Geldof and Rats to play Wexford for the first time in 42 years
THE great Bob Geldof is returning to a Wexford stage, 42 years after he last performed here.
Geldof and the Boomtown Rats will close this year’s Spiegeltent Festival on the Quayfront which runs from Friday, October 12, to Sunday, October 28.
They join the 2018 festival’s growing list of top acts that includes Smokie, The Stunning, Paul Brady, The Academic, Johnny McEvoy and Brendan Grace.
Much water has passed under the bridge since the Boomtown Rats last played Wexford in 1976, on a sweaty night in The Dolphin pub at the top of the Faythe.
They also made an appearance at the Little Theatre in Gorey that year, the first stop on the ‘Falling Asunder’ tour (a 15-date showcase now remembered as the first nationwide tour of rock bands, featuring not only the Rats, but also Nightbus and Cheap Thrills, and a disco!).
Shortly after the Rats played Wexford in ‘76 they signed to Ensign/Phonogram for a reportedly huge fee. The rest, as they say, is history.
Strictly speaking not a punk band, they nonetheless rode the punk wave and delivered on early promise. scoring two number one hits in the UK (‘Rat Trap’ and ‘I Don’t Like Mondays’) as well as a bunch of other hit singles and albums. By the mid eighties, Bob Geldof was achieving fame in another sphere as the face of Band Aid and Live Aid. The Boomtown Rats were involved in both projects, but by 1986, their gig was up.
Skip forward 27 years to 2013 and the Boomtown Rats are back in business, with Bob Geldof announcing the comeback in typical Geldof style:’ We were an amazing band and I just feel it’s the right time to re-Rat, to go back to Boomtown for a visit.’
Tickets for their Speigeltent show on October 28, at 10 p.m. are €45 each and expected to sell out very quickly.
In other Spiegeltent Festival news, promoters Lantern have confirmed that Smokie’s opening night show is a sellout.
Among the more interesting new additions to this year’s lineup are hot Westmeath four-piece The Academic, playing their first headline gig in Wexford at the Speigeltent on October 25, at 10 p.m., and the veteran Paul Brady who will deliver a set of songs from an extensive back catalogue the same night (7 p.m.).
In two contrasting comedy shows, popular satirical website Waterford Whispers gets a live show outing at the Spiegeltent on Sunday, October 21, while Brendan Grace will get reacquainted with his many Wexford fans - and cousins - on Wednesday, October 24. Meanwhile, Neil Delamere and Wicklow man Danny O’Brien will both perform their Edinburgh Festival Fringe shows for Wexford audiences.
For the full Spiegeltent lineup so far, and to book tickets, visit wexfordspiegeltent.com