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HI- I was wondering does anybody have reviews of the Fine Art of Surfacing , Mondo Bongo and V Deep from NME Sounds MM etc. It's said these albums got a hard time and caused friction between the music press and Geldof or maybe this is just exaggerated. How much reviews sway people is open to debate. I suppose I'm just interested in what was really said, good or bad rather than second hand mythology.
PS It is all water under the bridge and really an academic point.
I was wondering does anybody have reviews of the Fine Art of Surfacing , Mondo Bongo and V Deep from NME Sounds MM etc. It's said these albums got a hard time and caused friction between the music press and Geldof or maybe this is just exaggerated. How much reviews sway people is open to debate. I suppose I'm just interested in what was really said, good or bad rather than second hand mythology.
I don't have them, but Melody Maker was pretty fair minded in the review of Mondo Bongo, stating there were 4 stand out songs (Banana Republic, Fall Down, Go Man Go & Elephant's Graveyard), a few fair to middling, but some total disasters (Under Their Thumb, Mood Mambo and Another Piece of ****, oops I mean red). TFAOS review was also pretty fair. I don't know about Sounds & NME.
A lot of these reviews are out there, but damned if I can find them right now. I don't really think the reviews of the records were the issue, Mondays was a unanimous single of the week, and Someone's Looking and Banana Republic were quite highly rated, it was the Geldof/Yates thing that seemed to cause the problem. Once they became the Pete & Kate of their time, anything associated with the Rats just turned into slagging off the two of them.
The Melody Maker reviews have been scanned somewhere.
OH CHRIST, what will we label them? Rock 'n' Roll, Rhythm & Blues, Pop/New Wave? All tags apply. But no one alone totally fits the bill as a true representation of what The Boomtown Rats are about. Listen to this excellent debut album once and you will reel in confusion; spin it again and you will squeal in delight.
The Boomtown Rats: A Tonic For The Troops
Barbara Charone,Sounds, 17 June 1978
IT'S NO accident that the second Boomtown Rats album has a catalogue number of ENVY 3. Any creative artist or major group has genuine cause for worry on the strength of A Tonic For The Troops. Vintage superstars who look like eyesores and sound like dinosaurs should carefully study this album.
Boomtown Rats: V Deep (Mercury)
Richard Cook,NME, 27 March 1982
I HAVEN'T bothered with this group since the awful 'I Don't Like Mondays', which made me douse most of the fonder memories for minor excellences like 'Me And Howard Hughes' with a probably irrational distaste for what seemed a cheap retreat into bombastic pomp.
Thanks ArrGee for your scan samples - work above and beyond the call etc.
When Geldof was a journalist he was pretty savage in his views so he must have understood how these writers work.
About Bob and Paula maybe that's just jealousy. Lots of NME hacks would love to be pop stars and be famous but they have to content themselves by playing God and making and breaking careers as the mood takes them.
How people decide if the like an artist is much more complicated than just reading reviews or second hand carping.
