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The Boomtown Rats and Bob Geldof announce 50th anniversary tour: Venues, dates, ticket details revealed
3 December 2024, 11:48
Bob Geldof's band celebrate a special anniversary.
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This year marked the 40th anniversary of Band Aid's 'Do They Know It's Christmas?', but next year is every bit as special for its driving force Bob Geldof.
In 2025, Bob's band The Boomtown Rats – who are still going strong – will enjoy the 50th anniversary of their first ever gig and have decided to celebrate the occasional with a UK live tour.
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The Boomtown Rats have announced 12 shows next autumn, with their concert at London's Eventim Apollo on October 31 taking place exactly 50 years to the day of their first live gig.
The Boomtown Rats formed in Dublin in 1975 and played their first show at the city's Bolton Street Technical College, where they had been billed as The Nightlife Thugs.
The Boomtown Rats - I Don't Like Mondays (Live Aid 1985)
The fledgling group apparently changed their name to The Boomtown Rats, taken from Woody Guthrie's memoir Bound For Glory.
Their first single was 'Lookin' After No.1', released in August 1977.
Tickets for the shows go on sale on Friday (December 6) at 10am via See Tickets. A pre-sale on Thursday at 10am.
https://t.co/e4x7S3r9Hp pic.twitter.com/JdABRtwBL6
— The Boomtown Rats Official (@BoomtownThe) December 2, 2024
The full 2025 UK Boomtown Rats tour dates are as follows:
- October 10 – Nottingham, Royal Concert Hall
- October 11 – Birmingham, Symphony Hall
- October 17 – Aberdeen, Music Hall
- October 18 – Glasgow, Barrowland
- October 24 – Sheffield, City Hall
- October 25 – Cambridge, Corn Exchange
- October 31 – London, Eventim Apollo
- November 1 – Southampton, O2 Guildhall
- November 7 – Manchester, Bridgewater Hall
- November 8 – Gateshead, Glasshouse
- November 14 – York, Barbican
- November 15 – Liverpool, Olympia
The Boomtown Rats split in 1986 but reformed in 2013.
They eventually released the comeback album Citizens of Boomtown in 2020.
The current lineup features original members Bob Geldof, Peter Briquette and Simon Crowe, together with Alan Dunn and Darren Beale.
