Excellent FM radio broadcast. The Rats' last hurrah came following Bob Geldof's involvement with the Band Aid project in late 1984, and lead to them getting some high-profile shows in the summer of 1985, including Glastonbury, Live Aid... and headlining Scunthorpe Free Rock (no, really - I was there). This set is half-comprised of songs from their later albums - their final album 'In the Long Grass' had come out in May 1985. By mid-1986, The Boomtown Rats were no more.

01 Intro
02 Charmed Lives
03 Lucky
04 Neon Heart
05 Wind Chill Factor (Minus Zero)
06 Dave
07 A Hold of Me
08 I Don't Like Mondays
09 Talking in Code
10 Hurt Hurts
11 Rat trap
12 Drag Me Down
13 Looking After Number 1

Source: FM radio broadcast
Quality: Excellent
Encoding: 192kbps mp3
File size: 79Mb

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Excellent digital radio broadcast. This is an upgrade to an earlier post, which only had six songs from this show. The Boomtown Rats were touring their 1982 album their album "V Deep" at the time and this set has songs from that as well as earlier numbers. Sorry - "Banana Republic" is listed as the last song in the accompanying text file, but it wasn't broadcast.

01 Like Clockwork
02 Charmed Lives
03 Up all Night
04 House on Fire
05 Nothing Happened Today
06 Wind Chill Factor (Minus Zero)
07 Never in a Million Years
08 Sleep
09 I Don't Like Mondays
10 Having My Picture Taken
11 Rat Trap
12 Keep it Up
13 Under Their Thumb

Source: Digital radio broadcast
Quality: Excellent
Encoding: 192kbps mp3
File size: 78Mb

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Superb recording of The Boomtown Rats, which is notable for being the first performance of 'I Don't Like Mondays' just a month after the high-school shooting which inspired the song. The lyric is quite clearly a work in progress.

01 Blind Date
02 (I Never Loved) Eva Braun
03 Neon heart
04 Me And Howard Hughes
05 Like Clockwork
06 Medley (Rat Trap-Kicks-Joey’s On The Street Again)
07 Living On An Island
08 (She’s Gonna) Do You In
09 She’s So Modern
10 Lookin’ After No. 1
11 Mary Of The 4th Form
12 Do The Rat
13 Never Bite The Hand That Feeds
14 Encore
15 I Don’t Like Mondays

Source: Radio broadcast
Quality: Excellent
Encoding: 192kbps mp3
File size: 56Mb (part 1), 46Mb (part 2)

Download part 1 here
Download part 2 here

Another fantastic Boomtown Rats recording, from an FM radio broadcast.

1 Too Long
2 (I Never Loved) Eva Braun
3 Neon Heart
4 Howard Hughes
5 Like Clockwork
6 Don't Believe What You Read
7 Rat Trap
8 I Got My Kicks On You
9 Joey Is On The Street Again
10 Do The Rat
11 She's Gonna Do You In

Source: Radio broadcast
Quality: Excellent
Encoding: 192kbps mp3
File size: 62Mb

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Excellent FM radio broadcast of what appears to be a complete Rats' show (fittingly, recorded on St Patrick's Day) from their North American tour to promote third album 'The Fine Art of Surfacing.' I always thought that was quite a weak album after the mighty 'Tonic For the Troops' but there's plenty of earlier stuff in this set, too.

01 Intro
02 Wind Chill Factor (Minus Zero)
03 Like Clockwork
04 Nothing Happened Today
05 I Never Loved Eva Braun
06 Nice 'n' Neat
07 Having My Picture Taken
08 Joey's On the Street Again
09 I Don't Like Mondays
10 Someone's Looking At You
11 Keep it Up
12 Rat Trap
13 Kicks
14 Mary of the 4th Form
15 Blind Date
16 She's So Modern
17 Looking After Number One
18 Sleep (Fingers' Lullaby)
19 Outro

Source: FM radio broadcast
Quality: Excellent
Encoding: 192 kbps mp3
File size: 61Mb (part 1), 59Mb (part 2)

Download part 1 here
Download part 2 here

Superb recording (possibly from a TV broadcast). The Rats were probably never better than in late 1978, and this is probably one of the best available live shows.

01 Mary Of The 4th Form
02 Me & Howard Hughes
03 I Never Loved Eva Braun
04 Don’t Believe What You Read
05 Rat Trap
06 Kicks
07 Joey’s On The Street Again
08 Living On A Island
09 She’s Gonna Do You In
10 Like Clockwork
11 She’s So Modern
12 Looking After No. 1

Source: Probable TV broadcast
Quality: Excellent
Encoding: 270kbps mp3
File size: 96Mb

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Very good audience recording. The Rats were well past their commercial peak at this point, but this set includes several of their better-known earlier songs, as well as covers of 'Knock on Wood,' Joe Tex's 'Show Me' and Bob Marley's 'Stir it Up.

01 Close as You'll Ever Be
02 Blind Date
03 Me and Howard Hughes
04 Living in an Island
05 Stir It Up
06 Charmed Lives
07 Wind Chill Factor (Minus Zero)
08 Never in a Million Years
09 Sleep (Fingers' Lullaby)
10 I Don't Like Mondays
11 Joey's on the Street Again
12 Knock on Wood
13 Show Me
14 Having My Picture Taken
15 Rat Trap
16 Someone's Looking at You
17 Keep It Up
18 Banana Republic
19 Banana Republic (continued)
19 Diamond Smiles

Source: Audience
Quality: Very good
Encoding: 192kbps mp3
File size: 62Mb (part 1), 62Mb (part 2)

Download part 1 here
Download part 2 here

This could be from a radio broadcast or the soundboard. Either way, the quality is excellent.

01 Blind Date
02 I Never Loved Eva Braun
03 Neon Heart
04 Me And Howard Hughes
05 Don't Believe What You Read
06 Rat Trap (Fades Out)

Source: FM radio or soundboard
Quality: Excellent
Encoding: 192kbps mp3
File size: 35Mb

Download here