Synopsis
The story of the Boomtown Rats
The story of The Boomtown Rats, who fought a conservative Ireland, broke through the UK punk scene, scored global No 1 hits and revolutionised the world with Bob Geldof’s Live Aid.
Citizens Of Boomtown: The Story of the Boomtown Rats
2020 Directed by Billy Mcgrath
Genres
Releases by Date
TV
-
UK15
Releases by Country
UK
23 May 2020
- TV15
Popular reviews
More-
The story of the Irish New Wave band whose energetic live shows coupled with their quirky but intelligent songs made them one of the hottest acts of the late 70s. While never a punk band, they shared punk's anger because they came from Ireland, which at the time was still a very conservative country where church and state were still very much one and rooted firmly in the past with limited opportunities. The Rats proved to be a youthful shock to the system, giving a voice to the country's frustrated youth who made up half the population. They came to Britain but were treated like outsiders by the punk and new wave crowd but scored number one hits with Rat…
-
i’m fully convinced that u2 was a psyop to distract people from the fact that the boomtown rats are the greatest irish music band ever. case closed.
pretty standard music doc, but man it’s so nice to rewatch it every now and then just to remember how much these guys rocked the world’s perception of ireland back in the day. amazing stuff.
-
The Boomtown Rats are one one of those bands commonly seen on the fringes of the UK punk scene in documentaries and compilations of the era but this gives a far deeper look at the band that transcends that.
From beginnings in Ireland to their attempts at global domination it’s great to see the story that often gets lost in the story of Geldof and Live Aid.
Of course that comes in later on and as that story has been told so many times it’s the least interesting part of this film but in all still a good watch and has left me wanting to explore their back catalogue further, so I guess it’s done it’s job pretty well.
-
Enjoyable and informative although somewhat Geldof-centric which I suppose is to be expected. Would be good to find out what the others actually do after the band breaks up. One stays with Geldof for his solo career, one goes fishing, another seems to ride around the countryside on his motorbike a lot, but some actual detail would be good.
-
As someone who's been a devoted fan to The Boomtown Rats for three years now, I find this documentary covers just about every base they could have.
From the start of the band, to the breakup in 1986, and to their comeback in 2013 to present, I was very happy watching this documentary and all of the tidbits that came with it. I'm glad they brought the original lineup of rats back to talk (excluding Fingers, I think they used an old interview) through their own perspectives on certain events throughout the course of their careers! Could use a little less Geldof perspective, though.
My criticisms mostly lie within the editing of the documentary, as it was a bit jarring, but it stayed true to how their 2013 music videos were, so that's pretty fun.