The Boomtown Rats have released new single ‘Trash Glam, Baby’.
The 70s’ rock belter is first track to be shared from Bob Geldof and co’s upcoming record, ‘Citizens Of Boomtown’, their first in 36 years.
The 65-year-old singer has revealed the song was inspired by an encounter with a "bored" teenager working at a vintage store he was shopping at, who he describes as "so 21st century"
On the origins of the track, the frontman shared: "Back then I’d written a song about the amazons I’d encountered making the scene in the late 1970s: ‘She’s So Modern’ was a hit. [‘She’s so 20th century/She’s so 1970s’].
"A millennium and two decades later down at the S-bend of the Kings Road, that squiggle that becomes the Worlds End and where those girls would inhabit Lloyd Johnson’s and Vivienne Westwood’s shops, the glam has gone and moved east.
"But Vivienne is still there.
"Now opposite and beside her shop Sex there are three decent charity shops.
"I go there to check out cool shirts etc.
"On a Saturday in 2017 there was a glorious kid of around 16/17 talking to her friend behind the counter.
"She was fabulous. Like a bastard hybrid of The New York Dolls and early Roxy Music.
"A sequined tramp. A living glitter ball.
"They were moaning about it being Saturday and nothing to do and no money to do it with.
"The usual anthem of the bored weekend.
"She didn’t look consciously "retro" or anything, she looked wonderful and beautiful in that damned youth way.
"She wasn’t beautiful (but she was), a pleasant, normal girl from the blocks down the road, who intuitively understood the theatre of the self, which that peculiar part of the world has always engendered since …. oh since the bohemians of the late 19th century through to the 60s and the Stones, the 70s and The Pistols, the 80s and Durans/Anthony Price shop and then – like the rest of the 90s – not much.
"But here she was again, doing that unique thing English teens uniquely do, a grumpy, normal English teenager being extraordinary, looking the boll**. She should be a song. Here she is. She’s so 21st century…."
The 10-track LP is out on March 13, 2020, and Geldof previously admitted now couldn’t be a more poignant time to unleash their new rock ‘n’ roll tunes which are a reaction to the current political climate.
He said: "So why a new record?
"Because that’s what bands do. They make records. "Songwriters write songs.
"There’s so much to respond to in this new and different febrile atmosphere that we live in.
"People forget we took our name from Woody Guthrie, the great musical activist.
"I think The Boomtown Rats have always shown that rock’n’roll is a form of musical activism.
"The music has intent and purpose even if that is just the sound, about boy/girl, nothing particularly at all, everything in general, or pointed polemical … whatever."
The ‘I Don’t Like Monday’s’ hitmakers – completed by bassist Pete Briquette, drummer Simon Crowe, and guitarist Garry Roberts – have also announced a UK, kicking off at Brighton Dome on March 26.
The Boomtown Rats’ original line-up split in 1986 but they reformed with Geldof in 2013 and have been touring at festivals ever since.
The new album will be their first since 1984’s ‘The Long Grass’.
The track-listing for ‘Citizens of Boomtown’ is:
1. ‘Trash Glam, Baby’
2. ‘Sweet Thing’
3. ‘Monster Monkeys’
4. ‘She Said No’
5. ‘Passing Through’
6. ‘Here’s A Postcard’
7. ‘K.I.S.S.’
8. ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Yé Yé’
9. ‘Get A Grip’
10. ‘The Boomtown Rats’