Phil Wainman

440. The Boomtown Rats – I Don’t Like Mondays (1979)

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The Intro

The Boomtown Rats had been the first new wave act to score a number 1, in 1978 with Rat Trap. Far better known is the Dublin outfit’s second, this piano-led ballad about a real-life school shooting spree.

Before

16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer lived in poverty across the road from Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, California with her alcoholic father. They slept together on a single mattress on the floor. At some point Spencer suffered a head injury and it’s suspected it had affected her mental health.

In 1978 Spencer, who had been skipping school, told her parents she was suicidal. Later that year she was arrested for burglary and shooting from the window of the school. Following a psychiatric evaluation in December, her probation officer recommended she be admitted to a mental hospital for depression. Her father refused and instead bought her a rifle for Christmas. As you do. Later, Spencer stated ‘I asked for a radio and he bought me a gun.’ When asked why he would do that, she replied ‘I feel like he wanted me to kill myself’.

On 29 January 1979, Spencer opened fire at staff and pupils in the playground of the school as they waited for Principal Burton Wragg to let them in. Spencer killed Wragg as he tried to help, plus a custodian who was trying to pull a student to safety. She also injured eight children and one police officer. Spencer escaped and barricaded herself in her home. While there she was interviewed over the phone by a reporter for The San Diego Union-Tribune. When asked for a motive, Spencer’s chilling response was ‘I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day’. Eventually she surrendered after she was promised a Burger King. She remains in prison.

Boomtown Rats singer-songwriter Bob Geldof and keyboardist Johnnie Fingers were being interviewed at Georgia State University when they saw news of the shootings come through on a telex machine (hence the mention in the lyrics). The opening lines ‘The silicon chip inside her head/Gets switched to overload’ were inspired by Steve Jobs, as the Apple co-founder had contacted Geldof in the hope of The Boomtown Rats playing a gig for Apple.

Geldof had been told by a US rep of the band that if the band were to repeat their UK success in the States, they needed to write songs more relevant to American life. Which begs the question – was I Don’t Like Mondays an honest insight into Geldof’s horror at the senseless shootings, or a cynical attempt to cash in? It’s likely it was a bit of both. In later years Geldof has insisted it wasn’t written to exploit Spencer, and even that he regrets writing it as it has made the shooter infamous. However, it hasn’t stopped him or the band performing it over the years.

Deciding that this was a song that would work better shorn of the usual Boomtown Rats new wave sound, Geldof and Fingers (Geldof was solely credited upon this single’s release, but in 2019 he and Fingers reached a settlement and he is now also credited) wrote a piece that sounded more like Elton John. It’s likely Fingers came up with the piano and other than that, all you have are the vocals and strings in the background. Oh, and the handclaps. It’s at once sparse and bombastic.

Initially Geldof considered I Don’t Like Mondays would be best as a B-side but changed his tune when he saw how well-received it was on their US tour. It would be the first material released from the band’s third album, The Fine Art of Surfacing.

Review

I can find myself agreeing with critics of I Don’t Like Mondays. It is preachy and shows that self-important side of Geldof that some would find unlikeable during the Band Aid/Live Aid era. I don’t think it’s aged so well – in fact I used to prefer this to Rat Trap, but while writing my blog I’ve found myself thinking the opposite. However, cynical or not, it is an interesting subject matter for a song and personally I think Geldof’s lyrics are pretty good at asking how and why such terrible events can happen. And Fingers’ epic piano work is enjoyable. Part the problem may well be that, sadly, school shootings in the US are much more commonplace these days.

Wisely, The Boomtown Rats chose to not directly reference the Cleveland Elementary School shootings in their surreal video, directed by David Mallet. It begins with Geldof, bassist Pete Briquette, guitarists Garry Roberts and Gerry Cott and drummer Simon Crowe as a choir performing in a school in front of a creepy, monged class of kids, with Fingers on a piano. One girl leaves and enters her family home. Geldof sits there playing with his hair before somehow becoming the girl and Briquette, Roberts, Cott and Crowe demand Geldof ‘Tell me why’. Next, we’re in a stark, white background with only Geldof and Fingers present. The singer doesn’t help his defence of the song here, wearing shades and seemingly more concerned with looking cool than getting his message across. Then, it’s back to the school hall, before zooming out to the Rats, other cast and crew looking on at the school. Odd, but memorable.

After

Despite the initial promising response to I Don’t Like Mondays in the US, it was one of the few countries where the song failed to make its mark on the charts. The next two Boomtown Rats singles did well, Diamond Smiles reaching 13 and Someone’s Looking at You peaking at four. Next album Mondo Bongo spawned their final top 10 hit – Banana Republic, which reached three in 1980. Cott left the group in 1981, having distanced himself from the others in recent years. He had a short-lived solo career.

The Boomtown Rats struggled over the next few years but were given a new lease of life thanks to Band Aid. Everyone of course knows Geldof and Ultravox’s Midge Ure wrote Do They Know It’s Christmas?, but the other Rats (bar Roberts) were among the superstar line-up on the single, all providing vocals on the chorus. And the band were obvious choices to be part of Live Aid in 1985, with Geldof’s minute-long silence after singing ‘And the lesson today is how to die’ becoming one of many iconic moments. However, it kind of misses the point as the lesson that day was how not to die, surely? Also, apparently Geldof always did the long pause at live performances, but whatever I guess.

The Rats split in 1986 at another benefit concert – Self Aid, which aimed to raise awareness of unemployment in Ireland. Geldof went solo, while continuing to work with Briquette. Roberts co-wrote songs for Kirsty MacColl before quitting the music business. Fingers and Crowe formed the band Gung Ho and when they split, Fingers became a producer in Japan while Crowe joined a folk group and ran a clock-making business.

I Don’t Like Mondays was rereleased in 1994 and did respectably well, reaching 38 in the UK.

The Outro

Over the years the Rats occasionally performed together again in various incarnations. Roberts and Crowe even formed a group called The Rats in 2008, with Cott and Fingers occasionally joining them. Then in 2013 The Boomtown Rats were together once more, though Fingers opted out. After touring together they returned to the studio and released a new album, Citizens of Boomtown, in 2020.

The Info

Written by

Bob Geldof

Producer

Phil Wainman

Weeks at number 1

4 (28 July-24 August)

Trivia

Births

30 July: Golfer Graeme McDowell
5 August: Footballer David Healey
20 August: Singer Jamie Cullum
23 August: 5ive singer Ritchie Neville

Deaths

8 August: Novelist Nicholas Monsarrat – 8 August
9 August: Humanitarian Cecil Jackson-Cole
11 August: Novelist JG Farrell
5 August: Comedian ‘Mr Pastry’ Richard Hearne – 23 August

Meanwhile…

9 August: A naturist beach is established in open-minded Brighton.

10 August: The entire ITV network is shut down by a technicians’ strike, bar Channel Television. It remained off-for for over two months, meaning massive audiences for the BBC.

14 August: The Fastnet yacht race ends in tragedy, with 15 deaths after a storm hits the Irish Sea.
Also on this day, disgraced former Labour MP John Stonehouse is released from jail after serving four years of a seven-year sentence for faking his own death.

374. Bay City Rollers – Give a Little Love (1975)

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The Intro

In the summer of 75, Bay City Rollers were the biggest band in the UK. Their cover of The Four Seasons’ Bye Bye Baby had become the biggest seller of the year, they had their own ITV series, Shang-a-Lang, and ‘Rollermania’ was considered the new ‘Beatlemania’. There was one more number 1 to come.

Before

Give a Little Love was penned by Johnny Goodison and Phil Wainman. Goodison had been a member of The Brotherhood of Man’s original line-up in 1969 until 1971, and Wainman was a former colleague of Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, producing many of their hits including The Sweet’s number 1 Block Buster !. They conjured up an anthem for their loyal fans to hold their tartan scarfs aloft and sway away to.

Review

By starting Give a Little Love with ‘It’s a teenage dream to be 17/And to find you’re all wrapped up in lo-o-ove’, Goodison and Wainman are ensuring every adoring teenage girl feels like singer Les McKeown is speaking directly to them about their love of the Rollers. The whole song is a love letter to the fans and I can imagine tears being shed to this one at live shows. It’s OK as far as this sort of thing goes, but it goes on a bit, and the single version is strangely missing the strings that were included in the album version – did this get rush-released to capitalise on Bye Bye Baby?

After

Bay City Rollers capped off the end of their peak year with the album Wouldn’t You Like It?, featuring the superior string-laden version of this single, and non-album track Love Me Like I Love You climbed to four. With the UK theirs, they next looked to repeat their fame in the US with the help of Clive Davis, head of Arista. It paid off in early 1976 when Saturday Night, a UK single from 1973, reached 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. However, the pressures of megastardom took their toll on bassist Alan Longmuir, one of the original members of the band. He was replaced by 17-year-old Ian Mitchell from Northern Ireland, the first non-Scottish member. Money Honey and a cover of Dusty Springfield’s I Only Want to Be with You were huge hits in the UK, peaking at three and four respectively.

From 1977, the fortunes of the Rollers faded. It’s a Game reached 16, but You Made Me Believe in Magic only just scraped into the UK top 40, and it was their last single to do so here and in the US. Mitchell quit and was replaced by Pat McGlynn, and there were arguments over the band’s future direction. They worked with Harry Maslin, a producer for David Bowie, but it didn’t work out.

At the end of 1978, McKeown quit and manager Tam Paton was fired. They decided to become a new wave band, and became simply the Rollers. South African Duncan Faure became the new singer. But they couldn’t come close to the fame they had in the mid-70s, and called it a day in 1981. In 1982 Paton was convicted of gross indecency with two teenage boys aged 16 and 17.

The inevitable reunions with shifting line-ups soon began and continued throughout the 80s and 90s. 1999 saw the classic line-up of McKeown, Alan Longmuir (Derek declined), Stuart ‘Woody’ Wood and Eric Faulkner performed on the final New Year’s Eve of the millennium outside Edinburgh Castle. Paton found himself in the news several times in the last few years of his life as further allegations of his predatory past came to light. He was arrested for child sexual abuse charges in 2003 but they were later dropped, and he was also accused of trying to rape McGlynn in a hotel room in 1977, but it was decided there was insufficient evidence. Original singer Gordon ‘Nobby’ Clark claimed in 2016 that Paton had urged the band to have sex with paedophile Radio 1 DJ Chris Denning. Paton died in 2009 of a suspected heart attack.

In 2007 the ‘classic’ line-up of the group plus Faure announced a lawsuit against Arista for ‘tens of millions’ in unpaid royalties. But their move was delayed by a 2010 lawsuit by Clark, Mitchell and McGlynn against the band. It took until 2016 for the original case to be decided, with an out-of-court settlement in which parent company Sony Music awarded each member £70,000.

The latest incarnation of the Bay City Rollers began in 2018, and includes Wood. Alan Longmuir died in 2018 after falling ill while on holiday in Mexico, and Mitchell died in 2020 from throat cancer. McKeown died of a cardiac arrest in 2021, aged 65.

The Outro

In 2023, ITV broadcast the documentary Secrets of the Bay City Rollers. DJ Nicky Campbell, who was himself abused as a child, highlighted the shocking abuse members of the band suffered at the hands of Paton.

The Info

Written & produced by

Johnny Goodison & Phil Wainman

Weeks at number 1

3 (19 July-8 August)

Births

30 July: Artist Graham Nicholls
31 July: Radio DJ Stephanie Hirst

Deaths

7 August: Labour MP Jim Griffiths

Meanwhile…

19 July: Hatton Cross tube station was opened, completing the first phase of the extension of the London Underground’s Piccadilly line to Heathrow Airport.

1 August: The Government’s anti-inflation policy came into full effect. During the year, inflation reached 24.2% – the second-highest recorded level since records began in 1750, and the highest since 1800.

368. Bay City Rollers – Bye Bye Baby (1975)

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The Intro

Taking over the mantle of The Osmonds, the Bay City Rollers were the teen pop phenomenon of the mid-70s. With their cherubic looks, long hair and parent-friendly rock singles, for a time they were considered to be the next Beatles, and were adored by their loyal ‘Tartan Army’.

Before

Their roots began in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1964, with a trio called The Ambassadors. The Longmuir brothers, Alan on acoustic, younger brother Derek on drums, and older cousin Neil Porteous, also on acoustic. They only ever performed once, at a family wedding. From there, they became The Saxons, with Alan changing to electric bass and school pal Gordon ‘Nobby’ Clark joining as singer. While still at school, the band would perform at local dance halls.

Several line-up changes down the line, The Saxons met former big band leader Tam Paton for the first time, and he added them to his roster. By then their repertoire consisted of covers of The Kinks and mainly contemporary US artists.

Some time in the late 60s they decided they wanted a cool, American-sounding name. They settled on ‘Rollers’ but wanted a random US place chosen by a dart throw at a map. The first attempt would have seen them become the Arkansas Rollers, but the second attempt saw the dart land near Bay City, Michigan. Among the nascent Bay City Rollers line-up were bassist David Paton, from 1969 until 1970, and keyboardist Billy Lyall, from 1969 to 1971. Together, they founded Pilot, who hit number 1 in February 1975 with January.

In 1971 the Bay City Rollers signed with US label Bell Records and released their first single, a cover of Keep on Dancing, which was a hit for The Gentrys in 1965. The Rollers were an instant hit, soaring to nine in the UK. But two singles in 1972 failed to chart. That year Eric Faulkner joined the ranks as guitarist. Fourth single Saturday Night narrowly missed out on a chart place the following year and Clark became disillusioned and quit. He was replaced by Les McKeown and when 16-year-old Stuart ‘Woody’ Wood replaced John Devine on guitar, the classic line-up was formed.

Despite never quite reaching the top spot, 1974 was a hell of a year for the boys. Debut LP Rollin’ scored them three top 10 hits with Remember (Sha-La-La-La) (six), Shang-A-Lang (two), Summerlove Sensation (three) and non-album single All of Me Loves All of You reached four. They were one of the country’s biggest-selling acts, and in 1975, ‘Rollermania’ was coined as they embarked on a UK tour. Tartan was in vogue.

Their next single and the one that finally went to number 1 was the opening track on forthcoming second album Once Upon a Star. Bye Bye Baby had been a hit in the US for doo-wop legends The Four Seasons in 1965, when it was known as Bye Bye Baby (Baby Goodbye). Penned by group members Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio, the original is leaden by comparison, but Crewe and Gaudio knew how to write hits, and this is the third cover of their songs to reach number 1 – The Walker Brothers had The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore in 1966 and The Tremeloes covered Silence Is Golden a year later. The Four Seasons would have a number 1 in their own right too, co-written by Gaudio, but that’s a year away at this point.

Review

The Rollers’ version is much better, with fuller instrumentation and a faster, more effective rhythm. It opens with a mournful McKeown coming to terms with the fact his time with his loved one is up because he has to leave. But it’s not for the usual reasons you’d find in love songs – especially not by a bunch of squeaky-clean pop idols. No, Bye Bye Baby is about a man saying goodbye to his lover because he’s already married. The evidence is there for all to hear: ‘You’re the one girl in town I’d marry/Girl, I’d marry you now if I were free’… and:

‘Should have told you that I can’t linger
There’s a weddin’ ring on my finger
She’s got me and I’m not free’.

I have to confess I quite like Bye Bye Baby. The subject matter gives it an extra dimension, and Phil Wainman’s production makes it an infectious singalong. I doubt I’d ever put it on by choice, but over the years I’ve found myself singing it at random times, so it’s got under my skin. On the basis of this song alone, I’d argue Bay City Rollers were a better than average mid-70s pop band, but having heard other material, the constant ‘shang-a-langing’ gets really bloody tedious.

After

Bye Bye Baby held the top spot for six weeks and became 1973’s bestseller, and there was more to come in 1975 for the Rollers. During its number 1 run, the band even got their own children’s TV series, featuring the lads in comedy sketches and star guests dropping by. What was it called? Shang-a-Lang, of course.

The Info

Written by

Bob Gaudio & Bob Crewe

Producer

Phil Wainman

Weeks at number 1

6 (22 March-2 May) *BEST-SELLING SINGLE OF THE YEAR*

Trivia

Births

9 April: Footballer Robbie Fowler
20 April: Civil servant Oliver Robbins
2 May: Footballer David Beckham

Deaths

27 March: Composer Sir Arthur Bliss
3 April: Actress Mary Ure
14 April: Actor Michael Flanders
23 April: Actor William Hartnell
24 April: Badfinger singer Pete Ham (see Without You)

Meanwhile…

25 March: A large rally by the National Front was held in London in protest against European integration.

5 April: One season after their relegation, Manchester United were promoted back to the First Division.

9 April: Classic historical comedy film Monty Python and the Holy Grail was released.

13 April: Cambridgeshire Police believe a 22-year-old woman who was raped at her bedsit was the sixth victim of a rapist who had been operating across the city since October 1974.

24 April: Unemployment exceeds the 1,000,000 mark for March 1975.

26 April: A conference of Labour Party members voted against continued membership of the EEC.
Also on this day, Derby County won the Football League First Division title for the second time in four seasons.

325. The Sweet – Block Buster ! (1973)

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The Intro

We’re now in 1973, one of the peak years for glam rock, and one of the biggest bands of the era were London quartet The Sweet, who combined a nascent metal sound with the sugary pop stylings of hitmakers Chapman and Chinn. After several dire, strange number 1s in the latter half of 1972, they get the year off to a brilliant start with their classic, Block Buster !.

Before

The Sweet’s origins lie in 60s London soul band Wainwright’s Gentlemen. Originally formed as Unit 4 in 1962, the line-up changed several times, and included from 1964 to 1965, future Deep Purple frontman Ian Gillan. Around the time Gillan joined, Mick Tucker from Ruislip became their drummer. In 1966, a Scotsman named Brian Connolly became their singer.

By January 1968 the band split, and Connolly and Tucker opted to form a new group. Hiring Steve Priest, a bass player from Hayes, Middlesex (who had previously worked with Joe Meek) and former Wainwright’s Gentlemen guitarist Frank Torpey, they called themselves The Sweetshop. They gained a following on the pub circuit and soon signed to Fontana Records, but upon hearing there was another band with the same name, they shortened theirs to The Sweet. Debut single Slow Motion was a failure, Fontana quickly washed their hands of the band, and so did Torpey. Mick Stewart, who had worked with Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, took his place in 1969.

The Sweet signed with EMI’s Parlophone and released three further singles, which also failed, so Stewart left. Around this time the remaining trio were put in touch with songwriting duo Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn. Australian Chapman was working as a waiter when he first met struggling songwriter Chinn in 1970. They were looking for an outlet for bubblegum pop songs they’d worked on, and with session musicians performing, The Sweet recorded vocals for a track called Funny Funny. They auditioned for a new guitarist, hiring Welsh-born Andy Scott, who had worked with The Scaffold. The classic line-up had arrived, and they signed with Chapman and Chinn to RCA Records.

Funny Funny became a hit, climbing to number 13 in 1971, quickly followed by Co-Co, which did even better, stalling at number two behind Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep that July. An LP was quickly cobbled together – the unimaginatively titled Funny How Sweet Co-Co Can Be, released that November.

1972 saw further hits for The Sweet, including the seedy but infectious Little Willy and follow-up Wig-Wam Bam, which was still a staple in family holiday resorts in the early- to-mid 80s. The latter was also the first single to feature the band playing their own actual instruments, and it’s no coincidence the sound was a little heavier as a result. With both these songs reaching number four, the top spot was within reach.

Review

With those sirens blaring, backing vocals wailing and an incredibly catchy Bo Diddley-style riff, Block Buster ! remains one of the great glam number 1s. Of course, no coverage of this song would be complete without mentioning the similarity to David Bowie’s The Jean Genie, in the charts at the same time and just missing out on the 1972 Christmas number 1 spot. Both acts always maintained that this was nothing more than an incredible coincidence. Chinn later recalled meeting Bowie, who stared at him deadpan and called him a cunt, before bursting into laughter and embracing him.

So, which is best? It’s incredibly close to call. The Jean Genie‘s surreal lyrics are smarter and edgier – Block Buster !‘s wordplay revolves around the nefarious sex pest Buster, who, well, needs to be blocked, because he’ll ‘come from behind’ and steal your woman out from under your nose’, especially if she has long dark hair. Over the years, the wordplay has been largely forgotten and it’s more commonly known as Blockbuster now, and used on countless TV shows, adverts, films etc to put across, well, blockbusters!

Where Block Buster ! does win out though is in it’s polished production with effects to keep you interested, and special mention must go to the late Steve Priest, the recently deceased bassist, responsible for the camp interjection ‘We just haven’t got a clue what to do!’. I’ll never tire of that, in particular the footage of the band on the Christmas special of Top of the Pops, in which Priest is dressed as a Nazi, who looks to have his arse pinched by Scott. This caused many complaints at the time and would probably be even less popular now. I’m going to go with a preference for The Jean Genie though, just because, David Bowie.

After

The Sweet were one of the hottest acts of that year and into 1974, with Hell Raiser, The Ballroom Blitz and Teenage Rampage all reaching number two. The second of those in particular is another classic, and almost as good as their sole chart-topper.

By the time of Teenage Rampage, the band were calling themselves simply, Sweet. Change was in the air, as despite all they had done for them, the group were tiring of Chapman and Chinn’s control. They ditched the outlandish outfits and decided to record an album (mostly) without them, appropriately titled Sweet Fanny Adams, which showcased a harder sound. During the sessions, Connolly injured his throat in a fight, and apparently his voice was never the same again.

Next LP, Desolation Boulevard, followed six months later, and Sweet proved they could cope fine on their own with self-penned hit single Fox on the Run. They couldn’t maintain the success though, and despite moving on from glam, which was dying out by the mid-70s, their career suffered too, and The Lies In Your Eyes, the first single from self-produced 1976 album Give Us a Wink was their last chart action for two years.

By the time Sweet made their comeback, they had switched to Polydor and began experimenting with classical and the new disco style. Sounds potentially awful, yet Love Is Like Oxygen, released in January 1978, is actually pretty good. It would be their last hit. Connolly’s drinking was getting out of hand, and he became increasingly estranged from the rest of the band during support slots for Bob Seeger and the Silver Bullet Band and Alice Cooper. By the time 1979 album Cut Above the Rest was released in 1979, he had quit.

A three-piece Sweet (get it?) soldiered on, with Priest taking the lion’s share of vocal duties. They made one last album, Identity Crisis, but it didn’t even get a UK release until 1982, the year after they had split.

The former bandmates spent much of the 80s forming their own new versions of Sweet and touring the nostalgia circuit. Connolly sparked fears for his health whenever he appeared publicly, and in 1997 he died of liver failure and repeated heart attacks, aged only 51. Mick Tucker died in 2002 of leukaemia, aged 54. Priest passed away in June 2020, aged 72, leaving only Scott from the classic line-up, who still tours with Andy Scott’s Sweet.

The Outro

With their outrageous dress sense, raucous riffs and high camp, The Sweet certainly helped to liven up the early-70s, and it’s great to have had a classic to review once more. Chinnichap’ were to be responsible for plenty more chart-toppers.

The Info

Written by

Nicky Chinn & Mike Chapman

Producer

Phil Wainman

Weeks at number 1

5 (27 January-2 March)

Trivia

Births

7 February: TV presenter Kate Thornton
8 February: Presenter Sonia Deol
27 February: Singer Peter Andre

Deaths

28 January: Cricketer Francis Romney
16 February: Cricketer Harold Gibbons
22 February: Novelist Elizabeth Bowen

Meanwhile…

27 February: Civil servants and rail workers went on strike.

1 March: Prog-rockers Pink Floyd released The Dark Side of the Moon, which went on to become one of the best-selling albums of all time.