Live Aid killed us off, without a doubt

As The Boomtown Rats prepare to hit the road for a 50th anniversary UK tour, bass player Pete Briquette on their breakup, surprise reunion and why, unlike some of his old bandmates, he doesn’t begrudge Bob Geldof's solo success

- By Fran Winston

SCHOOL shootings in America have sadly become an all-too-regular occurrence these days. But there was a time when they were so rare they merited having a chart-topping song written about them.

The Boomtown Rats' enduring hit, I Don't Like Mondays, was written by lead singer Bob Geldof after he read about a fatal shooting in Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, California, in January 1979. The killer, 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer, told a reporter her motive was, “I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day.”

Reflecting on the nearly five-decade-old tune, which stayed at number one for four weeks in the summer of 1979, the band’s bass player Pete Briquette, now 71, tells the Express: “It was one of the first ever school shootings, and it shocked America. Now school shootings happen increasingly regularly in America, and we're still singing that song and it’s still relevant.”

The track remains the band’s best-known song. Six years after its release, it was one of the highlights of their 1985 Live Aid set when Bob paused after singing the line, “The lesson today is how to die”.

The moment has gone down in history — particularly this year as the “Global Jukebox” marks its 40th anniversary.

Live Aid heralded a great success for Bob, who had spearheaded the event, and the charity single Do They Know It’s Christmas? which preceded it to raise funds for famine aid in Ethiopia.

But for the rest of the group — which along with Bob and Pete comprised of Gerry Cott on rhythm guitar, Simon Crowe on drums, Pete’s cousin Johnnie Fingers on keyboards, and Garry Roberts on lead guitar — it marked the end of that chapter of their careers and started a hiatus lasting nearly 30 years.

Reflecting on this four decades later, Pete says he has no bitterness about the way things panned out.