Track Listing (Original)

Mercury 1982

Track Listing on Remaster - Released February 2005  Universal Records

1.He Watches It All
2.Never In A Million Years
3.Talking In Code
4.The Bitter End
5.The Little Death
6.A Storm Breaks
7.Up All Night
8.House On Fire
9.Charmed Lives
10.Skin On Skin
11.Say Hi To Mick
12.No Hiding Place (B-Side)
13.House On Fire (12" Dub Version)
14.Up All Night (Long Version)

Sleeve Notes from the remastered CD release -
V DEEP by John Walsh

In 1982, it was razor-blade time for rock fans. All the intelligent, toxic energy of punk had been burned away like the brandy off a plum pudding.

What remained was a pudding indeed - a stodgy melange of toothless ex-punkery, gypsy retro-folk and a platoon of nouveau-glam nobodies whose talent apparently lay in raiding the wardrobe of some provincial am-dram troupe. Some eons after his days with The Damned, Captain Sensible appeared on Top of the Pops singing the execrable 'Happy Talk' from South Pacific. The only music you might cross the road to hear came from The Jam and the rude-boy ska-pop of Madness. Elsewhere, Adam Ant sang 'Goody-Two-Shoes' with a white stripe across the bridge of his nose, while Phil Oakey of Human League intoned 'Don’t You Want Me' in a voice as flat and annoying as his bias-cut hair. Everywhere you looked it was novelty singles ('Pass The Dutchie'), crappy sentimentality ('Ebony and Ivory') and power ballads ('Save Your Love' by Renee and Renato spent five weeks at Number One). How we - the generation upon whom punk burst like a lanced boil just after we left university - how we gazed at the swaying figure of Boy George in his rag-doll hair and clothes, asking (foolishly in the circumstances) if we really wanted to hurt him, and thought, Jesus - what's happened to us?Thank God, then, for The Boomtown Rats, the one link with the past for whom you never had to apologise or feel regret or sympathy. Of course, they were never real, card-carrying punks. They were musicians, for one thing - thirty-three-chord wonders. Their songs were nimble-footed, full of key changes, cross-rhythms, sudden choruses, ticky-tocky robotics and epic, string-orchestra endings. They must have borrowed their effects from a hundred sources, but all you could say for sure was that they sounded like the Stones with a music Ph D.V Deep was their fifth album, and the second produced by the great Tony Visconti.

It came out in 1982. The title was a source of some bafflement. Did it mean, self-consciously, Very Deep? Was it a Roman V that meant they were simply 5 albums in? Was it an allusion to venereal disease? Or did it refer to their new status as a quintet (Gerry Cott had left after the release of Mondo Bongo)? * With his departure came a characteristic new sound for the band – a wave of synthesisers and brass, a lot of inscrutable poppings and tinklings and experimental what-have-yous.

It was so far removed from their trademark shoot-'em-up rock histrionics that CBS in America elected not to release it. It's a shame because, with the benefit of hindsight we can now see that the electronic wash is in fact the least interesting thing about this lost masterpiece.V Deep is a riot of eclecticism, an Echoland of a dozen disparate styles, as if Geldof and the band were too alarmed or (frankly) too bored by the post-punk fallout to stay with any one idiom for long. I remember the first listen-through - how I registered with amazement that the Rats were dabbling, successively, in David Bowie mood-scapes, salsa, reggae, ska and - gasp - cool jazz. Most of all, it had an epic quality - presumably Visconti's contribution, a sonic treatment so lushly romantic it rivalled his cousin Luchino's feats on the silver screen. In the early '80s playground of decadence that was the New Romantics movement, this was the real thing - music of genuinely debased and sour post-romance.

Geldof's lyrics are full of detachment and loathing for the dull, brittle acquisitiveness of the early Thatcher years, 'A thousand well-known faces/ passed across that stupid screen…He watched those faces come and go/ Up close/ He saw the strain/ And he watches it all/ Yes he watches it all. There's some angry flashes against the regiment of women too - for being hard to comprehend, for being too dumb, for being too desirable. 'Astonish me, dear, with a new point of view' he sneers on 'Talking In Code', the song of V Deep which most resembles the early Rats combination of nimble melody and call-and-response vocals. On 'Skin to Skin', his most Bowie-ish composition, the mood turns feral, all-consuming:'I wanna crush your mouth - I wanna bruise your lips - I wanna scratch your flesh - I wanna tear the bones off', although the song is in fact a subtle meditation on sex, post-coital gloom and the fragility of relationships once 'the beast' has been sated and, as it were, put to bed. The album's strangest song is Geldof's single foray into 'chicken jazz' called A Little Death - not apparently an allusion to le petit mort as the French call the orgasm, but an image of heroin addiction. Geldof gives it a wholly authentic cocktail-hour swing (complete with fingersnaps in the style of the other BG, Buddy Greco); remarkably, it works just fine.

Geldof's voice is a thing of wonder, from its sexy labial mutter down among the bass notes to the high eldritch shriek of rebellion ('I spit in your eye') on 'Never in a Million Years'. Here he lets it loose, turning it into a soft, cooing, seductive instrument that fights the chilliness of the subject: 'If you can't stand the heat/ You just turn up the gas.' The moodiness of 'A Storm Breaks' and 'Up All Night', with Geldof's voice buried in the subaqual abyss, threatens to turn the album into a movie soundtrack, but 'House of Fire' and 'Charmed Lives', the two singles released off V Deep, are both jaunty, upbeat celebrations, driven by the horns of Spike Edney (later to join Dexy's Midnight Runner and , remarkably, Queen). The latter song, though, contains another bilious little bulletin from the life of a bored rock star, for whom everything is a little boring, your only priorities are how to wear your hair (not something you expect to preoccupy Geldof) and whom to visit - what Larkin called 'the life with a hole in it', when everything is just okay-ish, and the news from elsewhere doesn't mean anything because you're immune to bad luck. An idea he returns to in 'Up All Night'. 'They know they're alive/When they start to feel pain' It doesn't take a genius to see this recital of detachment and demotivation as heralding both the end of the band (the next album, In the Long Grass, would be their last; they finally split in 1986) and also the genesis of Band Aid and Live Aid. You can hear Geldof practically ticking with frustration and impatience, wanting to get on and do something, achieve some success beyond songs, sex and money, connect with the real world where ' the news' happens. The whole Saint Bob saga is pregnant in this powerful record. It's just a shame that, to get to that next stage, the band had to burn out first.

V Deep reveals them, if not at their finest hour, at least at their most hectically creative.

* In fact V Deep refers to a Japanese style of shagging, guaranteed to generate female orgasm. 5 Deep (thrusts), 6 Shallow ones. Repeat as necessary.

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 reviews for us of the back catalogue of material for which we are extremely grateful. (IMG bobgeldof.info). You will find each of David's reviews on the relevant release page.

And Then There Was Five.....

1.He Watches It All
2.Never In A Million Years
3.Talking In Code
4.The Bitter End
5.The Little Death
6.A Storm Breaks
7.Up All Night
8.House On Fire
9.Charmed Lives
10.Skin On Skin
11.Say Hi To Mick
12.No Hiding Place (B-Side)
13.House On Fire (12" Dub Version)
14.Up All Night (Long Version)

The musical landscape has moved on by the time of the release of V Deep. V Deep refers to a Japanese style of love making, "four shallow, five deep", but with it being the fifth album and the Rats only having five members it can be interpreted in many ways. It was an era of Bananarama, The Fun Boy Three, Haircut 100, Duran Duran and ABC dominating the singles charts. Peers like The Jam and The Stranglers were around but sounding very different. The album pretty much takes up where Mondo Bongo left off, continuing the experiments in sound. Gerry Cott had left the Rats by the time they came to record this album. This was not a great surprise given that he had been under utilised on Mondo Bongo. Godley & Creme were initially down to produce the album, but in the end Tony Visconti once more took the helm.

Based on an obsession with celebrity and the tabloids, He Watches It All is an outstanding track. The keyboards are alive and there is a sense of foreboding as we are drawn into the lonely viewer’s world. And then we get the sense of loss as it is all taken away. Then we get the "Did you read it in the Sunday papers?" break bursting the song into life with its vocal harmonies from A Day In The Life. As this dies down we get the pay off of having bought and sold the video and somehow made a fortune in between. Without saying a lot, the song conveys many moods and colours, without being too radical a departure. If only the Boomtown Rats had made more tracks like this. Outstanding.

The first single off the album, Never in a Million Years, failed to make the top 30 (in fact, it only reached 62!). One of Bob Geldof's weaknesses in his lyrics has been their mawkishness, and this song was one of the worst offenders (Another Piece of Red was far worse though). The lyrics included a lot of lazy clichés (including the title) and said nothing of any worth. Sonically it was fine, a re-creation of Spector's wall of sound, it sounded great on the stereo, but lacked real presence on the radio.

The only hit single from the album was House on Fire. This was a return to the reggae tinged sound that made Banana Republic a massive hit. Far lighter and daffier than Banana Republic, the feel and vibe of this track worked really well with Geldof's voice. There is some great lyrical dexterity shown. It sounds loose and free-form, but most crucially it sounds great! The album version is extended and all the better for it. ...House Burned Down is essentially just an instrumental reprise.

Musically outstanding, A Storm Breaks is another good track. It starts of with a beat not unlike Blind Date, and then kicks it with a guitar riff before some ghostly vocals over a funky guitar. Then brash horns come throughout sounding as if they came from Haircut 100. The percussion is African/Latin in the style of much of Mondo Bongo. Towards the ends, it’s as if the Rats have transplanted themselves into the midst of the Rio carnival with whistles blowing, bongos and a driving bass from Pete Briquette. An instrumental version appeared on the B-side of Charmed Lives and was even better!

Starting off almost like Antmusic with clicking drumsticks, The Bitter End then layers sound with guitars and organs and sounds Asian, almost like a Bollywood track. Only the sitars are missing. One of those tracks where the full gamut of the Rats’ arsenal is used, including some great guitar work from Garry Robberts.

Up All Night is decent, though repetitive, incredible how many times "Up All Night, ooh za za" is repeated. A rip of Drive my Car from The Beatles in its adaptation of the "beep beep yeah" refrain, and the break reminds you of Bowie. Very sparse as far as the music is concerned, with a dominating drum beat, and lots of hand claps, as well as some overdone backing vocals.

The Little Death is a brave departure into jazz. Making heroin analogous with the female orgasm is a strange idea. Jazz-by-numbers, at times coming across as Stray Cat Strut, it is a sinister sounding track. Would have worked well in the quieter moments of a musical like Chicago!

Epitomising the very worst of the Boomtown Rats, Charmed Lives is not only lyrically poor, it sounds out of tune! Horns blast in all over the place, keyboards waft around, drum beats are randomly inserted and harmonies interject when least expected. When Geldof goes on about doing his hair tonight, you know it’s all wrong. The infernal "we’re OK, they’re OK", get progressively annoying as does the na-na-nas. It was even released as a single. Mercifully, it did not appear on the recent Best Of.

Geldof talks dirty in Skin on Skin but who cares? In the midst of the song, Geldof returns to the free form lyrical indulgences of Mood Mambo, but a quiet night time London is dull, and it ambles along. Overall the track is shrill, and for a track about sex, is very sterile and lacking in any passion. More like a visit to a sperm bank than a night of hot passion between velvet sheets.

Talking in Code starts with the sounds of tuning in the radio, and turns into a science lecture on body language! The high-pitched vocals in the chorus have to be heard to be believed. It’s as if someone grabbed Simon Crowe in the nuts! Had the Buggles or Thomas Dolby made it, it would have been crass; but this is the Boomtown Rats, who once looked to get their kicks from smokes and drinks and you!When V Deep is good it is very good, but some of the efforts to find something new flounder on the rocks. Horns, keyboards, drum and bass are to the fore, the previously guitar led new wave sound long gone. Had the best parts of V Deep been combined with the best parts of Mondo Bongo, the combined effort would have been the Rats finest hour. As it stands, it is a brave album which sounds great, but three or four bad tracks let the album down badly.

CD Review...
House Burned Down has disappeared! OK, it was little more than a reprise of House on Fire, but with Mondo Bongo retaining Cheerio, and Surfacing listing Episode #3 as a track, it's amazing it doesn't appear.The running order has changed but to the overall benefit!

He Watches It All is a great start, and although it descends from there, it is far less jarring than the original release.

One of the really worthwhile extras on all the CDs is House On Fire (12" Dub Version). Essentially, it is the original 7" single until it suddenly breaks into an extended dub mix which enhances the vibe of the song. It would have been good to have had the original 7" version as well.

Can never get enough of a good song!Say Hi To Mick is a semi-acoustic song about dreaming about retiring to New York City from some cold outpost and listening to channel KGB on the Radio. Hard to describe, but if anything it sounds like Geldof’s bash at Simon and Garfunkel!

The b-side of Charmed Lives, No Hiding Place was a far superior track. Sounds like a theme from a Gerry Anderson puppet series with its Hank Marvin guitar and driving bass line.

Up All Night (Long Version) is just an extended version of the album track, as the mumbled introduction tells you "extremely long"! The sound isn’t quite as full as the LP version, as if some keyboards and guitars were removed. Unlike House on Fire, the extended version doesn’t add a great deal to the song.Incredibly, V Deep was (and still is) the only UK album to have been released on CD with its original track listing. The latest release is mainly worthwhile in providing the extras on CD for the first time and the fact it sounds a lot better thanks to the re-mastering. However none of these tracks are new as they have all been available on vinyl.Personally, I find that I rarely listen to V Deep as an album which is a shame as there are some very good tracks on it, but tracks like Skin on Skin, Charmed Lives and Talking in Code really turn me off it.

But there you go, you can’t be all things to all men, and any band worth its salt will always disappoint now and again. As ever with the Boomtown Rats, there is always plenty of good, and there are some gems on V Deep that are well worth sticking on your iPod!