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Cork and The Isle of Wight is all well and good, but there have to be some more shows, surely.
Obviously, a London date at Hammersmith Odeon (now Apollo), Hope & Anchor or The 100 club would fit the bill for me, though The Village in Dublin would be one I would definitely travel for.
I reckon the locals near the Pig's Nose Inn and The Bay Horse may get a little treat ahead of the main event.
Anywhere they don't get poor ticket sales and it all goes pear shaped.
I'm just a bit too young to remember where they toured in the UK and had a good following in a particular city/town.
Were there any places especially in their later album times where support for the band remained strong? If so that is where i'd target now for gigs.
If you look at the Rats known tour dates there is no indication of any particular regional bias. From 1977-82 the Rats toured the UK extensively, and sold out everywhere. You have to remember that TOTP was seen by millions of teenagers and the Rats were always on the radio and other tv shows. The media was less fragmented back in the seventies.
Interestingly the YouTube audience for I Don't Like Mondays peaks at 1.4 million people, whilst each TOTP appearance had an average audience of about 5 million or more. So each time the Rats were on TOTP the audience figures were massive. That's why the Rats could play St Austell to Aberdeen and all point in between.
Because the band played in every major city and smaller towns multiple times I don't see any particular towns having "extra fans" or extra devotion. Maybe because the band was from Dublin most people felt fairly neutral about where they were from, whereas in Britain Northern bands might do better in the north, and London bands might do better in the south east. Madchester wasn't that big in London now was it? Even the Blur vs Oasis or Beatles vs Stones was partly about regional prejudices, to a small degree admittedly, but nonetheless a factor.
Any'targeting'of audience is most likely to be done for sentimental reasons, places like the Load Star Blackburn- the initial gigs that got the Rats lots of press attention.
-- Edited by noelindublin on Tuesday 19th of February 2013 03:07:50 PM
Mmm, I would have to disagree with that. If anything it took off because of the interest in rave culture which was a London phenomena. Happy Mondays were at the heart of it. Happy Mondays are as likely to play London as Manchester. They did three nights at Brixton last year and two at the Roundhouse.
-- Edited by ArrGee on Tuesday 19th of February 2013 03:50:51 PM
Mmm, I would have to disagree with that. If anything it took off because of the interest in rave culture which was a London phenomena. Happy Mondays were at the heart of it. Happy Mondays are as likely to play London as Manchester. They did three nights at Brixton last year and two at the Roundhouse.
-- Edited by ArrGee on Tuesday 19th of February 2013 03:50:51 PM
OK the Happy Mondays had a fanbase and impact beyond Manchester, and Madchester was just a made up phenomenon based on a few nightclubs like the Hacienda. Manchester tried to claim that it was the epicentre of rave culture, thus in a way pitting itself against London and the south.
It was the arrival of ecstasy from America in the late eighties that started the rave scene. Ecstasy was a drug used on the US gay scene well before it got to Manchester and London so the baggy/rave scene was an offspring of an earlier gay underground dance scene, rather than being invented by Happy Mondays or their ilk. The drug just made people hug and dance rather than fight. I think the baggy scene was just one part of the general rave scene, there was much more styles of dance music, but the NME gave the thing a particular slant. Most of the raves around the m25 were not listening to Happy Mondays- that was a sort of indie version of rave which was a slight oddity in the overall phenomenon.
Happy Mondays had a rival from Camden Town called Flowered Up who had a few good singles. One was called It's On. The singer died of a heroin overdose a few years ago, but they made the cover of NME back in the early nineties.
Another possible Rats venue The Pavilion Theatre, Dun Loaghaire?
-- Edited by noelindublin on Tuesday 19th of February 2013 04:40:59 PM
Most of the raves around the m25 were not listening to Happy Mondays- that was a sort of indie version of rave which was a slight oddity in the overall phenomenon.
People into rave culture were listening to Happy Mondays, particularly the Oakenfold mixes. Whilst I never ventured to the M25 itself, cos as suss knows I can barely venture past it to hear music. It may have been a more hardcore acid set which wasn't what I was into, but it is highly likely Happy Mondays would have been played. There were plenty of warehouse/clubs I did go to where what would be considered indie dance was played. They used to have one at the Marquee on Charing Cross Road on Saturday that ran to 6am, zzz zzz
Paul Oakenfold: Before Ibiza I was playing LL Cool J and Run DMC but when we came back I was playing acid house and Cyndi Lauper. We had baggy trousers and were dancing like maniacs and everyone was like, 'What the **** are you lot doing?' I started Spectrum on a Monday, which was all acid, and Future on a Friday night, which was indie mixed with dance. That's how I ended up remixing Happy Mondays, the Cure, the Stone Roses, and touring with U2.
Oakenfold was doing this in London, and this was the reason Madchester took off. Hence the reason why Madchester was a big deal inside the M25.
-- Edited by ArrGee on Tuesday 19th of February 2013 06:58:27 PM
Were there any places especially in their later album times where support for the band remained strong? If so that is where i'd target now for gigs.
None that would come to mind. Not sure you can look back 28 years, many people would have moved on. They often announced extra dates in London, and would alternate between Hammersmith and The Rainbow. Even did two nights at the Dominion on final tour.
I know the Cadogan Hall date more or less sold out, but then again Geldof's Shepherd's Bush date was cancelled due to low ticket sales.
Brighton always seemed to be a good gig for the Boomtown Rats. I remember during the June 1983 tour that the Rats played mainly clubs/universities, yet still played the Top rank suite in Brighton (2000 cap).
The year after they played the Brighton Dome, so I would defo go there. Hopefully they will play Leeds, which has a perfect sized hall for them.......the Academy which holds around 1400.
I was really impressed with the crowd and reaction at Minehead last year, especially as Rats were last up after a whole weekend of bands and booze etc. From memory they only came on about 12.30am on the Sunday night (i.e. Monday) by which time it wouldn't have been unreasonable for most of crowd to have dispersed, but they really went for it.
