Strypes also stuck around for She Does it Right, which sounded great. Either last night was very loud or gigs are taking toll. I can't hear much this morning (no bad thing now I'm back in the offcie already )

Safe journey back to all. Good to see so many familiar faces.

A few observations. First the Olympia is a great venue, a lot better than Vicar St. Great curtain backdrop, sloped floor , good sound and two bars which were very big. Could do with better loos though.

Crowd full capacity I would guess. Basically I was squashed where I was standing. Very hot too.

Music- pretty much standard fare as of last few years. Good but for whatever reason I though they performed better at many of the other gigs I have attended. Maybe being squashed, hot and knocked about by lager carring middle aged people biases my view a  little. I've given up 'complaining' about all the cameras and filming etc. The less interested fans always seemed to be checking their phones during some of the songs.

Highlights- Mary/Boom Boom/ I wanna be your man. The video of the birthday cake being eaten by rats which lasted about 3 minutes at the start.The Strypes was a nice surprise (allegedly Pete's love children according to Geldof!)She Does It Right/Never Bite The Hand That Feeds. Banana Rep was a bit of a lowpoint for me as I never like this song done live.

The Occasion-Dublin did not disappoint in welcoming home it's wayward sons.well Dun Laoghaire's wayward sons. Nice to see some members of bands extended families in the 'gods' looking down.

Overall- Worthy celebration of the band and it's 40 year reign though for me it lacked something, a spark that some of the other gigs seemed to have. Maybe it's  just familiarity of my part, and also when any band is playing the same set over and over for three years it's always going to be hard to reach some impossible 'musical high' and we all have own own best/favourite gigs that achieve that status through many different factors, some of which are purely in own own heads and make up.

Finally- thanks to everyone of the forum/Net over the last few years for being so dedicated and caring and for travelling to Dublin from all parts near and far. We'll always have the memories, and who would have thought such an occasion would be possible a few short years ago?

noelindublin wrote:

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A few observations. First the Olympia is a great venue, a lot better than Vicar St. Great curtain backdrop, sloped floor , good sound and two bars which were very big. Could do with better loos though.

...

Overall- Worthy celebration of the band and it's 40 year reign though for me it lacked something, a spark that some of the other gigs seemed to have. Maybe it's  just familiarity of my part, and also when any band is playing the same set over and over for three years it's always going to be hard to reach some impossible 'musical high' and we all have own own best/favourite gigs that achieve that status through many different factors, some of which are purely in own own heads and make up.

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The venue was really good, but as I discovered, it was better being in the so called melee where there was plenty of space than being on the sidelines.  My normal ruse of getting to the bar as Diamond Smiles was playing was thwarted by the closure of the bar and I ended up in a very crowded area on the edge.  But I did have a pi$$ at that point and the toilets were better than many London venues. 

I enjoyed the concert immensely  up until Diamond Smiles, but that is always the case.  From the moment they played Eva Braun through to She Does It Right, which perplexed a lot of the audience, I had a blast, as did a few people around me.    It was really good that everyone sang Mondays a cappella rather than wait around for the "dramatic" pause.  I did a bit too much jumping, as I was limping a bit today.  Didn't suffer from the deafness either as I was a bit back from the stage, behind the second barrier.

It was a shame there was no Joey in the set which given it was played to a TV audience a couple of nights before and there was even a sax player in attendance.  

I will probably sound like an ungrateful son of a bitch from here on in (sorry suss!), but I thought all the band were going to sign the T shirts as I went to see The Rats not just Geldof.  I have Geldof's scrawl on plenty of stuff, and if it was a Geldof gig I would have pi$$ed off down the pub (or more likely back to the hotel given my 5am wake up call) rather than hang around for all the stalker pictures.  No, I still don't have a stalker picture! To be fair, it was kind of interesting; Geldof was in good form and it was really good that he took the time to come out press the flesh, sign shirts and have his picture taken with all and sundry.

However, after watching the Late Late show on the iPad and realising how good it would have made the gig had they played Joey, I had a bit of a come down.  I am now thinking I had seen that exact same show bar the first encore at least five times in the last two or three years, and what point is there in going again.  I can't really see myself going to see them outside the M25 for sure (oh how many times have I written that!), but I am finding the whole thing so repetitive that I'm not sure I'd be that fussed about seeing them.  I certainly wouldn't feel like I would be missing anything.

I am glad I went to Dublin as it's the sort of thing that will never happen again, as I really can't imagine this happening in 2025.  I wish that was the end as it would be quite fitting.  Oddly that thought also crossed my mind three years ago in Dublin when the Bradbury Rats played their last public gig.  The thing is I can't see how it will be any better and will probably just deteriorate.  

Anyway, enough of the doom, it was as good to see many familiar faces and meet some new ones and have some self indulgent Rat based chats through the evening.  It's a nice little community of dedicated fans.  If this forum has done nothing else it has been the seed from which a lot of this has grown.   Always impressed by fans who literally travelled the width of Britain and Ireland to see them.  

Lisa wrote:

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I agree with ArrGee that Mondays was so much better with everybody singing rather than the awkward silence - just seemed a nice touch that brought everybody together.

Again I agree with ArrGee about thinking all the band were going to be there to sign them. Not devastated about it - there may be a future opportunity perhaps ...

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Thanks, I'm so used to people disagreeing with me!

Maybe that was the plan, don't sign the T shirts, so we all come back again...

Jules wrote:

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Maybe they think it is all about Bob. It isn't. And that's coming from me! 

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As you know I went to see The Rats on numerous occasions sans Geldof, so in my case it is about the band not the man.   But I would concede that for many Geldof is more important.  

I am off to see The Stranglers in the new year and I don't really give a monkey's that Hugh Cornwell isn't there.  That said I could never imagine The Damned without Dave Vanian or Captain Sensible nor Happy Mondays without Shaun or Bez nor Pulp sans Jarvis even if all the other original/key members were in place.

Jules wrote:

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Surely, they must have liked the sing along.

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We were there for the sing song!  

The abiding memory that I will take away from this concert will be the many hundreds of Rats fans singing I Don't Like Mondays right up to chorus.  If only they had they left the crowd to finish it off rather than doing the reprise as per the album mix.