My mum is exactly the same! Still in love with bob till this day. I got brought up listening to music like this and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Music definitely doesn’t compare now x
I loved TOTP as a yankee 16 year old living in London for a year, the London music was so much better than the stuff in Vermont, US. This was my fave of that year.
When I was about 10 or 11 years old I was in a pub with my dad. I remember there was a girl working behind the bar. I remember she spoke of Bob Geldof tearing up the picture of John Travolta on top of the pops and she thought it was brilliant. This is the first time I actually seen it. Almost 40 years later. 😊
You are a few years older than me! I was 7 years old at the time! I am now 49! Man I feel old! What a privilege it must have been for you to meet Bob Geldof! Are you on Facebook? Let's connect.
@@geraldinekearns8198 Hi, yeah I'm 53 now. I didn't meet Bob. The girl behind the bar had seen the boomtown rats on top of the pops the previous week, that's all. I'm not on Facebook sorry.
Top 5 of UK singles chart first aired Tuesday 14th November 1978 (Top of the Pops 16th November,w/e 18th November,Sunday rundown 19th November): 1 (2) Rat Trap - Boomtown Rats; 2 (4) Hopelessly Devoted to You - Olivia Newton John; 3 (1) Summer Nights - John Travolta & Olivia Newton John; 4 (3) Sandy - John Travolta; 5 (10) My Best Friend's Girl - Cars Rat Trap stayed at number 1 for 2 weeks.
Probably the most iconic moment in TOTP history, taking over from the Grease gang and letting the world know life isn't candy and soda. There's so much more to this than "hey we're number 1". Brutal. Also the inspiration for Sinead's Pope Picture. Classic Bob. Just classic.
As a kid growing up in 70s Newcastle John Travolta n Grease meant nothing to me. Then I heard this n knew exactly what kind of music I really wanted to hear. Loved it then n love it even more now in shitty 2023.
I love Bob's delivery on this - heavy on the Phil Lynott-style vocals and the pictorial post-punk vibe. Literary themes with immediate issues. Mary from the 4th form and this one really split the cage wide.
Ha, I'm glad that someone else noticed the Phil Lynott influence there because that is what came to mind for me, too. Seems like Thin Lizzy was one of the few "Dinosaurs of Rock" that got on with the new crop of angry young men of punk & new wave, best exemplified by "The Greedies." Perhaps it was because they were all musicians in the small tight Dublin scene. A punk guitarist is going to have more in common with a rock guitarist than with a plumber or a policeman, ya know?
@@iliketowatch. dont forget SLF. Like Lizzy, like the Rats, love Stiff Little Fingers,,,you know the Green Day sound alikes. !!! Lmao, comparing Green day to SLF. 👍😎
I'm thinking it's more Phil via Bruce Springsteen doing his wall of sound thing. Kinda of mixed up song stylistically. Bob/Rats were a dang good band and no slouches
Probably their greatest song. Still sounds good today. Scarily I still know the words 40 years after I last heard it Very well produced by Mutt Lange who also produced the greatest work for AC DC and Def Leppard.
Had a wild affair with a girl called johane, for about 3 weeks, this played in the background, clearest memories, of a sex life that was in my mind electric. hahaha
The first Irish and the first 'Punk'/New Wave band to hit the No1 slot; Looking After No1 indeed! Thanks for uploading and for the trip down memory lane...
Great Stuff, remember this on TOTP hated Grease and this was a fantastic punk antidote, still sounds fresh and aggressive. Filled with anger and passion. Classic.
I love this guy - Lived in Nottingham England as a student when it came out. Bought the single with money I didn't have. Well worth going without dinner that night.
I'm 60 now. Hell it only seems like yesterday I was buying this single when it came out. An absolute masterpiece of songwriting, musicianship and production. There's so much going on in it. Wish I could go back to those days.
I was 15 yrs old when i heard this for the first time … still know all the words lol! My sis brought the album back to australia from the UK! I was hooked!
+P Hampton I don't even think it's a chandelier ;-). I have a clear memory* of them doing this on the Late Late Show and being astounded at the candelabra gimmick. I was 1) a saxophone player at the time; 2) hopelessly naive. My memory is that it wasn't Bob who played it though. But then, I couldn't tell you who I thought it was. It was probably Bob. * Doesn't mean it happened.
He'd previously been in trouble with the Musicians Union for pretending to play a saxophone on TOTP's, and instrument which he clearly couldn't play. The MU deemed that it was unacceptable for anyone to be miming with an instrument which they weren't capable of playing for real. So Geldof took the piss out of the MU by mining with the chandelier! The fact that this wasn't a real instrument then there wasn't very much the MU could say about it!
I admit I loathed this record when it first charted. It's taken 42 years but it is growing on me. Rat Trap is actually a quite clever song, not only with the musicianship and arrangement but the story it tells in distinct yet blended sections. Good production from Mutt Lange too.
Remember this being broadcast. I cried when he ripped John travolta pic and my brother cheered. My mum told him off for making me cry . Little sister revenge
I was 15 when this came out, me my younger brother brought singles and album Tonic for the Troops still have, what memories! Loved we lived Ashtead Surrey England,Bob lived at time up road Chessington!,
Holy shit I remember watching this...I loved the song and it eventually knocked John Travolta off no.1 which is why they tear up his pic..I think it only stayed there a week...
@@Seanycaster Many of the Irish do feel themselves to be part of the UK - my own family included - so please don't be so nationalistic and petty. Politics aside, the themes of 'Rat trap' are universal. Believe it or not, the Irish don't own the corner on poverty, broken dreams and urban decay.
Thank you so much boomtown rats for this fantastic song ,one of my all time favorites ,loved this top of the pops appearance ,ripping up pictures of travolta & newton john ,great performance ❤
+John shotstain did you not see!?!...? i asked a "pube" about a hair! i am quite sure of your expertise of the ostrich's orgasm. ( you might want to "not " be known for that one!)
I love the singer man he’s got the Mick Jagger and Iggy pop going on. Man these dudes played live with queen and are infinitely more interesting, how aren’t they more known?
4th year senior school fab memories of the school disco. Boys one side of the hall, girls other side of the hall !! ha ha fab days long gone now. Thought you were fab cos you knew all the words ha ha :)
I remembered that moment very well when Bob tore up the John Travolta picture after he and Olivia spent 16 of the last 21 weeks at No.1. We needed fresh faces at No.1 and who better than Bob and the boys!!!!
So, me and my dad used to watch some reruns of Top of the Pops when we could find them. Summer Nights was the song they played at number one for 7 straight episodes and while we both love Grease, my dads not big on musicals so that should tell you how much we love that dumb movie, we were sick to death of the song. Then, an episode came up where Summer Nights wasn't number one. We were both VERY happy to see this and excited to see what had finally beat it. Seeing it was Rat Trap? And with this opening? Puts this song in my top three favourite songs of all time.
I love this song it takes be back to being a Teenager in Liverpool, Drinking in the Wilsons and then nightclubbing in the club next door..... it was a Rat Trap and i loved being caught.
Summer Nights spent a very impressive seven weeks at the summit, only to be knocked off its perch by Bob Geldof’s band Boomtown Rats with Rat Trap. Hence the picture of John Travolta at the beginning.
I was only 6 years old and had a brain tumor; but I still have the single; one of their best songs; shame they didn't have more, the potential was there!
Yeah loved this. I saw them live at the Rainbow, when they were supporting Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, (in the latter 1970's) They really grabbed the audience by the lapels, was a fan from that moment.
I remember my friend Graham knowing all the words to this before I'd even heard it. Graham wore pyjama trousers , doc martens and a leather jacket . . . . top bloke ! 😅
Hurray! When they knocked Olivia Newton John & John Travolta off number one in 1978. Boom Town Rats new wave answer to the Rolling Stones. With a charismatic lead vocalist in Bob Geldof; who would later become a great inspiration to fellow musicians & fans through his Charitable Live Aid work in mid 1980's.
I first heard this on the Mail on Sunday’s 2007 promotional CD Giants of Rock. I was eight and I was absolutely hooked on it. I misheard the lyric at 2:34 as the nonsense phrase "Billy dig-a-wah." "Little Billy Bob is watching Top of the Pops" was another (that was my boyhood nickname).
+boomtown rat forever Well Hot indeed! Loving his wild, layered, spikey mop - i mean hair & that unforgetable pout - not forgetting those wacky Irish dance moves, then there's that ultra romantic Irish accent plus his musician's sense of humour lol
![Boomtown Rats - Rat Trap [totp2]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
