bobgeldof.info - "Tonic for the Troops"- 1978

The Boomtown Rats - TONIC FOR THE TROOPS - 1978

Track Listing

Ensign 1978 - Recorded at Relight Studios, Holland - Produced by Robert John Lange

Additional Tracks on Remaster - Released February 2005 Universal Records

11.Neon Heart (John Peel Radio Session)
12.Do The Rat (B-Side)
13.D.U.N. L.O.A.G.H.A.I.R.E (B-Side In Ireland)
14.Rat Trap (Live In Stoke)

Sleeve Notes from the remastered CD release
A TONIC FOR THE TROOPS by Allan Jones

The Boomtown Rats release A Tonic For The Troops in June 1978, when I review it at some length for what used to be Melody Maker, I think at the time it's the year's best rock album along with Elvis Costello's This Year's Model. What a gas, then, to report that listening to the album again for the first time in 26 years, I am much less embarrassed by the record than I am by the review of it that appeared in MM all those years ago, which seems to have been written by someone for whom English is, at best, a second language.Of course, being a fan of The Boomtown Rats back then is not in everyone's opinion a terribly cool thing to be. At the time of which I'm writing, in fact, the Rats are much frowned upon by punk hardliners and the critical Taliban who support them, according to whom Geldof and the Rats are shallow, self-serving, opportunistic, cynical manipulators, new wave lightweights with no genuine punk credentials though Geldof never claimed any - in fact the opposite.

Still - Looking After Number One, the band's first hit single is, predictably and mistakenly wheeled out as evidence for the prosecution's allegations of preening self-regard, which their critics evidently think compares poorly with the rebel affectations of The Clash or the ranting nihilism of The Sex Pistols.The Rats were a great band and at their best - which is where A Tonic For The Troops surely finds them - had a rare talent for clever modern pop (here exemplified by Like Clockwork and She's So Modern, both hit singles), bolstered by an enduring affection for the swashbuckling guitar-driven rock'n'roll of the Stones (Blind Date) that even at its most brazenly commercial boasted a large measure of intelligence, wit and stylistic panache. There is, however, a certain kind of rock critic for whom sonic abrasion will always be mystifyingly preferable to great tunes, adhesive choruses and lyrics that aspire to a kind of significance. Which means these people will have found little of merit on tracks like the Bowiesque (I Never Loved) Eva Braun - Geldof's opening yelp a fair facsimile of Bowie's feral Ziggy Stardust yowl or the Graham Parkerish Me And Howard Hughes. Inevitably, there are cuts - Don't Believe What You Read and (Watch Out For) The Normal People, that have not altogether successfully weathered the years, and there are times when you wish the whole thing rocked a bit harder and sounded a lot bigger. Perhaps this was because the Rats brazenly wanted hits 'What's the point otherwise?' Geldof unapologetically commented, which endeared them even less to those who believed that talent was evident in direct proportion to the least number of records sold. As a result their records were mixed for transistors not clubbing, and in those days radio and audio systems were one degree superior to a tin can at the end of a piece of string. Whatever, the country takes to the album with massive enthusiasm. She's So Modern is a Top 12 hit, Like Clockwork is what they used to call a Top 10 smash, while the cinematic Rat Trap - a successor to the first album's Joey, set in Dublin's Five Lamps district and the abattoir in which Geldof had worked, sounds more than ever like something by Bruce Springsteen re-written by Ian Hunter - goes to Number 1 and stays there for what seems like most of the winter of '78 becoming the first ever Irish Number 1 and annoyingly for the critical zealots, the first 'official' new wave Number 1.

The album, meanwhile, spends an amazing 47 weeks on the UK charts, a genuinely triumphant performance from a band who have been preposterously underestimated, and whose career has been unintentionally overshadowed by Geldof's subsequent achievements as the author of Band Aid, the architect of Live Aid. Famously, Troops was also the album that was going to launch the Rats in America. To which end, Bob and keyboard player Johnnie Fingers are dispatched in January 1979 to the US for a gruelling month-long promotional tour - a bleary bonanza of backslapping bonhomie, fatuous pleasantries, endless butterings-up and relentless arse-licking. But during which, on yet another radio interview with Geldof automatically answering the local DJ's inanities reads a telexed news report of a shooting nearby in San Diego. In the taxi back to the hotel he begins to write the absolute classic 'I Don’t Like Mondays'. I get a taste of what Geldof and Fingers have been going through when I arrive in Los Angeles for the last week of their tour and find myself the next day being taken with them by limo to KWEST radio for a round of interviews. 'The object of this exercise,' Geldof sighs as we pull up outside, 'is to storm in and make as much noise as possible.'A couple of minutes later, Geldof is getting into it with a fat, pony-tailed DJ he's apparently taken exception to.
'I suppose you’re one of the guys who plays all the crap on the radio,' he says, ever the diplomat. 'Styx. Foreigner. Shit like that.'
'Who. . .uh. . . who are you?' the DJ, baffled, wants to know.
'We’re the most exciting rock'n'roll band in Britain,' Geldof says unblushingly. 'But you’ll find that out for yourself when we come back and play.'
'Will your album be out then?'
'The album,' Geldof announces with a flourish, 'will be Number Fucking One by then.'
Next stop is KLOS, where the programme director Cody tells Bob how much he likes A Tonic For The Troops.
'If you like it so much, start fuckin' playing it,' Geldof says.
'Bob,' says Cody soothingly. 'There’s a lotta competition, baby.'
'No there fuckin' isn't,' Geldof insists. 'And when we come back, you'll be playing us four times a fuckin' hour.'
TV time! Geldof and Fingers are led into a small, garish studio to be interviewed by Ms Terri Tingle, a former topless dancer and big-haired host of an afternoon show called Entertainment Page. The final chorus of 'Me And Howard Hughes' fades quickly and Terri's suddenly chattering to Atlanta.
'Hi!' she beams, with a truly terrifying smile, more teeth than a horse. 'You’ve just been listening to The Boomer-town Rats – and I have in the studio two members of the band, Johnnie Fingers and Bob Goodolf! 'Geldof' says Geldof.

'Ah lurve yoah album,' Terri tells Bob. 'How do you write yoah songs?'
'With a pencil and paper, usually,' Bob says with a smile he's trying to stop turning into a smirk.
'And where. . .where are the rest of the band? Why aren't they with you?'
'Because they're boring,' Geldof tells her. 'I’m here cos I talk a lot and he's here,' he goes on, jerking a thumb at Fingers, 'cos he wears pyjamas.'

The next day we're in Dallas where Geldof causes a bit of a fuss during a radio interview when the DJ asks him where in the city the Rats will be playing when they return to the US later in the year for a tour, Geldof telling her the band will be appearing at the Texas Book repository on Dealey Plaza. This is the building, of course, from whose windows Lee Harvey Oswald shot President Kennedy. Geldof's remark effectively brings the interview to a premature conclusion.

'There are some things we just don't joke about, sir,' Geldof is told as we're shown the door. 'Yeah, that's part of the problem', he sighs.That night, Geldof and Fingers are obliged to put in an appearance at the annual CBS National Convention. This is being held at the Fairmont Hotel, which is awash with satin tour jackets and the raucous laughter of people trying too hard to have a good time.

As we go in for dinner, we're given fancy little name tags. 'Jaysus!' says Geldof. 'Will youse look at this?' He holds out his name tag, which reads BRAD GANDALF, making us all laugh, though Geldof's not too amused. CBS president Bruce Lundvall is making a speech, reminding everyone in the room that they're here because they're swell people, doing swell jobs, shifting units for the company. 'And I want to tell you,' he tells them, 'CBS is more than a company - it's a family.'

Then CBS MD Jack Craigo is introducing Geldof, lead singer with the label's hot new signings, The Boomtown Rats. Geldof goes nervously to the speaker's podium.
'You've been told over the last few days that CBS is a real family,' he begins, a couple of weeks of growing resentment coming to a head, 'full of warm and wonderful human beings. Frankly,' he goes on, 'I didn't know there were that many warm and wonderful human beings in the entire world. Let alone one record company. I think,' he continues, 'you all know that really you're just a bunch of fuckin' bastards.'
This gets a few cheers from people who don't know Geldof's entirely serious.

Geldof returns to our table, bizarrely exchanging handshakes with the CBS top-brass and their armies of underlings.
'What a bunch of fuckin' morons,' Geldof hisses in my ear, giving a big friendly wave to a couple of passing vice presidents. 'Absolute fuckin' morons.'
It's the moment, I think, that Bob realises America may already be slipping away from him, which it does when Tonic For The Troops finally comes out over there to raves like the one I wrote all those years ago, but no one save the critics seems to notice. Still, back here, 1978 was unquestionably the year of the Rat. Outselling, outgunning all comers. A Tonic For the Troops defined its moment and confirmed the Rats as one of the biggest bands of our time. They had with this record scrambled to the very top and they had unlike many others practised this fine art of surfacing without suffering the creative bends along the way. Which is, of course, another story.

A Retrospective Look At the Rats Albums 2005
by David Clancy

It was a long time coming, but 7th February 2005 was a very special date in the hearts of a few poor souls who relish the work of the power pop punk paddies, aka The Boomtown Rats. Universal wisely, have re-released all of the Boomtown Rats back catalogue on CD. Looked upon by the scribes who write our pop and rock history as a bunch of punk light weights, the Boomtown Rats are not loved and revered as frequently as their musical contemporaries The Pistols, The Jam, The Clash. This maybe justified, maybe not.

But one of the regular contributors to this site is David Clancy, who has taken time out to produce these reviews for us of the back catalogue of material for which we are extremely grateful. (IMG bobgeldof.info)

… and it’s a Tonic for the Troops!

1.Like Clockwork
2.Blind Date
3.(I Never Loved) Eva Braun
4.Living In An Island
5.Don't Believe What You Read
6.She's So Modern
7.Me And Howard Hughes
8.Can't Stop
9.(Watch Out For) The Normal People
10.Rat Trap
11.Neon Heart (John Peel Radio Session)
12.Do The Rat (B-Side)
13.D.U.N. L.O.A.G.H.A.I.R.E (B-Side In Ireland)
14.Rat Trap (Live In Stoke)

Just over 25 years ago I watched Rock Goes To College on BBC2. The basic format of the show was that a band played a live 40 minute set at one of the various UK colleges. Among the bands that featured were an embryonic AC/DC. But the one I remember most was The Boomtown Rats. I made a very dodgy recording on tape and listened to it again and again in the following week. And when I had saved enough money, I bought Tonic for the Troops on the way home from school.

The first single from Tonic for the Troops was She's So Modern. I was familiar with the song, though I never knew who it was by at the time. Punk by numbers, it could almost have been lifted from Never Mind the Bollocks; Geldof sneering "the right clothes to wear" before the end climax is a straight lift from Johnny Rotten. She's So Modern was a far more radio friendly proposition than Pretty Vacant or Holidays in the Sun, with its trademark Rats chorus in full swing. The verses echo Walk on the Wild Side, naming each girl, with quick snippets on how "modern" they are, but with far more urgency. Magenta de Vine perhaps the most infamous modern girl.

The follow up single was Like Clockwork. This was the real breakthrough single for the Rats. A top ten hit, it even brought along a robotic dance from punk followers. It is one of the few songs that featured writers other than Geldof, with Pete Briquette and Simon Crowe making a contribution. The song starts with a tick-tock refrain, wailing guitar and almost primal drums. When Geldof comes in with the vocal, you half expect Siouxsie Sioux! A staccato disjointed rhythm pervades throughout. This song was a real leap forward in sound with Finger's piano coming to the fore in the instrumental break. The climax of the song is far better experienced live, when Geldof's ape like limbs act as clock hands as he booms tick-tock. The alarm clock is the only way to end it all!

There was another single, but I'll leave that to the end, as the alarm clock's final ring is superseded by the sharp drum beat that opens Blind Date. A couple of well placed guitar chords join the introduction before a mix of drums and bass lead into the song. Geldof jumps in with the vocal, this time evoking Mick Jagger. Running through the dating game with no particular focus, this is a great sounding song, a wonderful guitar solo, and a Rotten-like so long at the end.

Many people familiar with the big hit singles from the Rats would have missed the gems that reside on this album like (I Never Loved) Eva Braun. It starts with a Shirelle-like female vocal, and Geldof takes on the guise of Adolf Hitler as the Leader of the Pack. The ooh-yeahs are from Bowie's Young American period. The military drumming takes the song down in the middle so it can rise to a crescendo and returns at the end for the final pay off with "Gee". Live this song was a real highlight, and showed how musically accomplished the Rats were.

Me and Howard Hughes encapsulates everything that was great about the Boomtown Rats in a single song. Simon Crowe shares vocals with Geldof and the contrast between the two voices gives the song another dimension. The guitar playing by Gerry Cott is superlative. The handclaps over the penultimate chorus refrain, and harmonies make this feel like being in heaven.

Don't Believe What You Read is another great track which keeps things simple and has a general attack on the press in the lyrics. Considering this was a pre-tabloid Geldof, it’s certain that if the lyrics were written a year or so later they would be far more biting. The track opens fairly sedately before exploding into a crash of guitar and drums followed by a mini guitar solo prior to Geldof spitting out the song.

Living In An Island starts off with a nice bright and breezy reggae drum and turn into fifty ways to leave your planet! You half expect to hear hop under a bus Gus in the middle. The chorus contains the familiar sing back harmonies, and the end fades out to a calypso rhythm showing the Rats fondness for Caribbean music which had only previously been hinted at on the frivolous Dun Laoghaire.

Can't Stop is one of the more distinctive tracks on the album. There is a sense of paranoia that is more marked in later albums and lyrically the song hints that all was not well in the mind of Bob Geldof with regards to impending fame.

Echoing Never Bite the Hand that Feeds from their debut album, (Watch Out for) the Normal People dissects suburban life. The song burst quickly into life and is a comment on the darker side of respectability. The guitar solo is a real highlight with the vocal who-hoos. Lucky buggers indeed!

And finally Rat Trap! Though I Don't Like Mondays is probably a more well known song, Rat Trap was their first number one. Very similar to Joey from the debut album, Rat Trap is a well crafted mini-epic taking Billy through a drunken night in Dublin to his meeting with Judy in the Italian Cafe. Springsteen-esque, with a wonderful sax solo in the middle of the song and in the fade-out. The first punk/new wave number one (well, the first official one), the song was gratefully received by a nation suffering from Grease overload. Not only did it supplant the infernal Summer Nights at number one, it also held off the individual efforts by Travolta and Newton-John. Well at least until Rod Stewart told us how sexy he was!

Tonic for the Troops was a marked development from the first album with highly original songs and a departure from their Dublin roots, except Normal People and Rat Trap. It had a very definite sound which is a criticism that could be levelled at the albums that followed. The backing vocals were harmonious, Gerry Cott's guitar solos to the forefront, and Geldof's lyrics had not started veer into the mawkish sentimentality that he could be guilty of. The singer/backing singer call/call-back was well used throughout the album, and the variety of rhythms and changes of pace made it feel like there were far more than ten songs. Johnnie Fingers piano were possibly under utilised, but the sound did not suffer for it.

The album showed The Boomtown Rats to be a more accomplished band than almost all of their peers in terms of song writing and musicianship. Tonic for the Troops stands as The Boomtown Rats finest moment for the inventiveness and excitement in the songs. Most importantly this album captured the zeitgeist, being around at the right time and effectively defining the sound of 1978 as much as Parallel Lines, Give ‘em Enough Rope and Never Mind the Bollocks all of which it shared the record racks for the whole year.

There are very few albums where every track can be considered excellent, but this is one. The Boomtown Rats went on to make many good songs but arguably never made another great album which not only fitted the times but was timeless.

Personally, I think it is certainly the greatest album of the 1970s and possibly the greatest album of all time!

CD Review
I was originally asked to review Tonic for the Troops, which to me will always be the original UK release, but for many it won't be the album they have! Tonic for the Troops has had three major re-releases/revisions.

In January 1979, the album was re-released in the US replacing Can't Stop and (Watch Out for) the Normal People with Joey's on the Street Again and Mary of the Fourth Form. The running order of the album was also changed. Like Clockwork should open it and Rat Trap should end it. Rat Trap should certainly not be the opening track! You could argue that the tracks from the first album are individually better, which they are, but it made little odds in the US, as no one bought it! The US record company made an even bigger blunder with Mondo Bongo by not incorporating Fall Down.

However the release of this version in 1989 on CD was the first time this album was released on shiny disc. I eagerly snapped it up at the Virgin Megastore on the Champs Eyleese and I was just glad to hear it again, especially as my turntable was gathering dust back in London! However, that said, if you haven't already got it, avoid the US release!

There are also two UK re-releases in July 1993 and February 2005. In the main, they have gathered together all the UK and Irish B-sides from Mary of the Fourth Form through to Rat Trap along with a couple of curiosities.

The original re-release simply has the b-sides of the singles from the album.

Lying Again is a good song, almost descending into old time rock 'n' roll. It is fair to say it isn't a glaring omission from Tonic for the Troops itself, as it meanders on with little to say.

How Do You Do? appears to have started as a tirade on the record industry, but ultimately descends into Bon Jovi territory saying as long as the band play well on a Saturday night it'll all be OK! Musically the song is good with a great guitar solo, and a crescendo of an ending. Maybe with better developed lyrics this would have been a great song, instead of been merely good to listen to.

So Strange suggests a darker side to the Rats like Can't Stop. Geldof's vocals and lyrics are biting ("I was bleeding, before I saw the blood") evoking Neon Heart and I Can Make It If You Can from the debut album. Strange that this song was only a B-side as it would have graced any of the first three albums. It also hinted at things to come (Like Wind Chill Factor).

D.U.N. L.O.A.G.H.A.I.R.E. and Do The Rat are B-side masterpieces. Genius. The Boomtown Rats were a very humorous bunch and in letting their hair down on these B-sides came up with two exceptionally tounge-in-cheek tracks. D.U.N. L.O.A.G.H.A.I.R.E was based on a song called Cocaine In My Brain Geldof took the "A knife, a fork, a bottle and a cork. That's the way we spell New York" refrain and applied it to his home town to hillarious effect. Garry Robberts attempts at spelling Dun Loaghaire are dismissed, and corrects him with "Drab and dreary, Tired and Weary, That's the way you spell Dun Loaghaire". Reminiscent of Derek & Clive, (or possibly Zig & Zag at points, eventually the world gets to spell and sing Dun Loaghaire. All done to a wonderful calypso beat. It was released as a cover flexi in the UK, but also as a b-side to Clockwork on Mulligan records (The Rats Irish label).

Aping The Twist, and other dance craze songs, the Rats create their own, The Rat! With yellowed teeth and greyer hair, I'm less up for doing the Rat to the break of day these days, and it's pretty fair to say The Rat didn't really supplant seventies disco! The song itself is a very basic three chord (if that!) romp, but the lyrics are very sassy and the R’n’B guitar break sounds like it comes from Tiger Feet by Mud! On the CD it ends with a Beatlesque cheer a la All You Need is Love.

Ultimately, two of the greatest flip sides ever, though check out Sham 69's Sunday Morning Nightmare and The Divine Comedy's Lovely Horse as other great examples of the genre!

Neon Heart (John Peel Radio Session) is a stripped down less polished version that the one on the debut album

Rat Trap (Live In Stoke) has a higher pitched intro than usual and at first I thought Into The Valley by the Skids was on it’s way! I’m not sure when this was recorded, but it sounds like it came from the Rats post-Bongos over Britain as the horns are more complete than I have heard elsewhere and the guitars a little less complete.

Almost thirty years later this album stands as the Boomtown Rats finest hour, and with the addition of two of the best B-sides ever, the CD edition improves on the original vinyl. In an era of guitar driven intelligent indie rock, this album sounds as contemporary as say Franz Ferdinand, The Killers and especially Razorlight, whose Up All Night echoes much of the first two Rats albums. The time is ripe for a re-appraisal of this fine album.

CD WARNING: Don’t ditch that vinyl yet!

The versions of Clockwork and Rat Trap on the albums aren't the same as the single versions. With Clockwork a couple of lines are removed from the bridge on the single (the album version is better, so don’t worry), and with Rat Trap, "Pus and Grime ooze through the scab crusted sores" is replaced "Death and tears pass down the drains and the sewers". Only a Dubliner could have the vocal dexterity to achieve that, and is well worth a listen.

The biggest omission on the CD is Do The Rat’s original introduction. On vinyl, the track opens with the chimes of Big Ben, and varied stereotypes double entendre their way through the introduction, including Pinky's pal! Possibly a victim of the politically correct days, it is not offensive and should have remained. Also the final pay-off is lost.

What's all that got to do with Punk Rock, eh? Mmm, nothing! Oh!