Tonight was always going to be special, halfway through a UK tour and a celebration of the Boomtown Rats 50th year. How did that happen? A sold-out Eventim Apollo was always going to be the place to be, and those fans lucky enough to get a ticket for the show knew that they were going to be in for something special, and the band did not let them down.
The Boomtown Rats – Boomtown 1975-2025
Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith – 31 October 2025
Words: Adrian Stonley
Photography: Manuela Langotsch
With an intro tape playing Happy Birthday To You [A ratty birthday to you?] as they entered the stage, the atmosphere was already palpable.
Opening with long-time favourite Rat Trap, they set the standard for the evening. With the audience bellowing out every lyric, the key line “It’s a rat trap and you’ve been caught” was telling. Quite honestly the audience were entirely caught up in the moment, hook, line and sinker.
The Boomtown Rats are more than just a band. They are also a musical vehicle for Sir Bob Geldof, and from the moment that he hit the stage, you would not have known he had aged, apart from the greying hair.
He still has the exuberance and energy of a man half his age, as he whirled and twisted, kicked and punched his way around the stage. His work rate is exceptional. He did not stop from the opening note to the final chord. This was an incredibly high-energy performance.
Yet for every leap and bound from Sir Bob, so the band matched him. This was one of those performances where the artists left everything on the stage.
Perhaps some of the teenage angst has now gone, unsurprising after all these years, but it has been replaced with a far stronger social and moral conscience.
The set was predominantly a greatest hits set. No real surprise there. If you are celebrating an anniversary, then you are celebrating the songs that got you to that point. The band knew that, as did the audience. Hit after hit followed. (I Never Loved) Eva Braun, Like Clockwork, an extended (She’s Gonna) Do You In.
It was sheer memories, one after another.
For Monster Monkeys the audience put on rubber rat masks as the band introduced this blues song. With Bob on Maracas, he prowled and stalked the stage as the band ripped it up musically. 
Someone’s Looking At You provided one of many sing-alongs before the familiar opening piano notes of I Don’t Like Mondays rang out. Despite the years since this was first written and released, it is a piece that is as powerful now as it was at the time of writing. Sadly, it is just as profound and relevant today.
This also gave Sir Bob a chance to start to direct his infamous ire at the moral inequalities and tragedies within the world today. Referencing the children of Gaza, the Bloody Fields of Ukraine and the civil war rapes and massacres of Sudan, it was the perfect vehicle to decry these global injustices. 
Following in this vein came Against The World, or rather “Against the fucking world” tonight, as the old punk attitude was injected into the song.
She’s So Modern brought the good times back before the gentle reggae of Banana Republic held sway and allowed Geldof to turn his rage on religions, drawing from his and the band’s youth in Dublin, overshadowed by the church, through to the issues being created by all religions around the world. 
Fifty years on, and he is still ranting against the world, and we would not have it any other way. Someone still needs to.
The show closed out with Diamond Smiles and a raucous The Boomtown Rats. It was intense, it was mesmerising, and it was really quite a special night.
Long may Sir Bob and the Rats reign.
The Horn
Support came from The Horn, a London based band. With a stage set up lit up like an ’80s Top Of The Pops, their downplayed indie pop style was possibly a little too safe as support to The Boomtown Rats.
The songs were well written and thought out, but for myself personally, I found them a little too bland. That is just my opinion and many here tonight will have disagreed.
The tunes in themselves were melodic and catchy, yet did not seem to grab me. Others happily danced to them. Recent single Passion was well received, and Addicted To Love, their own song, not the Robert Palmer/Tina Turner standard, saw hordes of phone torches raised and the audience swaying. This tune in itself had quite a strong Spandau Ballet feel to it. 
For me, they did not seem to get going until the set came to a close. Something You Forgot was a standout song, and if they can write more pieces like this, then they have a strong future. Perhaps the wrong band for the environment. In another scenario, they may fit better.
