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.
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.
+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 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
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
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
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
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...
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
I wanted to marry Bob. I had an enormous crush on him. But he was with that chick who left him for Michael Hutchence. ...Bob, I wouldn't have left you!!!
I thought it was a bad dream!!!!..fookin BBC editing over "puss and grime ooze from his scab busted sores"..wtf?????....doesnt anybody else remember that?....thought it was another Mandela moment🤕
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.
the nasty vile uncalled for comments about the songs and Bob Geldof. And yet you pulled up the videos on youtube to watch them. makes me wonder. I don't pull up the bands that i don't like just to trash them. Many people do not have time like that to waste.
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 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.
+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
lairdysnr Relevant today? As it becomes clearer by the minute Mr Trump has been caught in a rat trap. I'd say so. There is no free cheese, except in a rat trap.
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!,
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?
It’s a rat trap Julie and we’ve been caught ! In this town everybody’s trying to tell you what to do ! Love it when Julie finds 50p in her pocket - work all the hours God gave us to earn easy money !
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.
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!!!!
Lots of Mott the Hoople vibes on this one. Besides, I feel that early 80´s neo prog bands like Twelfth Night or Marillion picked a trick or two from bands like BR (not just from the usual suspects, the 70´s prog behemoths)
I remember Mott the Hoople - All the young dudes ! From university used to occasionally go to Nottingham ice rink and fell over to ‘ All the Young Dudes ‘ !!
@6PBP6 The version you know is the album version unlike the single which is the one here, and is what got to no. 1. The Rats censored a number of their singles to make them airplay friendly. Like Clockwork is another one - 2 lines were cut out for the single. "you're born in tears and you die in pain...." Both are on my list of tracks that appear with the "wrong" version on compilation CDs.
@@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.
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!
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. 😊
Thanks for sharing the memory! Bob Geldof is without a doubt cute!
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.
That's right! Sorry I misunderstood you. Are you on Twitter or Instagram?
@@geraldinekearns8198
No, I'm not on any social media sites 🙂
God! I remember this one....they'd just ousted a grease number that had been number one for WEEKS....hence the travolta pic.
These little gems of info are what i love about Y/Tube comments sections.
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.
RIP Garry Roberts (June 16, 1950 - November 9, 2022), aged 72
You will be remembered as a legend.
Bob talked about him on This Morning, was a great interview.
I had no idea. That's really sad.
I know TOTP was notorious for bands miming but I don't think Bob's really playing that chandelier.
+P Hampton ha - at last - my subscribe button just happened! :)
+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.
+Peter Gruhn It's a candelabra :o)
+P Hampton lol it's a set of candle holders
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 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.
Pity bob and phil.never worked together
Bob couldn't lace Phil's boots. Absolutely no comparison
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
The high-watermark of TOTP. This performance, by Bob and the boys, displays the precise moment when the show peaked.
This came out the year I left school. Now I'm 61 and still love it and still got a crush on Bob 😍 Music today doesn't compare to back then
It’s impossible to to improve on 70’s into 80’s
Bob will always remind me of my good friend who died to early Andrew Sylvester r.I.p my brother
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
@@zoemorris9564 Your mum sounds great! We might have to fight over Bob though :) It's good you appreciate proper music thanks to her
No it doesn't Lindsey, I agree. The talent shows destroyed musical creativity.
Remarkable bass line. I just started learning it. It’s all over the place, I got the main verse riff, but there’s lots more !!
What a tune though !!
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
Haha ). I do sir..this tune for me was iconic, if people don't like geldof, they're crazy... great tune..
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
Personally I like Diamond Smiles & Drag Me Down better, but still a great song!
I don’t like Mondays is their greatest song
Up all night is my favorite
What about like clockwork. ?
He inspired a generation to play candelabras and get nowhere.
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...
Which of course was TOTP original airing in 78..Without voiceover. Ne TOTP2.
@@martinda7446 Two weeks at number one.
I remember watching this version of them tearing pictures of John Travolta who stayed in No.1 for so long till the Boomtown Rats came!
Just discovered this song, had my mouth hanging open with the first listen and i absolutely love Bob’s energy in this video
This song reached No 1 in the music charts in 1978.
Great that the later generations are discovering the music that I grew up with. So many fantastic bands came into being in the late 70's.
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.
Reality summarised 🎉
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.
Lovely to see people still love this song.
bass player: makes no difference if tie lies over bass strings....
not when your miming
haha!!!
Hello punki! x
Tie resistant strings!
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.
My dad and I have a really strong connection through our love of music. He sent me this link tonight. Thanks dad 🤘❤️
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...
42 years later & this still slaps hard
Iconic performance with ripping up of Travoltas picture, Bob playing the candleabra and a cracking tune.
Yeah, true...everytime I hit a jukebox, it's on it
.still sounds fresh..
better than most of what is released today
Better than all that is released today
44 years and counting!!!
Sorry, it’s Judy, NOT Julie!
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.
Boomtown Rats were unknown in Japan. I used to listen to their music on the BBC shortwave broadcast.
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.
You're taste in music must have been up your hole. Well done for coming around
Boys will be boys back in the 70s, not just a band but mates and a gang. Time to be alive . ❤️
RIP Garry, thank you for founding this legendary band.
I wanted to marry Bob. I had an enormous crush on him. But he was with that chick who left him for Michael Hutchence. ...Bob, I wouldn't have left you!!!
Paula Yates 🤮🤮🤮🤮
@@RedGarnett-n2pIn my judgment, I’d save those emojis for the Kardashian/Jenner clan. Of course, everyone to themselves.
Interesting how they changed the words; I guess “and pus and grime ooze from its scab-crusted sores” wasn’t considered family-friendly enough.
Brilliant!. Yet it was ok for FGTH to "suck to it".
@ Laura B , change from ' and blood and tears pour down the grate to the sewer ' eeek, as a kid I thought pus & grime seemed more ff.
I think when there was ever a song symbolising the 70's it was this song.Brings back fantastic memories...thnx!
I thought it was a bad dream!!!!..fookin BBC editing over "puss and grime ooze from his scab busted sores"..wtf?????....doesnt anybody else remember that?....thought it was another Mandela moment🤕
*This is one of the greatest songs of all time, and the Boomtown Rats are one of the greatest bands ever*
Seriously underrated
No doubt!
#DogecoinToTheMoon
Love is a battlefield and rat trap hotel California my all time top 3
@@jakandrijauskas6362 fair
I live boomtown rats brings back so many happy memories sir Bob is a legend and a great leader
I agree with i miss this era
RIP Garry Roberts
RIP Garry Roberts.
RIP Gerry Roberts ;-(
Just love Bob's expressive actions through this song...long live the Rats...!!!
great song i just love it.....
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.
Why has this only got 29,129 views???!!! This is how you do it on TOTP, totally original, never been done before or since. . .
one of THE great totp moments
cracking song
If it was Saturday night, how come little Judy was trying to watch Top of the Pops? Surely the family weren't rich enough to have a video?
Maybe Ireland got it two nights later 😂😂😂😂
Absolutely magnificent. One of the best songs ever.
@MengistuHaileMariam liked a comment.
the nasty vile uncalled for comments about the songs and Bob Geldof. And yet you pulled up the videos on youtube to watch them. makes me wonder. I don't pull up the bands that i don't like just to trash them. Many people do not have time like that to waste.
They don't want to be a typical Democrat that bashes a Pro-Trump book that they will never read.
Bob having no mic is making him act like I do when singing this song in the mirror in my bedroom.
The bass player makes this video great, get's well into it!
Lewis Brown I know right 🤣
Yes and the bass is great too
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.
favourite song of theirs, it still rocks hard all these decades later...i hear it i am a kid again
Such a great song, it was number 1 in the UK charts when I was born :)
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 watch this every morning lol because bob looks so hot
+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
And I just watch this because Garry Roberts looks hot 😂
Jesus you must be desperate.
VIVI JIJI omg yaassss samee 😆😂
I so love Bob Geldof!
Fantastic song!!! finds 50p class line!!!
R.I.P Gary Roberts
Safe punk. Punks that kids could watch without wanting to riot.
as relevant today as it was back then. Don't get pulled into a trap...
lairdysnr Relevant today? As it becomes clearer by the minute Mr Trump has been caught in a rat trap. I'd say so. There is no free cheese, except in a rat trap.
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!,
I am 8 years younger than you & love Bob Geldof!
why is bob not considered a sex symbol . he’s so gorgeous
what the hell are you guys all high this is fucking badass
Was Bob playing a......chadlesax? Lol
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?
They are, in the UK at least.
They’re very well known in their home country of Ireland and also in the neighbouring country, the UK.
@@maureengoller3213they were well known in the US to anyone with musical knowledge also
retro man 1978 hit
This is where Sinéad O'Connor got the idea to rip up a picture on TV. She says so in her memoir
When music meant somthing
It’s a rat trap Julie and we’ve been caught ! In this town everybody’s trying to tell you what to do !
Love it when Julie finds 50p in her pocket - work all the hours God gave us to earn easy money !
A song that has no verse or chorus; almost like ten songs in one. And yet, they accomplish a seamless narrative
That's the beauty of it
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.
35 years seems like yesterday and the song still never gets boring and old. Great track shame those great tracks rarely exist now.
cant bat the old stuff for sure
hey dude still like that stuff? cuz now its like 41 years ago
@@grapetape9753 43 now (and its still going strong)
@@ronj9448 ped
Brilliant record hasn't diminished with time.
Ten year old Sinead O’Connor was watching , Bob rip up that photo ……
just thinking the same thing; john travolta to pope john paul. not too many miles to travel. RIP Sinead.
She was 12 then.
Autumn 1978
nice sax
Go now the RATS ..the five lamps is a famous Dublin North city land mark ,five lamps on one stand
Still sounds great 45 years on.
this song ROCKS!
That was also a clever touch ripping up pictures of John Travolta of whom they had replaced at number 1.
Wow great year.... great memories!!!👍👍👍👍
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!!!!
Lookin after number was great and the rest was throwaway stuff.
Good at the time though but they crapped out pretty quickly.
@@ggoldfingers tell that to live aid
This is a great song
Lots of Mott the Hoople vibes on this one. Besides, I feel that early 80´s neo prog bands like Twelfth Night or Marillion picked a trick or two from bands like BR (not just from the usual suspects, the 70´s prog behemoths)
I remember Mott the Hoople - All the young dudes !
From university used to occasionally go to Nottingham ice rink and fell over to ‘ All the Young Dudes ‘ !!
The Rats are massive
Garry Roberts - RIP - Boomtown Legend.
Bob your people need back in Ireland..to save them from the immigrants!!!!!!
Immigrants are great. They built the society we enjoy today.
@6PBP6 The version you know is the album version unlike the single which is the one here, and is what got to no. 1.
The Rats censored a number of their singles to make them airplay friendly. Like Clockwork is another one - 2 lines were cut out for the single. "you're born in tears and you die in pain...." Both are on my list of tracks that appear with the "wrong" version on compilation CDs.
I already know the date guys. IIRC 16th November 1978. When Grease was knocked off number 1 and they was tearing up the Travolta pictures.
tonic for the troops was there finest hour...such class.
The UK's 'Born to run'. One of the best 45s ever - lyrical, angry, romantic and completely timeless. Majestic.
The UKs born to run by a band from Ireland.....
@@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.
So this is what inspired Sinead
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!
Huh? those lyrics sound wrong, surely it was "and puss and grime ooze from it's scab crusted sores"? he sand "blood and tears" ???
Ripping up photos of ONJ and John Travolta. Previous No.I
class lol :)
My first 45 single!! 50p!!!
to the journalist who said punk was great until the boomtown rats came along and spoiled it all i say eat me
Exp;ain?
@@patttrick Eat Pamela.
I say he was spot on. This lot were awful.
I love this song
Looks like Mick Jagger, truly ...
one of my first records still gives me goose bumps sound great after all this time
Just the best
TOTP did not allow bands to play live in the 70s
This sounds exactly like now im here
One of me favouritest songs ever.