i like the ad he did for the Milk Board in the '8O's. Geldof is out jogging and then is stopped by a guy on a milk float, offering a pint of milk, as he finishes his run.

I'm a lifelong jogger/runner so was amused at Geldof's painful efforts to run a few yards down the street in the ad.Better milk than posh watches.

Jules wrote:

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Wilkinson's Sword ad from 2012:

youtu.be/TJvVhECowto

I actually remembered the milk ones better, despite being older.

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 That Wilkinson sword ad is from the mid  or late eighties. I used to shave with them and the razor seems a bit primitive to modern eyes.

Some good ads there- selling mllk and razor blades is relatively harmless compared to the watch ads which are all about perceived social status and dubious sophistication. Pretentious also in using the french word horlage instead of watch.

This is from an Australian telecoms ad....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai8prntxc9c

Jules wrote:

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the watch one is wrong on many levels  Stick with the every day stuff please.  Pretentious, unaffordable and unnecessary    

 

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I wouldn't say they are unaffordable.  They typically range from £500 - £4000.  Which is what you might pay for a special gift.  However, they just aren't worth it.  Anyone who pays £500-£1000 for a quartz watch needs their head examined.  

Far better watches available for less, and of course more!  To put the price into perspective Rolexes generally start at £4,000 and can cost as much as £50,000.  

You could if the Rats and BG didn't keep tempting you to far flung towns but whether you would choose to buy is another matter entirely.....

manatthetop wrote:

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Yeah he is keeping in time Just like clockwork

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 He Watches It All

Watch out (of reach) for the Normal People?

suss wrote:

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... whether you would choose to buy is another matter entirely.....

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Exactly.  I don't really have a car, unless you count an old un-taxed/un-insured Fiat Panda with a flat battery on the drive that I am keeping until my son is 17. But I do have a couple of nice watches; one was a present, the other 50% off in sale.  One needs repairing, and that will cost over £100.

I dread to think how many thousands of pounds I spent on CDs and DVDs (many unlistened and unwatched), would have been better off buying another nice watch with that ca$h.

Just a matter of priorities.  

suss wrote:

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You could if the Rats and BG didn't keep tempting you to far flung towns ...

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I guess that if I added up all the associated costs of records, gigs, books, travel, T shirts, programmes etc.  I have probably spent well over a couple of grand down the years on the Rats/Geldof.  And I am a lightweight in comparison to others...

Mark L wrote:

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ArrGee wrote:

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suss wrote:

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... whether you would choose to buy is another matter entirely.....

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Exactly.  I don't really have a car, unless you count an old un-taxed/un-insured Fiat Panda with a flat battery on the drive that I am keeping until my son is 17. But I do have a couple of nice watches; one was a present, the other 50% off in sale.  One needs repairing, and that will cost over £100.

I dread to think how many thousands of pounds I spent on CDs and DVDs (many unlistened and unwatched), would have been better off buying another nice watch with that ca$h.

Just a matter of priorities.  

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The Fiat Panda is a rather good car, especially the 4 x 4. My first car was a Fiat 131 (Supermirafiori) bought in 1984 for £700 and sold 10 months later in 1985 for £750. Given that Skodas and Fiats were the universal butt of jokes at the time, it is ironic that was the only car I, or anyone else I've ever known, ever made money on and I'm still not sure how I did it!

I also think the same of the CDs I've bought over the years, together with cassette tapes and vhs tapes. I imagine myself one day photographing them and listing them on eBay or whatever and supplementing my old age from it all, but I probably will struggle to get it out of the loft when the time comes and it will just keep gathering dust.

My Rats CDs never gather dust though.

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The Panda is the best car we ever had.  Park it anywhere, it's just my son is now 6' 4" and as Mrs. ArrGee and myself are quite tall, we don't fit into it, so Mrs. ArrGee got a bigger car.  I drive it from time to time, but truth be told I don't need a car as I get public transport to work.  

Waste of time selling CDs.  You'd spend more on postage than they are worth.  My plan is to bring them to Oxfam once I rip them all and get a gift aid tax credit.  My Rats CDs have been ripped and now are on just 2 MP3 CDs which are in the car.  I play the LPs every now and again, but don't bother with the CDs.  Beside Rats CDs haven't been around that long.  Before 2005 there were hardly any.  I think my first CD was Deep in the Heart of Nowhere in 1986.  Only reason I played it was I hardly had any back then...

Jules wrote:

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eBay is taking bigger and bigger cuts from sales. Hardly worth selling anything on there now.

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It's great for buying things though. I got the Rats first LP for £1 including postage not so long ago. Get lots of bits and bobs like light bulbs, window insulating tape etc. for the postage cost.  Would cost me a lot more to pay for the fare to the shops.

Tempted by this, but must resist...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LP-ALBUM-THE-BOOMTOWN-RATS-S-T-THE-BOOMTOWN-RATS-JAPAN-OBI-/291596265489?hash=item43e47de811:g:TMsAAOSw9mFWKPX6

ArrGee wrote:

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suss wrote:

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You could if the Rats and BG didn't keep tempting you to far flung towns ...

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I guess that if I added up all the associated costs of records, gigs, books, travel, T shirts, programmes etc.  I have probably spent well over a couple of grand down the years on the Rats/Geldof.  And I am a lightweight in comparison to others...

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 Think what we've spent on football down the years - that'll soften the blow. And at least with Rats you get a good performance every time.

Dread to think what both add up to.....

Don't forget the 1994 burst of activity with Loudmouth and the rerelease of Mondays. That must have cost me all of £20.

ArrGee wrote:

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Mark L wrote:

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Don't forget the 1994 burst of activity with Loudmouth and the rerelease of Mondays. That must have cost me all of £20.

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Oh yeah, forgot them, though the double CD + white vinyl single did for me.   I didn't buy Loudmouth,Happy Club nor SAD until they hit the bargain bins.    Even including the singles, doubt I spent more than £50 in that period.  

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 How long did Loudmouth take to hit the bargain bins? Given the insanity of dumping Trapped in 1985,  I couldn't wait to get a greatest hits CD from the Rats and nor could many others judging by the Top Ten position it held for a number of weeks.

You must have the patience of a saint.

Mark L wrote:

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How long did Loudmouth take to hit the bargain bins? Given the insanity of dumping Trapped in 1985,  I couldn't wait to get a greatest hits CD from the Rats and nor could many others judging by the Top Ten position it held for a number of weeks.

You must have the patience of a saint.

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I don't know how long, but a while.  Given Rat Trap, Someone's Looking, Mary, #1, Banana Republic and She's So Modern were on the CD singles along with Mondays twice, that was 7 tracks instantly got.   And in the case of #1 it hadn't been on CD previously. Crazy was released as a single and I had the three Geldof albums on CD.

So there were only four other Rats songs and it didn't seem worthwhile paying for them, especially as I had them on CD and LP on US/UK Tonic (CD 1989/1992), US Surfacing (1986), US Mondo (1990), UK V Deep (1986).  

I had forgotten I must have bought those between 1986 and 1994.

So probably that ups my Rats spend to about £100 between 1986 and 2004...  (probably some more things I haven't accounted for)

Also, I tend not to buy hits albums unless it is an artist I don't have any other albums of.   I got Snap! by The  Jam  because by and large they didn't put their singles on albums, but that is a bit of an exception.    A Rats compilation has little appeal to me for the simple reason I have all the songs, but somehow I do have them all via bargain bins and cheap sales on Amazon/eBay.  Even So Modern as previously discussed...

Mark L wrote:

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... the personal cd player ...

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As CD Player fine, but should you actually decide to move. I did try using the CD player in the car with the cassette with wires, but that didn't work very well.

I ended up with mine plugged into my WEM amp to play along with on the guitar to annoy the neighbours   

Pretty sure I still used tapes around then, cos I remember losing a prized Dr. Feelgood tape on the way to San Francisco and listening to a Suede tape in the hire car.   The Panda we got in 2004 had a tape player rather than a CD player.  I did replace it after a few years with a CD/DAB unit which is probably worth more than the car now!

Mark L wrote:

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I bought one off Amazon recently for £32 and it's a big improvement. 

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They still make them?   I would have thought they'd be obsolete.

But then again, Argos still sell cassette walkmans...

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/3465381.htm

... in my perverse retro way, I am tempted to get one, but then I'd have to find my tapes.