The Boomtown Rats were one of the most successful bands of the 1970s in the UK. Their grown-up new wave and real time stories captured the imagination of a mass audience. As the leader of The Rats, Bob Geldof led his band of Dublin post-punkers right to the very top of the UK charts with UK No.1s 'Rat Trap' and 'I Don’t Like Monday’s'. 

In its gatefold sleeve with brand new artwork and commentary, all tracks have been selected by the band themselves. Released to coincide with their 50th anniversary tour, this is the very best of the Boomtown Rats and a one-stop shop of their words and melodies.

TRACK LISTING

LP Tracklist:
1. Looking After No. 1
2. K.I.S.S.
3. Me And Howard Hughes
4. Here’s A Postcard
5. Dave
6. Drag Me Down
7. Rat Trap
8. Someone's Looking At You
9. Banana Republic
10. Diamond Smiles
11. When The Night Comes
12. Mary Of The Fourth Form
13. There’s No Tomorrow Like Today
14. The Elephant's Graveyard
15. She' So Modern
16. (I Never Loved) Eva Braun
17. Trash Glam Baby
18. The Boomtown Rats!
19. Like Clockwork
20. Neon Heart
21. Up All Night
22. Monster Monkeys
23. I Don't Like Mondays
24. Joey's On The Street Again

CD Tracklist:
1. Looking After No. 1
2. K.I.S.S.
3. Me And Howard Hughes
4. Here’s A Postcard
5. Dave
6. Drag Me Down
7. Rat Trap
8. Someone's Looking At You
9. Banana Republic
10. Keep It Up
11. Diamond Smiles
12. When The Night Comes
13. Mary Of The Fourth Form
14. There’s No Tomorrow Like Today
15. The Elephant's Graveyard
16. She' So Modern
17. (I Never Loved) Eva Braun
18. Trash Glam Baby
19. House On Fire
20. The Boomtown Rats!
21. Tonight
22. Like Clockwork
23. Neon Heart
24. Up All Night
25. Monster Monkeys
26. I Don't Like Mondays
27. Joey's On The Street Again

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of their celebrated album Unisex, Sarah Records legends Blueboy had their first full-band outing for 25 years with a sold-out show at The Water Rats in London’s Kings Cross on May 18, 2024.

With Gemma Malley taking over on vocals in place of the late Keith Girdler, Blueboy kicked off proceedings as an acoustic duo also featuring founder member Paul Stewart on guitar.

Then they were joined by Mark Cousens (bass) and Martin Rose (drums) for a blistering hour-long set featuring classics from throughout their 1990s career such as Popkiss, The Joy of Living, Air France, Meet Johnny Rave and Imipramine – plus One and Deux, the two astonishing new singles with which they announced their return.

This was a show nobody ever thought they’d see, and a joyful performance was to be a pivotal moment in the group’s extraordinary re-emergence. Fortunately the entire evening was professionally recorded for posterity – and now the majority of the songs are being released by Precious Recordings of London in a special blue vinyl package that’s limited to 500 copies worldwide.

Blueboy first got together in the early 1990s and went on to build a global following, touring Europe and Japan and featuring regularly in the UK independent charts with a series of acclaimed singles and well-regarded albums. At various times, their guitar-led sound has been described as having echoes of bands like The Smiths, Slowdive, Lush and The Cocteau Twins.

An album of new songs is planned for later in 2025. For now, though, this 13-song live LP is a must-have for any Blueboy fan. Also features sleeve notes from Sarah co-founder Matt Haynes and an array of photographs by Sasha Maese.

Liverpool’s hard-hitting slaves to truth and beats that bounce in rhythm to both the good times and the bad, RATS. Fearless, occasionally fierce and frequently tender, the rousing rabble come together to create Rule The World. Cheerfully claiming a sense of early prominence as their breakthrough single Patsy Decline, in 2021, drew curious audiences to their lively live shows, the band’s upfront and upbeat mix of unflinching lyrical honesty and crossover rock, R’n’B and ska soundtracks modern, inner city Britain. With frontman and lyricist, Joe Maddocks picking up quick comparisons to Jamie T and The Streets’ Mike Skinner and the band grabbing an early, life-affirming slot to support Liam Gallagher at his Royal Albert Hall show in 2022, the winding path to a full album has been patiently navigated. Taking over two years to properly commit the fun and fury of their fizzing live shows to tape, RATS returned late last year with notorious live favourite, Section 60, to coincide with another run of sold out UK-wide live dates. “It’s a mix of our individual characters coming together,” says drummer, Alan Phillips. “You’ve got the Lowell’s dub and ska, you've got Joe’s sharp, almost hip-hop lyrics, then there’s Mikey and Chris with their infectious, indie-ish guitar riffs. It's a mixture of all kinds of different tunes within us.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Rule The World
2. You And Me
3. Turn It Around
4. Hard To Find
5. Liar
6. Section 60
7. Feeling Right
8. Sirens
9. Don't Give Up
10. 10 Missed Calls
11. Lost And Found
12. Over The Bridge
13. Graham's Song

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2025 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 12TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM ON MONDAY APRIL 14th.

Playing their first gig supporting Goat at what was only the latter’s second ever show, the band have gigged relentlessly with kindred spirits including The Cosmic Dead and Luminous Bodies, not to mention gracing festivals like Supernormal and Portugal’s Reverence with their feral attack. Yet the time has come for this band to transcend the realm of word-of-mouth phenomenon and be judged on their feverish and demented collision of psych-drone dementia and riff-driven salvation alone.

The inarguable proof is Feed The Rats, the overwhelming first album the band have created for - equal parts righteous repetition, bludgeoning brute force and Sabbathian squalor, its alchemical charge has the power to transform bleary-eyed abandon into small-hours revelation. This three-track, forty-minute monument of chaotic catharsis captures the everythingon-eleven spirit of the band’s live manifestation whilst adding a level of finesse and texture often less easily accessible in a dangerous haze of flying hair, discarded clothes and spilt premium lager. Channeling the grimy trip hazards of Monster Magnet’s ‘Spine Of God’ through a prism of kraut-derived repetition and Part Chimp style bloody mindedness, the resulting hallucinatory vortex appears constantly on the realm of breaking point. Yet for Baty, the porcine realm is less about a nihilistic quest for fiery oblivion than one might imagine.

“You know, I think we’ve experienced it, many times. It’s those gigs where we can almost sense that everyone in the room is engaged. The energy created is so thick you can almost bite down on it and it feels like there’s no longer any barrier between band and audience. Those are the special shows, where there’s a solidarity and a very visceral bond. That, and being able to smell our amps melting”. Amps and brains alike, as these psychic omnivores bring seven times the joy, seven times the pain, seven times the dementia and deliverance. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Sludgy, psychedelic walls of throbbing guitar riffs and shouted vocals, a build up of drone before breaking into a Sabbathesque single note riff, as heavy as it is isolated before being ceremonoiusly descended upon by all manner of mayhem. Heavy, sludgy indie psych madness. Brilliant.

TRACK LISTING

1. Psychopomp
2. Sweet Relief
3. Icon

Rats on Rafts descend further into the brooding wasteland on their new album ‘Deep Below’, a darker, slower, eroded sound from the Rotterdam band. Highlighting different shades within the monochrome landscape compared to their previous, more colourful albums: they dive deeper into their psyche, questioning our relationships with nature, religion and each other. Echoes of The Cure, Cocteau Twins and Slowdive seem present yet so many different influences make up an album that only they could create. It sees Rats on Rafts coming of age whilst raising their heads from the underground.

Forever drifting into new territory, ‘Deep Below’ is certainly their darkest and most cohesive work to date. True to their analogue recording process, the tape machines, reverbs, echoes and vital new ingredients: the Soundcraft 1s mixing desk (Used by Lee Perry) and the eerie sounding Eminent String Ensemble synth all amplify the authentic sounds of the 1980’s without sounding like a relic.

‘Japanese Medicine’ is a haunting minor chord piece driven by debris of icy chiming guitars, galloping drums and waves of lush synths. lyrically it gathers memories of teenage friendship, littered with cigarettes, life-changing records, punctuated with the dark thoughts and the demons they summon up. Though the band have kept the songs relatively slow-paced and sparse, deeper ruminations of mortality and alienation creep through the cracks. ‘Nature Breaks’, the most propulsive song on the record, thematically locks into this notion, as Fagan meditates on human impulse in the face of abject survival, and how those situations often unlock one's true self.

You may conclude Rotterdam’s Rats on Rafts relationship with the past is complicated. ‘The Moon Is Big’ (2011) ‘Tape Hiss’ (2015) and ‘Excerpts From Chapter 3’ (2021) are truly gripping analog timestamps of a band refusing to give in to the supposed ‘progress of the world’ instead forging their own way each time. ‘Deep Below’ is Rats on Rafts’ most minimalist work since their 2011 debut. Where the latter album was fuelled by a brash bravado, these recordings meditate on sentiments of doubt, loss, and ageing.

TRACK LISTING

1. Afterworld
2. Japanese Medicine
3. All These Things
4. Hibernation
5. Voiceprint
6. The Day Before
7. Deep Below
8. Nature Breaks
9. Sleepwalking 

The third album from Dutch punk-laced noiseniks adds new maturity and a conceptual feel that pulls the extremes of their sound together. A psychefuelled journey into the id punctuated with rhythmic kabuki modal mood swings, thunderstorms, digital beeps, traffic noise, and just plain old beautiful cacophonous reverb-drenched sound when needed.

The ‘third chapter’ refers to the last five years that the Dutch band have spent creating their “difficult” third album. Each song spins a yarn; there are plagues, dreams, wind and fire, ‘mythical’ characters, and the search for the secret government warehouse. Lead single, Tokyo Music Experience, resonates with a conveyor belt-propelled modal guitar, reflecting the halcyon days of Japanese super-productivity; a mesmerising mantra, infected with news bulletin on-thehour bleeps underlining its time-sensitive nature; a pristine super-commercial anthem to drive loyalty and reinforce solidarity with the party!

Having been described as creating “underground noise with a bracing, warped pop appeal” (Mojo), their new album is a coming-of-age post-classic with a unique worldview - inspired by Van Dyke Parks (Song Cycle) Scott Walker (3 & 4), Moondog (Elpmas), White Noise (An Electric Storm) and Beach Boys (Smile).

If their previous effort (Tape Hiss) was their very own sketch of a sketch for an incomplete concept album, a noisy reaction to their previous life, then ‘Excerpts From Chapter 3..’, with all its interlaced intricacies, is the realisation of their transition from punk-spiked-pop to psyche-pop protagonists. Evolving, testing, infectious...

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: This wild and superb outing from Rats On Rafts shows that the bands playful spirit and whimsical melodies don't have to give way when things get serious. A brilliantly deep and eminently enjoyable third outing.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1 Prologue: Rain
2 A Trail Of Wind And Fire
3 Second Born Child
4 Tokyo Music Experience
5 The Rise And Fall Of The Plague
6 Another Year

Side B
7 Fragments
8 The Disappearance Of Dr. Duplicate
9 Excerpt Taken From Chapter 3
10 Where Is My Dream?
11 Part One: The Long Drought
12 Part Two: Crossing The Desert
13 Epilogue: Big Poisonous Shadows

Bonus Dinked Edition 7":
1. Tokyo Music Experience (Single Edit)
2. Osaka

The best act I've ever seen at a festival" Paul Thomson, Franz Ferdinand. Rats On Rafts have joined forces with legendary underground Dutch punk band De Kift - Zaandam punk vs Rotterdam punk! A playful revisioning of each other’s music which began at Metropolis Festival in 2013. The record brings together songs from Rats On Rafts critically acclaimed second album ‘Tape Hiss’ and De Kift’s huge catalogue. The two bands locked themselves up for a month to record a completely analogue album. Together they will play this material live on tour. Instantly recognisable as Rats ‘Last Day On De Zon’ is shot through with brass - enter De Kift. Dark, dub infused ‘Meggy’ sees Rats bringing their explosive and unrelenting rolling crescendos. ‘Sleep Little Links 2 3 4’ is uplifting with the addition of brass whilst folk tinged ‘Dit Schip’ sees them bring further depth to the collaboration. Energetic and raw, the spirit of their festival performances prevails throughout. De Kift have released music for three decades with father Heijne only retiring in 2013, brothers Marco & Ferry Heijne and cousin Pim remain alongside co-founder and drummer Wim. The nine piece brass ensemble have released eleven albums, collaborated in theatre, film and various media projects which has seen them win a number of Dutch awards across film and music. Both formats have unique sleeves made from recycled LP/CD sleeves, with the front and back cover printed and stuck on to the recycled sleeve. The band have assembled and fulfilled each one themselves. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Last Day On De Zon
2. Voorbij
3. Brass Poison Face
4. Dit Schip
5. Powder Monkey
6. Melk En Benzine
7. Moonlight Flit
8. Meggy
9. Swan Song
10. Sleep Little Links 2 3 4 

Balthazar are the brainchild of songwriters Maarten Devoldere and Jinte Deprez. Meeting as teenage buskers, the two embarked on a whirlwind writing partnership that led to the quick formation of the band and initial acclaim in mainland Europe. Resisting the temptation to cash in on that wave of interest, Balthazar took the best part of five years to record their debut album, experimenting with different genres and approaches until they were sure that they had the sound they were looking for.

With ‘Rats’, that sound has been honed to a focus on melody and subtlety, avoiding the current fashion for bombast to create songs that burst forth in horns or sweep by on strings, underpinned with delicate rhythms that draw on both the pair’s love of the work of Serge Gainsbourg and Leonard Cohen and the hip hop production of the likes of Dangermouse.

TRACK LISTING

Oldest Of Sisters
Sinking Ship
Later
Joker's Son
The Man Who Owns The
Place
Lion’s Mouth (Daniel)
Do Not Claim Them
Anymore
Listen Up
Any Suggestion
Sides