Boomtown Rats guitarist Garry Roberts has passed away aged 72
Boomtown Rats guitarist Garry Roberts has passed away at the age of 72. He was a founding member of the band and, apparently, played an important role in choosing the Irish rock group’s name. According to a statement issued by the band, Roberts “summed up the sense of who The Rats are”. As of yet, no cause of death has been given.
Sharing the news on their Facebook page, The Boomtown Rats, fronted by singer and political activist Bob Geldof, wrote: “It is with very great grief that the members of The Boomtown Rats announce the death this morning of Garry Roberts, our friend and guitarist. The remaining members of the band, Pete, Bob, Simon, Darren and Al extend their deepest sympathy to his family and friends.”
The Boomtown Rats are best known for tracks such as ‘Like Clockwork’ and ‘I Don’t Like Mondays’, which went to number one ahead of the release of The Fine Art Of Surfacing in 1979. In the statement, the band wrote of Roberts’ influence on the group in their early days in mid-’70s Dublin.
“On a clear Spring evening in 1975, in a pub in Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, Garry became THE founding member of what turned out to be a great rock’n’roll band,” they wrote, “driven largely by that sound of his, a storm of massive considered noise that punched out from his overtaxed amplifiers; and which animated not just the rest of the group but audiences he played to around the world.”
The statement continues: “For fans he was The Legend – and he was. For us he was Gazzer, the guy who summed up the sense of who The Rats are. We have known Garry since we were children and so we feel strangely adrift without him tonight. Safe travels Gaz. Thanks for everything mate.”
Without Roberts, Bob Geldof and co. would have continued performing under The Nightlife Thugs. The guitarist apparently threatened to quit the band if they didn’t change the name. Eventually, Geldof settled on The Boomtown Rats, a phrase he read in the autobiography of Woody Guthrie, Bound For Glory.
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