Retro Video Unit (1/27/12)

Wow, it's already been two weeks since the last one of these? Too quick. I took a day off yesterday and was fairly busy, so I forgot I was supposed to do this...

Going back to about the same time as the XTC song from back in December, The Boomtown Rats came out of London by way of Dublin with a sound that, initially at least, owed as much to Bruce Springsteen as to punk. Most people are familiar with them (if at all) from lead singer Bob Geldof's work organizing the Live Aid concerts in 1985, or the 1979 single "I Don't Like Mondays." That song is what led me to them originally, but it's far from my favorite of their songs.

That would probably be "Rat Trap," from their second album A Tonic for the Troops. It's like a mini rock opera all in one song. There is supposedly an official music video, but since it was released in 1978 I can't find it, so we'll go with this "live" clip from (if the YouTube info is to be believed) the UK music show Top of the Pops.