{"id":100762,"date":"2025-10-24T04:55:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T04:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/100762\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T04:55:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T04:55:10","slug":"bob-geldof-says-he-would-have-walked-presidential-race-had-he-run-for-the-aras-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/100762\/","title":{"rendered":"Bob Geldof says he would have \u2018walked\u2019 presidential race had he run for the \u00c1ras \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boomtown Rats frontman Bob Geldof<\/a> and founding band member Pete Briquette were back where it all began on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The two were at the Bolton Street campus of the now Technological University of Dublin<\/a> to mark the 50th anniversary of their band\u2019s first gig at what was then the College of Technology on Halloween night in 1975. <\/p>\n

The pair unveiled a commemorative plaque on the front of the building. <\/p>\n

Speaking at the event, Geldof<\/a> said he \u201cwould have walked it\u201d if he had been supported by political parties to stand in the presidential election<\/a> and described the Rats as the soundtrack to a generation that rejected church abuse and corrupt government, among other ills. <\/p>\n

He said the band\u2019s songs were the \u201cfirst pushback against the Ireland we grew up in, you know, no more\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just not going to have a corrupt government. We don\u2019t want murder in the North. We don\u2019t want the church abusing our children,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Geldof said working in an abattoir in Ballsbridge gave him the inspiration for the song Rat Trap. \u201cYou know, [we said] we\u2019ve had enough now. And I think the Rats was the first roar of that. I honestly do think that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a generational rejection, and we just happened to be the soundtrack of that and provided the local songs for it. And I\u2019m really proud of that.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"BobBob Geldof and Pete Briquette of The Boomtown Rats unveil a plaque to mark the band\u2019s first ever concert on 31st October 1975 at what is now TU Dublin, at Bolton Street, Dublin. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Bob Geldof: \u2018I never read about myself. I can\u2019t stand the stupid f**king things I say\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He said he changed the band\u2019s name from The Nightlife Thugs to Boomtown Rats a couple of nights before their first gig. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe names of bands were really boring in Dublin … Just they meant nothing: Supply Demand & Curve (a 1970s Dublin band); what\u2019s that?\u201d<\/p>\n

The new title was inspired by the name of a gang in folk singer Woody Guthrie\u2019s autobiography Bound for Glory. \u201cI thought that\u2019s great. And the others really didn\u2019t care,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

However, Briquette interrupted to say: \u201cI liked it immediately.\u201d <\/p>\n

Geldof said he had a difficult time before the band formed. \u201cI was desperate in my personal life, I was desperate. I had nowhere to go, nowhere left to go.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said the secret source of \u201crock \u2018n\u2019 roll\u201d is \u201cattitude and tunes\u201d. <\/p>\n

The Boomtown Rats 50th-anniversary tour is running in the UK until mid-November. In March and April Geldof completed his \u2018An Evening with Bob Geldof\u2019 tour across Australia and New Zealand. The event included storytelling, acoustic performances and multimedia presentations. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Bob Geldof reveals how chat with Taoiseach ended thoughts of \u00c1ras bidOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boomtown Rats frontman Bob Geldof and founding band member Pete Briquette were back where it all began on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2046,93,61,60,978,62500],"class_list":["post-100762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-bob-geldof","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-presidential-election","tag-technological-university-dublin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}