent him an email today so should hear back from him presently. Again stress it might take a bit of digging but he seemed glad that anyone would care.

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Wow!  Tell him I care.  The holy grail for me.

 

Then I guess the next holy grail is the Virgin/Ensign demo tape.

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 I got an email from Dave Moloney today saying he'll have  a look for those tapes.I told him there's no rush and it would be great to get to hear them. There's a few pints of stout awaiting him if all turns out well.

I had a listen to Neon Heart live version from those tapes on new Sony speakers via bluetooth. This is the one that's up on Youtube.Sound is ok, not great but it is 4o years old and probably recorded on very basic equipment back in the day.

Not sure but I think he said that his nephew or someone was able to do a bit of work on the tapes to improve the sound quality.