The Boomtown Rats - Rat Trap b/w So Strange (1978) - single

It is a rock ballad, telling the tale of a boy called Billy who feels the depressing town he lives in is a "Rat Trap". Geldof mimed the saxophone part on a candelabra, a jest he explained in his autobiography Is That It?: "The Musicians' Union had forbidden me to play saxophone on the video, as obviously I hadn't done so on the record. But I saw a candelabra on the piano at the shoot and I put a mouthpiece in the central candle holder and played it. The impact of video came home when during the next few British gigs kids pulled out candelabras from nowhere and began playing them during the sax solo in 'Rat Trap'". In the music video, various members of the band are seen reading copies of the novel Rat Trap by the Welsh author Craig Thomas, although the book has no connection to the song. The lyric about "pus and grime..." was changed to "blood and tears pour down the drains and the sewers", although Geldof mumbled the line anyway.

A - Rat Trap (5:04)
Written-by: Geldof / Prodyced-by: R.J. Lange
B - So Strange (3:04)
Written-by: Geldof / Produced-by: The Boomtown Rats

Label:  Mercury Records
Genre:  New Wave, Punk
Catalog#  6008530

(P) 1978