The Boomtown Rats classic album re-issue

Continuing in Universal's acclaimed Classic Albums series, we are delighted to announce the release of The Boomtown Rats Classic Album Selection to commemorate the much-loved group's reunion concerts and Back To Boomtown collection.

The set features their six original albums – The Boomtown Rats (1977), A Tonic For The Troops (1978), The Fine Art Of Surfacing (1979), Mondo Bongo (1980), V Deep (1982) and The Fine Art Of Surfacing (1984) – in digipack sleeves with attendant bonus material.

Once famously described as 'licentious, festering reprobates' and 'leprous anti-establishment scumbags' and banned from playing in their home country, it's difficult to overestimate the shock and awe The Boomtown Rats inspired in late 70s Ireland. The Rats set out to "disrupt, disturb and question what it meant to be young in the Ireland of the mid-70s".

Formed in 1975 in Dublin The Boomtown Rats exploded out of Ireland in '76 and their fast, loud, furious music and their fast, loud, furious attitude meant they became part of the burgeoning punk scene.

Singer Bob Geldof's defiant motormouth arrogance and flagrant disrespect for authority endeared him and his band to every youth who felt weighed down by the heavy handed blandishments of church and state. In the UK The Boomtown Rats first toured with the Ramones and Talking Heads rocking and mocking the status quo alongside the Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Jam and The Stranglers.

They became one of the biggest bands of the late 70s/80s with a string of top ten hits and platinum albums, earning them Brit Awards, Ivor Novellos and Grammy Awards. Making history as the first Irish band to have a UK no 1 hit with 'Rat Trap', they went on to top the charts in 32 Countries with 'I Don't Like Mondays' and racked up six era-defining albums.