Rats on the Radio

BTR · Tonight

Rats on the Radio

noelindublin · Loudmouth

I always associate Mondays with summer as it was initially released in the summer of 1979. So it's a summer song, despite its disturbing theme.

I associate Never In A Million Years with winter as it was released around winter 1981 and it was really cold that winter as far as I remember.

I'm sure other people do this as well, associate songs with particular seasons and weather. Unless of course you live in California....

Mark L · Loudmouth

Always associate House on Fire with summer; we were in the car in May '82 on the way to Bournemouth for a week (must have been Half Term) and i distinctly remember Simon Bates playing it and saying at the end 'What a great summer sound from TBR'

Of course my pedantic dad jumped in and said 'summer does not start until June 21st!'

Associate The Elephant's Graveyard with winter. Snow everywhere ('81 was bad in the Midlands) and then Chris Tarrant introduces the video on Tiswas and suddenly we are at the beach and Chris observes at the end 'TBR i see have taken a leaf out of our book' - reference the bucket of water thrown into Bob and Garry's faces upon Simon raising his umbrella. Happy days.

ArrGee · Back To Boomtown

Mark L wrote:
Always associate House on Fire with summer;

Odd, because it came out in March. I associate it with being ill. For whatever reason I was off school and had to spend a week in bed, and I had the 12" version on the turntable playing again and again.

Mark L wrote:
Associate The Elephant's Graveyard with winter.
I associate it with Adam & The Ants and Splodgenessabounds. Was at a friend's place playing records we bought earlier in the day, with a penny on the tome arm to keep the needle in the groove. I remember his sister and us dancing around the front room to Elephant's Graveyard.
Only song I associate strongly with a season is I Don't Like Mondays, as it was a hot summer and I spent a lot of it helping build a garage for my grandfather with the song coming on the radio fairly frequently.

Lisa · Mondo Bongo

I associate Mondays with going on holiday to Torquay - insisted on taking my brother's portable radio to train station on outward journey so that I didn't miss Radio 1 chart show. They were still number 1 so it was the start of a happy holiday!

Mark L · Loudmouth

Yes, it was well and truly on its descent down the charts by end of May, but that made me quite chuffed they played it still - it's just the memory which has stuck probably because my dad rarely let us have Radio 1 on and he passed comment.

He was only 35 in 1981 and quite liked the Rats (sometimes he had no choice with the sounds coming from my bedroom!) and surprised me by coming home with Mondo Bongo one day after work.

Mondays - yes happy summer memories, but also wished its chart run had been more linked to term time, as I enjoyed all the banter with schoolmates about pop. Re Rat Trap I remember a couple of mates giving it as a Christmas present (?!) to each other and the PE teacher observing this and commenting 'yes, they are quite good aren't they?' - Funny what sticks in your mind and what gets forgotten.

noelindublin · Loudmouth

Real summer songs for me include Sunday Girl by Blondie 1979 and Come on Eileen by Dexys 1982.

Think House On Fire in more a Spring song, days getting longer around March or April .

Funnily or not I remember listening to coverage of the Falkland war on R4 when V Deep came out- slightly weird association - sinking of the Belgrano, Goose Green, Harrier Jump Jets, and all that, around April May 1982.

suss · In the Long Grass

I Don't Like Mondays is a vivid summer memory for me as I drove my parents to despair playing it again and again...and again..on a Philips cassette recorder having taped it to take on holiday. Should probably add that we were (as ever for my first 15 summer holidays) in a caravan, and their opportunity to escape to another room was limited to say the least. We only had the one 'room'. Pretty sure their misery was complete when switching to radio for a break, be it the caravan tranny or in the car, brought no respite. The song was everywhere smile .

Conversely, Never in a Million years I don't really remember ever hearing on radio. Very much a winter/Christmas memory though. Took the single with me when we stayed with my auntie over the hols. Wouldn't dream of taking a CD to someone else's house nowadays and asking if ok to use their hifi. Didn't seem a problem at all at the time.

Think my last real recollections of Rats on radio are probably Banana Republic. Must have heard later ones occasionally but so rarely it never registered. Vividly recall knowing Banana Republic was 'out' but not yet for sale and waiting, for what felt like hours, until Radio One played the new Rats' song. I didn't know the intro or any of it at all at that point, so sat there with fingers on play/record for bloody ages waiting for a song that wasn't one I knew as a current single, ready to record on the off chance. If I remember rightly it was Paul Burnett who ended the agonising wait and even had the courtesy to say 'and this is the new single from the Boomtown Rats' first. Just enough time for me to hit those buttons and only miss the crashing cymbals opening bit.

Can't remember the last time I heard anything of theirs on the radio, but with all ours tuned to Capital/Kiss I'm not overly surprised. Kids of today eh... blankstare

Mark L · Loudmouth

Local station here Signal Gold seems to have the same records on rotation and so we regularly hear Mondays and Rat Trap. However, the other Sunday, in their 'Forgotten favourite' segment on Sunday, we were treated to Like Clockwork, which I have not heard on the radio for quite some time. Mondays is played fairly often by Radio 2, and on many others I suspect, but the Elephant's Graveyard came on a few weeks back on Steve Wright in the Oldies section. The listener was heavily into the sounds of the early 80s, so cue Human League, Soft Cell, Adam and the Ants etc but it was nice to hear Bob and the boys within that grouping, rather than the 'late 70s' label being attached again.

ArrGee · Back To Boomtown

From Late Night Jukebox on BBC Radio 6...

Chris Hawkins will be taking you through the early hours with back to back music without the interruptions of chat, plus exclusive BBC sessions from Jimi Hendrix, St Etienne and Boomtown Rats...

You have 4 days to listen to it..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b016z3pw

ArrGee · Back To Boomtown

And about a month ago, the 1978 Peel session was broadcast...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/showcase/clips/p00kvs9h/in/genre/classicpopandrock

Sadly, no longer available

Mark L · Loudmouth

Thanks ArrGee. Like the adaptation to 'I....I....I don't want to BBC'

BTR · Tonight

DJ Stephen Bumfrey played Rat Trap today. At the end of the song he said "Boomtown Rats, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant"

suss · In the Long Grass

Loosely related to the joys of hearing tracks on the radio, it reminds me how much the surprise element enhances the enjoyment of a song. There's something about favourite songs coming up totally unexpectedly, on radio, in pubs, on adverts etc etc, particularly years after the event, that transcends the pleasures of just cueing up the CD or vinyl.

I remember hearing Rat Trap blaring very loudly out of a car window in London maybe 15 years ago (not sure if radio or cassette/CD) but brought a smile to my face and certainly caught attention of other pedestrians. Also recall Up All Night coming over system in a coffee bar in States late Eighties.

Where's the most unusual place others have had a Rat surprise?

Lisa · Mondo Bongo

suss wrote:
Where's the most unusual place others have had a Rat surprise?

After our neighbour put down some rat poison a few years ago, we discovered a couple of dead rats that had bitten the dust in our shed in the middle of an old Teletubbies tent we had stored in there. Not a nice surprise though - but they did at least have a decent burial in the garden. And we had to throw the tent away too! Not sure if that was a worse way to die than a Rat Trap though biggrin

Mark L · Loudmouth

Rat surprise was on holiday in Jersey in 1995, when Elephant's Graveyard was selected by someone on the jukebox (i looked later and Loudmouth was loaded) in a busy St Helier pub. There is that moment when you think I know this song better than almost anyone else here, tinged with a feeling of pride mixed with the desire that others should appreciate it as much as yourself.

suss · In the Long Grass

Complete coincidence but as I walked into the Boiler Room Pub in Guildford last night (Blockheads playing there) what should be playing over sound system but Rat Trap. Can't remember the last time I heard a Rats song in public. Good start to a very good evening though.

noelindublin · Loudmouth

I had a dream last night in which Rat Trap was playing or I was singing it and it sounded wonderful in the way that sometimes 'dream music' sounds in that it seems loaded with extras meaning and oomph. Also I was savouring the lyrics which seemed to again mean more than in a normal playing, in real life.

Not sure if others 'process' music in their dreams and end up with an enhanced musical dream experience or dream up music from fictitious 'dream bands' but I sometimes do. I find that Rats songs reoccur in my sleep fairly frequently and usually sound special and enhanced, due to the mysteries of the subconscious mind.

suss · In the Long Grass

Closest I can get to this is when I say to Mrs S 'Anyway it's Saturday night, time to see what's going down', but my dream never comes true.

noelindublin · Loudmouth

suss wrote:
Complete coincidence but as I walked into the Boiler Room Pub in Guildford last night (Blockheads playing there) what should be playing over sound system but Rat Trap. Can't remember the last time I heard a Rats song in public. Good start to a very good evening though.

Re Rats songs in public there are some good videos posted on YouTube using more 'obscure' Rats songs as musical accompaniment.

One woman has a short film about insomnia using Sleep (Fingers Lullaby) as the song to illustrate her movie whilst another person has a feature about the omnipresence of closed circuit tv, using Someone's Looking At You as the soundtrack.

So anyone checking up on insomnia on YT might get an interesting introduction to The Boomtown Rats, likewise those concerned with the prevelence of CCTV.

BTR · Tonight

DJ Stephen Bumfrey on BBC Radio Norfolk is at it again... he has just played Rat Trap. At the end of the song, he said "I was terribly excited when I heard this song for the first time on Top of the Pops in 1978".

-- Edited by BTR on Sunday 18th of December 2011 02:01:34 PM

BTR · Tonight

You won't believe this... not long after playing Rat Trap, Stephen Bumfrey has just played a song by Hello - new Rats singer Bob Bradbury was the Hello lead singer.

suss · In the Long Grass

You should ring in and tell him, tell him right now biggrin

noelindublin · Loudmouth

I had never heard of the band Hello until I was doing some research on Bob Bradbury, finding out who he was.

I was never a fan of glam rock, always finding it preposterous and over the top, but Hello's New York Groove is pretty good for that type of thing.

Music started for me in earnest around 1977 with the punk/new wave explosion and comparing the Rats with a band like Hello is hard to do because they were like chalk and cheese.

BTR · Tonight

How weird is this... he is now playing Lieutenant Pigeon's Moldy Old Dough. Peter Barton was in Lieutenant Pigeon.

BTR · Tonight

Now playing My Generation.

Mark L · Loudmouth

Can't sleep and work beckons at 8.30am. Now Signal Cheshire playing Rat Trap and I'm more awake than ever.

Ah well, I'll try fencing jumpsuits in my sleep again shortly!

suss · In the Long Grass

suss wrote:
Loosely related to the joys of hearing tracks on the radio, it reminds me how much the surprise element enhances the enjoyment of a song. There's something about favourite songs coming up totally unexpectedly, on radio, in pubs, on adverts etc etc, particularly years after the event, that transcends the pleasures of just cueing up the CD or vinyl.
I remember hearing Rat Trap blaring very loudly out of a car window in London maybe 15 years ago (not sure if radio or cassette/CD) but brought a smile to my face and certainly caught attention of other pedestrians. Also recall Up All Night coming over system in a coffee bar in States late Eighties.
Where's the most unusual place others have had a Rat surprise?

Went across town last night to see the "German comedy ambassador" Henning Wehn doing one of his preview gigs in a tiny pub upstairs room, during the interval of which 4 or 5 songs were played to the 'crowd' (if 30 constitutes a crowd?).

First song up.....I Never Loved Eva Braun biggrin . Possibly as enjoyable as the set itself, and probably the first time I've heard it (as a studio version) publicly. Sublime....

-- Edited by suss on Thursday 12th of June 2014 06:48:40 PM

Mark L · Loudmouth

I think Henning is great! "Nobody in Germany complains because everything works". Was hilarious on Would I lie to you some weeks back. How was he last night and what were the other songs?

Was playing someone from USA on Quiz Up the other day and we were neck and neck until the last question on 70s music. What year was Rat Trap number one? He went for 77 so I won.

noelindublin · Loudmouth

Mark L wrote:
I think Henning is great! "Nobody in Germany complains because everything works". Was hilarious on Would I lie to you some weeks back. How was he last night and what were the other songs?
Was playing someone from USA on Quiz Up the other day and we were neck and neck until the last question on 70s music. What year was Rat Trap number one? He went for 77 so I won.

Other good 'German' songs Dead Kennedys California Uber Alles and Ramones Blitzkrieg Bop smile . Bob Geldof's Roads of Germany. The Passions I'm In Love With a German Film Star (from back in 1981)

Yes Henning is quite funny, though I've only heard short bits on the radio occasionally, rather than his full show.

-- Edited by noelindublin on Monday 16th of June 2014 12:55:04 PM

suss · In the Long Grass

Have to confess I got into a conversation after refusing to speak to anyone during Eva Braun, so wasn't paying too much attention to later tracks once I knew it wasn't all Rats, although 99 Red Balloons was definitely one played.

Henning was good, as ever. One of favourite contemporary comedians, and his email newsletter is always hilarious. I've seen him there 3 or 4 times now, but does make you realise how much material gets carried over year on year. Bit like watching Rats really....soon realise it's unrealistic to expect something fresh every time.

One example is he always asks if there's a German in audience. Always has been when I go, so a long German conversation then ensues with 95% audience lost, including me. He then announces 'we're just doing what you Brits do in other countries, the only difference being we're not shouting' biggrin Know exactly what's coming; still makes me laugh.

Managed to ascertain in an earlier chat he's a Wycombe Wanderers fan. Next time must ask if he's also a Rats fan after that interval music smile

jamieuka · House on Fire

Thanks to this thread, I've just booked tickets to see Henning in Bridport in October :)

suss · In the Long Grass

Funny you should say that. Got the newsletter yesterday and was hoping he'd have a gig in close proximity to a Rats one in autumn, to make a visit to wherever all the more appealing. No such luck.

Hope you enjoy, and the interval includes some classy music smile .

Mark L · Loudmouth

Got treated to an Internet radio for my birthday and quite often sample the 70s oldies stations. Predictably, Rat Trap and Mondays get played plenty, but this last week have heard Mary and Clockwork on Sunshine Gold and DDR.