Boomtown Rats
Album: Classic album Selection (Sampler)
Label: Mercury
Tracks: 16
Website: http://www.boomtownrats.co.uk/

Ah the heady days of the Eighties, when a certain woman ran this country and money - loadsamoney - was king.The Boomtown Rats emerged during the punk years, with a gobby Irish singer and a certain panache.

The songs on this disc gives a representative sample of what they were all about (and hint at the delights of the 6cd, 88 track box set.)

From the early songs like Mary Of The Fourth Form and Modern Girl, you can hear the brash guitar chords and the beginnings of production methods that would get into overdrive in the later years. This Modern Girl is "so 1970's" - which made me chuckle.

Most of the Rats' hits are here - the urban angst of Rat Trap and the melancholy I Don't Like Mondays - stand out.

But overall it is the staggering amounts of production that rule the roost. It would appear everything but the kitchen sink was thrown into some songs - call and response vocals, moody organ, plaintive piano, angry guitars, effect after effect, booming saxophone and strident vocals - they are all here.

The lead singer, Bob Geldof, sounds remarkably fresh and young in these tracks. But of course this was before Live Aid and his career-defining table-thumping moment.

Great fun - oh oh yeah.

John Knighton