The musician and activist spoke at Technological University Dublin during an event commemorating the 50th anniversary of The Boomtown Rats’ debut performance.
During the summer, Geldof’s name had surfaced in discussions about a potential presidential bid, and he has previously confirmed that he had spoken to Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin about the matter, reports RTE.
Today, the 74-year-old unveiled a plaque on the façade of TU Dublin’s Bolton Street campus alongside bandmate Pete Briquette. The marker celebrates the Boomtown Rats’ first show, which took place at the then Bolton Street Technical College on 31 October 1975.
The group would later become the first Irish rock act to top the UK singles chart, achieving the milestone in 1978 with Rat Trap, reports RTE.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1’s Morning Ireland, Geldof remembered how he initially believed that first performance would be a “disaster”, reports RTE.
“I never wanted to do it because I’d never heard myself. I was singing through a bingo microphone and they were playing really loud. I think the microphone was plugged into the bass amp – you know, like kids just playing,” he said, reports RTE.
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“I just thought, this is going to be a disaster. We got on this teacher’s platform in the classroom – about thirty people there. I thought we should call the band The Nightlife Thugs, so somebody had written that on a blackboard. But I changed my mind the night before, and when we got up on stage it just kicked off,” he added, reports RTE.
He explained that halfway through the performance, the band began to sense something was forming.
“Pete – the bass player – said that halfway through, he got really excited by this band that we didn’t even know we were in, because we’d never really heard ourselves. About halfway through we took a break, I went over to the blackboard where The Nightlife Thugs was written, and with one wild sweep I wiped it off and wrote The Boomtown Rats. And there we were,” he said, reports RTE.
Reflecting on their beginnings, Geldof said it still feels unusual to be recognised for what began as “that sort of crappy band from Dún Laoghaire”.
“Without that gig at Bolton Street that Halloween night, you don’t get the rest,” he said. “You don’t get the articulation and the rage about what was happening to Ireland and in Ireland, the sort of social sickness that was occurring. There was this great silence – we all knew – but we said nothing. And then these kids from South Dublin decided, well, they would say something,” reports RTE.
He added that the Rats’ music became part of a wider cultural response during a turbulent time for Ireland, marked by high unemployment, soaring inflation, and frequent strikes, reports RTE.
“Time telescopes itself, and I remember that period vividly,” he said. “The noise was one of rage and rejection. It was the beginning of a pushback against that,” reports RTE.
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