Amazing news. It shows that they are serious about it, not just messing about. The omens are certainly good for more UK, Irish and European dates in the future. You don't go to the other side of the world on tour unless you mean business, and basically I  hope the band find an audience In Oz.

Derek The Dane wrote:

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Quite gutted that IOW is NOT going to be the first show.I know it sounds a bit ego but I would have thought twice about spending all this money if I had know it was not going to be the first concert since 1986.

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 Bit surprised it wasn't first major show, but Pulp did much the same on their comeback doing 4 dates prior to the one they announced first.  You could ask for your money back.

suss wrote:

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diffbrook wrote:

Really hope that they add some UK dates. Wouldnt be at all surprised if a Xmas tour of the UK is in the offering.

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 The 'other' Rats date at Skeggy in November looks to have fallen by the wayside. Maybe with good reason, or just coincidence, but keeps run up to Christmas free 

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 Surprised the Class of 77 dates are still present.   I would have thought one last gig with Bob Bradbury would be in order, but it's going to be odd to tour Australia and then do two big gigs in UK and Ireland before being third on the bill out in the sticks.  Also if one of Bob Bradbury's any other incarnations get bookings, wouldn't he take those on ahead of the Rats?

All a bit odd having three different cross pollinating acts at the moment.   

Am I missing something?? If I read it right, the top tickets for Sydney ("VIP" front row) are $649 AUD! Not too far short of £450. WTF?? I'd expect Bob to wander down and serve me some vintage Bolly personally for that kind of cash. Oh and it's only that price for cash, more for credit.

Even cheapest seats are around £47. Hope this doesn't backfire badly for them.

http://www.sydentcent.com.au/Events/Boomtown-Rats/

Wonder if Mental as Anything are doing the whole tour? That 'hey there you with the sad face' line would be highly appropriate for boracic Sydney front rowers.

Always preferred Midnight Oil myself.

VIP Tickets

suss wrote:

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Am I missing something?? If I read it right, the top tickets for Sydney ("VIP" front row) are $649 AUD! Not too far short of £450. WTF?? 

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If only you knew what I spent for those front row tickets at Cadogan Hall   

I have been pretty much in the front row every time I have seen the Rats and Geldof, except for when I saw them at The Rainbow.  Still considering I bunked in for free that night, I shouldn't really complain.  At Hammersmith, I was notionally sat in the third or fourth row. but somehow ended up in the first row fairly central.  

To put this into perspective, I got two seats in the second row for One Direction at the O2 London for face value, £90 the pair and a free DVD to boot.  Someone was absolutely delighted to get them.  Not me I hasten to add.

Whaaaaat. Preferred seating is selling #Boomtownrats VIP tickets and back stage passes for $650! I cannot afford that so I'm gonna go cry.

You can't buy tickets to concerts in Australia for much less than $100 so tickets from $69 is fantastic.

also the VIP price is cheaper than other experience type tickets And I guess they will be limited like normal to a small number. All up it comes down to a choice .....$69 all day for me thank you very much 

noelindublin wrote:

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The best band from Oz ever, period was The saints, from Brisbane. Wish they were supporting the Rats. I'm Stranded is one of the top ten punk songs ever. Chris Bailey is one of the best singers and lyricist to emerge from the punk era. Geldof is quited as being a fan, and their music certainly had lots in common with the Rats.

Any real punk fans would know about The Saints, so it's a pity a band like that are not supporting the Rats. Just my tuppenceworth.

Ps Love the hear The Rats do a cover of I'm Stranded to celebrate their Australian tour. Surely there are some Aussie Saints fans out there to back me up? The other great Aussie band was The Go Betweens.

The saints are the best thing musically to come outa Oz...so underated in Thier own homeland. to have them play with the rats wouldnt have been soo out there as the Saints did a tour with Blondie last year (but not Adelaide GRRR) 

-- Edited by noelindublin on Monday 4th of March 2013 02:16:57 PM

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Geldof certainly has been getting around in Australia, mainly Perth. There is a good interview with his on ABC with Russell Wolfe, well the first part before he starts blinding us with statistics about Africa! Wolfe, seemingly a genuine fan asks him what he will be wearing and Bob replies that he is getting a snakeskin suit made for the gigs. Mid life crisis or what? Not sure if Bob was joking or not.

He is attending a gym in London, and taking boxing classes as encouraged by Bono. Also lots of Aussie newspaper interviews, and readers comments. A lot of people wonder if the Rats can sell out the gigs, seeing as they only had one hit in Australia I Don't Like Mondays. Still I presume anyone going will know much more  than just one track.

Rather than play large stadia they should just have stuck to smallish, credible music venues that have a capacity of under 1,000 people. I'm sure all the major cities in Oz have their own legendary small venues than have gained a good reputation over the years.

One thing is that there are lots of Irish now in Oz so maybe that will help. These are mainly of the younger generation, forced out by the economic situation in Ireland. Whether going to see the Rats has any appeal we shall see. They only had one hit in Australia but that doesn't mean people do not know their albums or other singles.

I've seen some comments from Oz saying the order should be reversed, with the Rats supporting Mental As Anything. Seems the Mentals had much more success down under. It could be a Jack Sprat and his wife job in the end.

PS Cork capacity is 4,000 and Devon is 5,000 both much more 'doable'.

ArrGee wrote:

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noelindublin wrote:

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... they should just have stuck to smallish, credible music venues that have a capacity of under 1,000 people. 

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I've seen some comments from Oz saying the order should be reversed, with the Rats supporting Mental As Anything. Seems the Mentals had much more success down under.

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Only worth going to Australia for big money, hence big stadia.

Arguably Mental as Anything have a more well known hit, and certainly have had a few down under.

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 Whatever about the others Geldof does not need the money. He is estimated to have a fortune of over £30 million so any 'earnings' would be peanuts to him. He is upfront about this and to his credit says he is only doing this reformation because he wants to and feels that the time is right.

I suspect Geldof was swayed by the offer of the IOW Festival as a comeback enticement. IOW Festival promoter John Giddings is said to have asked Garry Roberts to 'sound out' Geldof about a Rats reunion so maybe for once the famous Geldof ego was not driving things. With an offer to play at such a prestigious festival that he had attended and seen some of his heroes in his youth Geldof was in.

The Australian gigs might be a bit ambitious - it's really hard to tell.

Re: poster

I hadn't taken much notice of the background, only the pic. Looks like it was laying in someone's hall. You got a sneaky early press copy ArrGee??