Boomtown Rats bass player Pete Briquette has revealed that the veteran band is enjoying ‘being in the moment’ as it marks its 50th anniversary with a UK tour and playing at sell out festivals across Europe.
Pete, who is now aged 72, insisted that the aging rockers led by Bob Geldof are happy about getting older as it has made them more carefree and content with life.
He said: ‘The 50th year thing is a big thing. We’re all getting older. I actually, in some ways, enjoy it more at this stage of life because you do not give a **** about it. You do not feel you have to make it anymore.
‘Back in the day, we were so aware of moving forward. Now, we can live very much in the moment.
Pete, who is an original member of the Boomtown Rats from when it was formed in 1975 added: ‘I’m 72 now. Back in 1975 we were young and had everything to go for and everything to prove to so many people, whether it was our friends and other people coming to our gigs.
‘Ireland, back in ’75, was a drastically different place. There was very little future for anybody and the only way you could get out of that was to join a band or become a footballer.’
Speaking about the band’s landmark anniversary he said: ‘It’s been an incredible year because it’s the 50th anniversary of when The Boomtown Rats were formed and the 40th anniversary of Live Aid.
‘We’re celebrating all that. There’s a Live Aid musical, which is fantastic, and I don’t like musicals. And the festivals have been huge. We’ve done Germany, Italy, Ireland and Scotland. We have a tour in October/November and that’s a UK tour.
The Boomtown Rats are led by Bob Geldof seen here singing at London’s Roundhouse in 2013
‘There’s going to be a Hammersmith Apollo event and they’re selling really fast which is fantastic. It’s been an incredible year.’
Reflecting on Live Aid he recalled: ‘The Rats were initially involved in the Band Aid record to the final moment in Wembley, that final song at Wembley where we played with Freddie, Elton, Bono, George Michael and Sting and the normal front geezer Geldof. That was a unique moment, and it will always be etched in my brain.’
Pete claimed that much of the band’s songs were shaped by their experiences of growing up in Ireland when it was a much poorer country than now but are still relevant today given the wider changes in society.
He said: ‘It was before the Celtic Tiger. It was still very much the Ireland that had done well in the 1950s and then gone into a slump and was suffocated by politics and religion and what was happening in the North.
‘All our songs from back then are really relevant today.
‘Someone’s Looking At you. We sing that song today. It’s about Facebook, about Twitter, about being watched, about your logarithms and CCTV cameras and the world we live in today. It’s quite frightening.
‘Rat Trap was about getting out of Ireland. When we got to England we were trying to articulate the moment. When we wrote I Don’t Like Mondays, that was about the first school shooting kin America which shocked everyone.’
He insisted: ‘Today, school shootings are about once every three months now in the US. We’re still fighting against the violence in America and the autocratic people and still fighting against the Trumps of this world and politics.
‘Bob speaks about that on stage, and Palestine and the genocide. It’s such a frightening world and I fear for my children.’
He maintained that despite most of the band members being in their seventies, they are still prepared to ‘fight the good fight.’
The bass player also addressed the controversy over Live Aid last year when Ed Sheeran slammed it for being ‘white saviour complex.’
Pete revealed that Bob Geldof even spoke to Sheeran about it and insisted that the band was only trying to help.
He said: ‘What happened about Live Aid and the shortcomings they’re claiming about today, I understand. What Ed Sheeran wants to do and say I completely understand.
‘The reality was it was a band aid, not an answer, not a saver of anything. There were people dying on that day. We made a record and made a concert to raise money and feed people. The Band Aid trust exists today.
He maintained: ‘You can talk about white saviour as much as you like. If a person is lying on the pavement and I walk by, and he needs help and he happens to be not white I am going to help him.
‘Ed Sheeran is fine to say that. I respect him. He’s a lovely guy. Bob had a chat on the phone with him.’
Pete revealed that one of the secrets to his longevity was having a ‘beauty regime.’
He said: ‘You have to have a beauty regime at 72. I use moisturiser and a bit of hair product. Back in the Seventies, no man or boy would do that.
‘Back in ’75 it was more like the Wild West. It’s much more polite and organised now.
‘When bands back in the Seventies and Eighties became successful, they dropped or kicked each other out.
‘Today, bands are really aware that when they become big, they will stop in September because it’s time to stop for six months or a year to recoup. All that kind of thing never happened.
‘There’s a much higher standard of looking after people now. You’re very much aware now that you speak to each other and check each other out.’
The band including left to right Simon Crowe, Pete Briquette, Garry Roberts and Bob Geldof have been performing together now for five decades and say they enjoy more as they get older
Geldof (left) and Briquette (right) are not as young as they used to be, the Irish Bbass player confesses – and says he now uses moisturiser to maintain his youthful looksÂ
The Boomtown Rats actually split up in 1986 with Pete admitting that he felt ‘burnt out’ because of partying hard, which left him feeling ’empty.’
But he insisted that he then managed to get his life back on track and always remained close to Bob Geldof during what he described as his ‘wilderness years.’
He said: ‘We split up in ’86 and 35 years later we decided to reform. We went to Bob’s place in Kent. I looked around at these guys and it was like seeing three ex-wives. Everything you used to love about them you still loved and everything that irritated you about them still irritates you.
‘The relationship you have with the band is very similar to that between a husband and wife without the sex.
‘We irritate the hell out of each other, but it never becomes serious. There’s a history between us and my whole life has been about rock and roll. It’s been about being in an incredible rock and roll band.
Asked about what it feels like playing before a newer, younger audience as well as their more traditional, older fans he said: ‘There’s young people there. People whose parents have introduced them to The Rats. They come to a gig. The normal demographic is people in their 50s, 60s, 70s.
‘I know from the insane reaction we get from the crowds [that people like them]. It’s wild. They know all the songs. It’s great.’
