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Does anyone remember the rats armband, featuring the famous rat logo? It was featured on one of their early releases I think...I'm going back to 1977 here pop pickers. I remember cutting the design out of an ad in a copy of the NME or whatever, covering it in sticky-backed plastic ( seriously! original 'Blue Peter' punk rocker) and festooning it with safety pins and chains. looked a treat on me old school blazer. It saved me from a beating in in Limerick once because my assailants turned out to be rats fans too! Not many things could save a youth from a serious kicking in Limerick back in those days, I recieved my fair share, but the rats sort of brought things onto a level, they brought the youth together...they were OUR band, all of us, punks, bootboys, yobs, rockers, scumbags, losers whatever...now, if it had been a Clash badge I would have had the ****e beaten out of me, and rightly so!
You should have been here a couple of months ago when all the Clash fans turned up on the board.
Interesting you say that being a Rats fan saved you a kicking, it'd probably have got you one in places near where I lived! Lots of us second generation Irish loved the Rats, my school was full of them, whereas at the same time being Irish in London wasn't something you broadcast back then. It's all changed now. Everyone's Irish!
The old rats armband has now been replaced by a white band demanding an end to poverty, World Leaders are taking their lead from Geldof and Bono...and it's cool to be a Mick!
I never would have thought it possible at the time but music is obviously a massive cultural tool for change, it put Ireland on the world stage and affected a lot of perceptions about what it means to be Irish, (respect must be paid to the great Phillip Lynott for paving the way for The Rats and U2).
Funnilly enough I was second generation Scouser growing up in Limerick so I got some stick for that...the polar opposite of your experience but oddly similar.
are those white bands those rubber things that absolutely every one is wearing over here? honestly i think every charity has put out one- breast cancer is pink, organ donor a. is marron, red nose day is red, etc