You Rat, Bob!
Bandmate insists HE wrote I Don’t Like Mondays – and sues Geldof for millions
IT WAS the controversial No1 that sealed Bob Geldof’s status as a rock superstar.
But now the Boomtown Rats song I Don’t Like Mondays is at the centre of an extraordinary legal battle, with a former bandmate claiming he co-wrote the lucrative hit.
At stake are millions of pounds in royalties accumulated in the 37 years since the song, inspired by a fatal school shooting, hit the charts.
Geldof was credited as the sole writer when the single was released in 1979, but now the band’s former keyboardist, Johnnie Fingers, claims he wrote the music and some of the lyrics but was pressured not to take credit at the time, and is seeking two-thirds of the royalties.
Geldof has dismissed the allegation as wishful thinking and insists that Fingers has benefited hugely from his years of association with the band.
The song was written after 16-yearold Brenda Spencer fired rifle shots into a California school playground, killing the headteacher and caretaker and wounding eight children and a police officer. When asked why, she replied: ‘I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day.’ Now 54, she remains in jail.
At the time Geldof and Fingers – real name John Moylett – were on a promotional trip to the US. The shocking news came through on a telex machine as they were giving interviews to an Atlanta radio station.
But their accounts of what happened next differ. Fingers, now 60 and living in Japan, claims that he composed most of the music, while Geldof provided the majority of the lyrics, according to his High Court writ.
The keyboard player said he started work on a chord sequence and melody once he returned to the UK in February 1979, evolving the now-familiar piano riff over several days before adding Geldof’s lyrics.
He claims he played the melody to Geldof, who told him it sounded ‘too classical’ and not ‘Ratsy’ enough. But when the rest of the band joined in, it became the hit record.
Geldof counter-claims that he started writing the lyrics and music on his guitar while still in the States and says he first performed a version to an audience at a Dallas radio station.
Before the single’s release, Fingers said he had wanted credit as co-author, but claims Geldof told him in an ‘intimidating’ telephone call that he risked splitting up the band if he caused trouble and that he would receive his ‘fair share’.
Since 2004, Fingers has written several letters to Geldof – who was given an honorary knighthood in 1986 for his charity work with Band Aid – seeking recognition but the row is now heading for the High Court.
Geldof says in papers filed in res- ponse that Fingers’s account was ‘likely to be a figment of his imagination’. He says he first played the song with the rest of the band, including Fingers, in a recording studio several days after returning to London.
Geldof said the tune was strongly inspired by Elvis Costello’s Oliver’s Army and Eric Clapton’s version of I Shot The Sheriff – and at the studio he asked two other band members to sing harmonies because he regarded his voice as ‘inadequate’.
Geldof, 65, has called for Fingers’s claim to be struck out as a fair trial is not possible so long after the event. He added that his former friend was taking advantage of him by raising the issue after so long.
However, there is precedent. In 2009, Procul Harum’s Matthew Fisher successfully won a credit for A Whiter Shade Of Pale – after waiting 38 years to launch his bid.
Rock expert and broadcaster Paul Gambaccini said the royalties for I Don’t Like Mondays would almost certainly involve a seven-figure sum. He added: ‘Because it is a recording that is unique, it has been played for years. Even though tastes changed, it never dated. There will be a lot of money involved.’
Representatives for both sides declined to comment, and no date has yet been set for the High Court hearing.
Bob ‘promised me my fair share’